Cycoda: Programming

Programming and Software development methods

Software development can be considered as the process of transforming a problem specified in the language of the customer into a solution written in the language of the developer. The solution is often a computer program and referred to as a 'system' by developers.

For example the owner of a company may require a program that logs client enquiries and keeps track of their progress until a solution is reached. The owner will want the program to full fill a set of defined requirements.

Software development can be considered as having the following main stages:

Requirements: Capturing the requirements of the problem in the language of the customer (the problem domain) and producing a specification.
Analysis: Transforming the specification of the problem into the language of the engineer (the solution domain).
Design: Taking the specification of the problem and constructing a model of the solution.
Code (Implementation): Taking the design and converting it into code and building a program.

Although there are numerous software development methods, most of them fit into either a waterfall or iterative methodology.