Preparing for the Project: Why Do You Need a Software Design Document

According to the Spiceworks report, 2021 will open up new business opportunities for increasing the software market. It is estimated that next year the revenue of the global Software market will reach 507.2 billion dollars. What does the term “Software development” mean?

Software development requires only an idea and a team that can implement this idea. For greater clarity, understanding, and estimating the time to complete the task, you need a clearer description of your thoughts. This will provide the possibility of defining clearer boundaries and milestones of development. All the above-mentioned aspects are the parts of the Software Design Document (or software requirements specification – SRS), which will be uncovered and described below in this article.

Creating Your Device Starts Way Before Hiring the Vendor

Since creating software & hardware is a rather complex and time-consuming process, it requires careful preparation and planning. At the initial stage, it is difficult to immediately show the project roadmap. That milestone, when entrepreneurs with burning eyes and faith in achieving their goal decide to turn to a specialized team of experienced developers with their idea of the future product. For this purpose, you need to employ analysts who will write a clear plan for creating the program. At this point, the first version of an important document, the software requirements specifications, is being developed.

Let’s look at the reasons for creating this document in web development.

The software requirements specification (SRS) document sets out the goals and functions of the future software product, as well as its basic operating principles.

Just like building a house instead of a basis, you should not neglect the preparation of specifications for software requirements, because they will guide all the parties involved in the development of the product in the future. It also describes the functionality of the future applications.

There Are Multiple Steps to Go Through Before the Development Process

Initially, you should choose the right type of development process. It depends on both the project itself and the team that will implement it. Therefore, the correct SRS specifies each stage of the software development lifecycle. After each stage, the product which is required for the next stage of the cycle is created. And so on down the chain.

The software development process consists of six main stages:

• Defining and formulating high-level goals;
• Detailing goals and creating a roadmap to achieve them;
• Regular updating of the list of goals and tasks;
• Systematic planning of cases, tasks, and projects;
• Analysis of the results of completing tasks and achieving goals;
• Support.

As you can see, each step depends on the accomplishment of the previous one, which creates a workflow. After all, without clear requirements and analysis of the future product, it is impossible to determine what this product will look like. Without a design, there is no development structure, and without development, it is impossible to get an application at all.

Why Do You Need to Create an SRS?

This question can be answered with only 6 points:

1. Properly written software requirements specification provides the development team idea of how the software should work.

2. Provides developers with enough data to select the appropriate technology stack. Specific technologies (programming languages, frameworks, and even IDEs) are used in the development of a particular type of product. For example, pure JavaScript and PHP may be enough to create some basic-level systems. All the subsystems and custom modules that are used and based on one of the coding languages may be enough for another more complex one.

3. Gives designers an idea of which test cases should be covered by the design. These may be features of use in the field or the implementation of a user-friendly interface.

4. Provides testers with recommendations for creating test cases that meet business needs. QA also needs to know what they are facing and find common errors in the programming cycles.

5. Shows that end-users understand how the software works. UX & UI are connected here, which determine how user-friendly the system is created.

6. Providing investors with an overview of these features. This is done to understand the course of action and make investment decisions.

If You Don’t Make the Software Specification, You Will Get the Following: (Based on Real Examples):

1. Decision-making in the development process will be noticeably less effective. This may lead to a deviation from your original idea or a change in the timing and methods of implementation, even during development.

2. Inappropriate design. Your software product will work radically differently from what you imagined. After all, there are limitations both from the technical side and from understanding the final goal of creating an app. Pure JavaScript is not as convenient and efficient as its additional frameworks.

3. Problems with estimating time and budget. You planned to launch the program in a few months, but you have been waiting for six months to test it? Such problems can disappear immediately when you create specifications for software requirements.

4. Incorrect selection of the technology stack. We suppose you need to explain what happens if you create a product without a scan plan. Soon, due to incorrect calculations or unplanned updates, resources will run out, and the only solution here is refactoring. This will lead to missed deadlines and inflation of your budget.

Takeaways

Now compare the positive aspects of drawing up the software requirements specification and evaluate what losses you can incur without compiling this important document for development (including the web development). Which option suits you best?

To avoid problems at the stage of planning and further implementation of a custom software project, you can always Contact Us and we will help you at each stage of creating a trending and useful product.