What role does design play in this? Quite a bit in software development. Design can eventually save you time and money by filling in any gaps that may exist within your software team.
There is more to design than just design itself. Process design should be viewed as a communication tool in software development. Instead of a group of developers working separately on various software components, frequently with drastically different ideas about what is needed, design brings the team and the process together.
The bond that unites your software development team is design.
It all comes down to comprehension. This uncertainty is prevented at the outset of the process by introducing a design phase. Through design, the software development team comes closer to a common understanding—to borrow a business cliche—and starts to sing from the same hymn sheet. Instead of diverse individuals working on various components—such as architecture, coding, user interface, user experience, and so on—that might or might not work together, the team—each with a distinct viewpoint—is cooperating, reaching a consensus across functional boundaries, and making critical decisions ahead of time.
Software design with a hint of adaptability
This is not to argue that everything has to, or even ought to, be planned out beforehand. In truth, agile software development is based on the idea that developing systems should make it easy to change course. It shouldn’t be stiff in design. Yes, design the foundations, but the real trick here is to keep learning and evolving as you go.
This agile methodology is compatible with best practices for software design. Create, assemble, test, publish, adjust, and repeat. However, this is more than simply a catchy refrain—it saves time, and time is money, as we all know.
An interesting presentation by General Ellen M. Pawlikowski, Commander of the US Air Force Material Command, highlights one of the characteristics of agile development: not trying to fulfil all requirements at once. At the Mitchell Space Institute’s Breakfast Series, she talked about how agile development means you can get something into the client’s hands, allowing them to get a feel for it. It can often happen that at this stage, some of the original requirements don’t make sense anymore “because [users] see how they can actually use it and requirements change”.
This is precisely what might occur when software development is done using the “old school” waterfall methodology. After thorough planning and execution, a team tests the final product before delivering it to the customer. However, it needs to be adjusted because the client wasn’t precisely satisfied with it. But it takes time to make modifications to a final product. In addition, you’re under duress because the client isn’t satisfied.
The software development team wishes that they had gotten together early, spoken about the product strategy, created the building blocks, and included a little flexibility.
The foundation for effective software development is laid by design. It builds that crucial shared knowledge and promotes teamwork amongst participants.
