Complete Guide for Developing Software From Scratch

Tadas Petra
ITNEXT
Published in
4 min readApr 25, 2020

--

Photo by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash

Disclaimer: In this article we will be using mobile app development as an example, but I believe this development process can be applied to most other software projects.

Creating an app from scratch seems like an unfathomable amount of work, and can sometimes even seem unachievable. But I promise you, if you prepare and take it all step by step, you can create any app or even any project. There are really 4 steps that need to be addressed. The 4 steps may vary depending on the project, but they exist nonetheless. The 4 steps are:

  1. Prototype
  2. Plan
  3. Execute
  4. Deliver

Prototype

The first thing you want to do whenever starting a project is quickly think about the project in some detail. For example I always like to draw up quick sketches of the different screens and their contents to get a mental image of what the app is going to entail. Then go through all the contents on each screen and think about how the data on the screen will be retrieved. There’s different ways to prototype, maybe this is too extensive for your current needs. Maybe you only need to talk through it with somebody.

Bottom line, if you do this quick prototyping and think about the app in more detail it can help you evaluate the project in more detail. Maybe you realize it’s not very feasible. Maybe you realize its not worth all the effort that will be expended to create the app. Maybe you will realize that the app is simpler than you thought and can be finished quicker. If you evaluate and decide to move forward, then the next step that come is extensive planning.

Planning

In my opinion, planning is the most overlooked and underappreciated part of most projects. I’m not just talking about freelancing or little projects you do at home. It becomes even more apparent in corporate environments. I’ve seen projects go completely astray and miss deadlines by an absurd amount, just because there was not enough planning. And while i’m sure there are companies that do enough planning and have successful projects, I haven’t experienced many projects that have had proper planning. And this causes a lot of confusion and stress, mostly due to poor planning.

--

--