Software development is an ever-changing field with new tools and frameworks entering the market every other day. The industry is flourishing with the demand for great software applications to help consumers in countless ways. With the emergence of artificial intelligence, big data, and machine learning, the possibilities for creating valuable products and services have become endless.
This demand for creation comes with some unforeseen issues. All software applications require an ample amount of research and iterations before it becomes viable. Before hosting an application publicly, you need to consider bugs, functionality problems, integration issues, and more.
In this article, we have listed 7 of the most common problems faced when you develop a custom software solution for your business. You can solve these problems by careful and proper planning. The results? A fulfilling and satisfying product for the end user.
7 Common Problems in Software Development
1. Unrealistic Timelines
A big problem that project management teams face is the lack of proper time management. Most software projects are timed poorly. One of the reasons for this is underestimating the workload. Setting realistic timeframes is crucial in software development ventures.
You must understand that you can’t develop every software application in the same manner. Addressing the challenges, in the beginning, will surely avoid the delay in the delivery of software products.
Developmental methodologies such as the agile framework are a great addition to the workflow of all programming teams. Having buffer time in every development stage is an ideal solution. By working in short sprints of 14 days, team leaders can measure the pace of project completion and prioritize accordingly.
2. Lack of Proper Planning
Beginning a software project without much planning is an enormous mistake. This can happen if you have considerably small teams or the project is initially a small-scale application. When you scale these same projects to multilevel features, things can seem to go out of control.
One of the first steps in any software development is to gather the requirements and build a proper list of required functionalities. Your project will seem more problematic than expected if you overlook to set proper requirements.
Lack of planning is the number one root cause of a failed application. Project managers spending adequate time on planning can deliver better results in the intended timeframe. Without the proper requirements, teams may spend their precious hours and effort chasing a superficial goal.
3. Communication Issues
Usually, teams of programmers undertake software development. The larger the project or the organization, the higher the number of team members. This introduces our next problem—communication.
Since the development of software products is one of collaboration, teams may misunderstand tasks or overlook important details of a project. Developers and stakeholders must be on the same page during the project lifecycle to avoid such issues.
When teams lack synchronization, the project’s result will be disappointing. Therefore, project managers must ensure that everyone understands the project objective and the individual requirement.
4. Incomplete Testing
Another essential yet underestimated obstacle in software development occurs in application testing. Quality assurance is an indispensable part of ensuring a great customer experience. Testing should occur at all levels to ensure you ship a bug-free product to the end user.
You must not overlook functional or unit testing and other testing techniques like integration testing, system testing, and regression testing in the testing phase. For this reason, sometimes large organizations dedicate an entire team to quality assurance and reviewing code. That is how you maintain quality throughout the application.
Moreover, it is always good to have testing teams devise a proper testing plan depending on the functionalities. This reduces all possible integration problems.
5. Unscalable Application
Some applications start as basic concepts but quickly become large-scale software products. Applications built without anticipating the demand can lead to unexpected failures despite your team members’ best efforts.
Project managers must always expect more demand than initially gathered during the research phase. This can lead to a better response regarding the significant traffic of consumers trying to access the software application.
Building quickly scalable products is one of the tricky yet possible outcomes for any project team. It is doable, provided project managers and stakeholders are aware of third-party integrations and other factors that hinder the scaling of an application.
6. Overloading Features
In some instances of application building, you may discover certain essential features amid development. This is unavoidable and sometimes acceptable in large projects. However, deeming features essential left and right leads to a feature overload that can cost the entire application.
Unfortunately, this can often happen in poorly planned applications. Failure to map all necessary features before commencing the project can cause time delays during development.
During the requirement gathering, it is critical to consult all crucial stakeholders on the viability of features. Done right, developers and teams focus only on features and requirements already deemed necessary.
7. Version Controlling Issues
Lastly, one of the issues occurs in the version control of applications. After you host an application and make it available for public use, you may encounter unexpected bugs. Although this is inevitable, it is vital to rectify issues and release the improved version as soon as possible.
During this time, project managers must keep a keen eye on the public version. Sometimes solving an issue may lead to other problems evolving out of hand. You need to test these before release. You must also keep the latest steady release version handy in cases of deployment failures.
Keeping an organized log of all released versions will also help if you need to recall an older version.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this article gives you a clear idea of all problems that arise in the software development journey. Preparing to tackle these problems as and when they occur is remarkable in application development.
Understanding that software issues during the product development lifecycle can hinder the application function is essential. Applications can overrun budget estimations, and programmers can work on redundant features wasting time and potential.
Project managers and teams need to be aware of these issues so they may diligently take all measures to mitigate them.