If you asked me around 15 years ago about software development, I would think of parallel universes, astronomy or something like that. About 10 years ago, perhaps I could say that it was about the “soft parts” of computing; of what we see through our screen, but that hides behind a series of processes and/or methods of programming languages. But if you ask me now, once again, after all this time between codes and legends about planning, deployment and maintenance, and a whole life cycle, only one question comes to mind.

What is hidden behind the development of a software?

As clients or users of a software, we always analyze the final result as it were, especially when our information of development doesn´t even rub the essential elements to have, at least, a general perspective of it. But that doesn't matter too much when the results are based on achieving our goals and objectives, right? But what is behind the cameras?

We know that software is the set of programs or instructions that tell a computer what to do; it's completely independent of the hardware (you know, the “hard part”) and makes the computer programmable. And, software development refers to a set of computer activities dedicated to the process of creating, designing, implementing and supporting software. By the way, there are three types of software that we will delve into in future articles. Or should I say four?

Programmers or coders write source code to program computers to perform specific tasks. Programmers often interpret instructions from software developers and engineers and use programming languages to carry them out.

Software developers drive the overall software development lifecycle by working in functional teams to transform requirements into functions, managing development teams and processes, and performing software testing and maintenance.

What is hidden behind the development of a software?

Software development usually involves the following steps:

• - Select a methodology to establish a framework in which the steps of software development are applied.
• - Collect requirements to understand and document what users and other stakeholders require.
• - Choosing or creating an architecture as the underlying structure within which the software will operate.
• - Develop a design around solutions to the problems presented by the requirements, which often involve process models and storyboards.
• - Create a model with a modeling tool that uses modeling language to perform early validation, prototyping, and design simulation.
• - Create code in the appropriate programming language.
• - Perform tests with pre-planned scenarios as part of software design and coding, and perform performance tests to simulate load tests on the application.
• - Manage configuration and defects to understand all software artifacts (requirements, design, code, test) and create different versions of the software.
• - Deploy the software for use and respond to and resolve user issues.
• - Migrate data to new or updated software from existing applications or data sources if necessary.

Manage and measure the project to maintain quality and delivery during the life cycle of the application, and evaluate the development process.

You find all this information exhausting, don't you? Well, yes, it can be! And this is just a brushstroke, a first coat of paint. It is the epilogue of a book that I dare to say has several volumes, but that little by little we will be dusting off with more details, because it is worth it.

Developing a software is like composing music, designing the house of your dreams or simply creating and everything that this verb admits as meaning. For this reason, software development is considered more of an art than engineering. Surely you are wondering now after all this technical jargon: How really important softwares are? My answer: Can you imagine today without Google, Spotify, Amazon, Photoshop, Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp? Well, I don't think so.