Quality of Software Development – The Main Factors & Secrets of Success

The Standish Group report showed that any new software fails 49% of the time. Therefore, it is essential to understand what are the factors in the quality of software development for project success.

To prevent getting on the "losers list," business owners actively search for technologies and ways to release a quality product. In this article, Perfsol experts gathered key factors and secrets of successfully implementing a robust digital solution.

Top AI Tools to Advance the Quality of Software Development

AI revolutionizes the software development industry with tools like code completion, bug detection, predictive analytics, natural language processing (NLP), and predictive maintenance. Developers benefit from time-saving code suggestions and automated bug fixes for proactive issue resolution. Let’s take a look at the top 3 tools the market has already loved.

Tabnine

Tabnine, an AI-powered code completion assistant, supports a wide range of programming languages (ex. Python, JavaScript, Java, and more). With high ratings on platforms like Capterra and G2, Tabnine stands out for its ability to understand natural language descriptions and adapt to individual coding styles. Integrated with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code and IntelliJ IDEA, it has deep learning models to provide accurate code suggestions, saving time for developers. This tool is highly appreciated by experts in web development, data science, and mobile app development, while ensuring privacy and security features.

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer that accelerates code writing by suggesting real-time snippets in various languages. Built on OpenAI CodeX, it interprets developers' code intent and proposes relevant suggestions, enhancing efficiency. Copilot is lauded as a collaborative AI assistant for its natural language-based code generation and integration with popular IDEs.

TestCraft

TestCraft by Perfecto, an AI-driven Selenium-based test automation tool, excels in both manual and automated testing, particularly for web-based software. With a user-friendly interface, it allows script creation in multiple languages, parallel test execution across browsers, and integration with other tools. Notably, its On-the-Fly mode simplifies test model generation, and a machine learning algorithm ensures accurate identification of web elements, adapting swiftly to application changes.

What is Software Quality Management: introduction to terminology

Software Quality Management is the process of planning, controlling, assuring, and improving the quality of a developed product. It is necessary to improve development efficiency and create trouble-free programs. The entire management process is divided into three stages:

• Software Quality Assurance: the predetermined activities and processes maintaining the necessary development standards.

• Quality Control programs: specific tasks and protocols for developers to check the product for compliance with the quality parameters set.

• Product Testing: quality management work consists of inspections and tests to identify and correct any errors or failures in the created program.

Software Quality Management is carried out using different methods:

• testing;

• quality analysis;

• quality standards;

• risk management, etc.

What goals can you achieve with quality control?

Software Development is a complex multitasking process comprising design, documentation creation, programming, testing, and further product maintenance. Thus, it is important to monitor each of the stages, ensuring the quality of software development.

Creating a product according to quality standards helps achieve the following goals:

• ensure that the software is reliable and secure in use;

• create solutions that meet all quality requirements;

• develop functionality with the possibility of its expansion;

• create a product following customer requirements.

Every developer and customer strives for a program that works flawlessly and performs 100% of its functions. Thus, quality management becomes an integral part of all development.

4 factors to develop a quality product

The quality of software development process consists of many tasks, stages, sub-stages, etc. It also requires thoroughly analyzing the company's activities, business needs, market niche, and competitors. Besides, it is necessary to consider the research results on the target audience, their needs, and motives for using the product. All this will help to design a handy digital product.

It is essential to understand that the reliability of software will depend on how well each task and each stage of development will be performed. Therefore, let's consider the key factors that will help improve the quality of the final product.

Technology selection

No digital solution is without the stage of determining the technologies that IT professionals will use. The quality of software development and speed of development will depend on how accurately the frameworks, testing environments, automation tools, and so on are selected.

It is important to get the architecture right when working on software and ensure each developer has an accessible working environment. This will allow each team member to complete tasks promptly, share data, and work together to improve the current version of the product.

Particular attention is paid to the deployment phase – the actions that make a digital solution ready to use. Here, you must apply automated testing tools to continuously monitor the quality of software development: each module, component, system, and other software components.

Software Development Methodologies

Methodologies for working on a digital solution must ensure continuous interaction between developers and the customer, as well as within the team itself. Agile and DevOps methodologies are particularly popular in the Software Development market.

Statistics for 2022 showed that more than 71% of IT companies use Agile. This methodology helps minimize the risks of changing requirements, bugs, and cost overruns. With Agile, the quality of software development experiences a new level.

DevOps is both a methodology and a set of practices for creating digital products. Global Market Insights predicts that the industry will grow at an average annual rate of 20% from 2022 to 2028. The reason is that more and more companies prefer to use the DevOps approach in their work because of its benefits:

• improve the quality of software deployment;

• speeding up the release of new software versions or updates;

• improved cooperation in the development team and the company's team;

• improving the quality of the code in creation.

Team selection

A team of specialists plays an important role in creating a high-quality digital product. You can determine the professionalism and experience of a development company by reviewing cases and released projects, and finding out what Software Development Methodologies they use. Then you need to understand which IT experts need to be involved and what roles and responsibilities will be assigned to each. Only by choosing professionalism and expertise, you can count on the quality of software development.

Who can be on the development team?

• Project manager: coordinates project work, develops terms of reference, and liaises between the team and the client or its representatives.

• Back-end developer: takes care of the server part of the product.

• Front-end developer: responsible for the external part of the project, its layout, client programming, and performance optimization.

• Mobile developer: creates apps for mobile platforms like iOS and Android.

• UI/UX designers: develop the program's user interface and design the functional part.

• QA engineers and testers: conduct various tests and checks at each stage of creation, thus ensuring Software Quality Assurance.

The team must be able to make independent decisions at every stage of designing, programming, and testing a digital solution. This promotes high-performance work while maintaining all Software Development quality and reliability requirements.

Artificial Intelligence

When it comes to the quality of software development, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become increasingly influential. AI brings a range of benefits to the software development process, including improved efficiency, accuracy, and automation. Through AI-powered testing and debugging tools, developers can identify and fix potential bugs and errors at a faster pace, reducing the time and effort required for manual testing. Additionally, AI algorithms can analyze large volumes of data to identify patterns and anomalies, enabling predictive maintenance and proactive problem-solving. By harnessing the power of AI, software development companies can enhance the overall quality of their products, ensuring robustness, reliability, and user satisfaction. The integration of AI into software development processes is undoubtedly a game-changer, empowering developers to create high-quality software that meets the ever-evolving demands of the market. Still worried about the quality of software development? Do not, anymore.

Setting up feedback

Developers and business owners in the Software Development Process must establish stable and constant communication. This will avoid errors late in the process that incurs additional budget and time costs.

According to a study by the IBM Systems Science Institute, it costs six times more to fix a bug in the implementation phase than in the design phase.In addition, troubleshooting requires additional work hours, negatively affecting product release times. Thus, the quality of software development shouldn’t be ignored at the early development stages to save you up to x6 of budgets.

Thus, stable feedback between all participants in the project:

• accelerates the development and release of a digital solution to the market;

• saves the customer money;

• provides Software Quality Assurance for users.

Well-established communication in the Software Development Process allows a smooth exchange of ideas, new information, and other project nuances. It also helps make quick decisions and adjustments along the way, which is convenient for developers and customers.

As we can see, Software Quality Assurance is achieved through close collaboration between the development team and the customer company. The Perfsol team is always focused on establishing stable communication. We offer flexible working methods, up-to-date technology stacks, and skilled IT specialists to provide a quality digital product.

Do you want to create reliable software? Contact our manager for a detailed consultation on successful Software Development.