It all starts with the client coming up with an idea for his product. This can be a document of several pages with a detailed description of the project or a couple of paragraphs describing the general concept.

First, an account manager contacts the client. He asks questions in person, on calls, or by mail to get the gist of the project. The key task here is to figure out how complete and clear the requirements for the project are.

Depending on the goals of the project, the developer offers clients one of two principles of working with projects:

• Fixed price. Suitable for projects with clear and detailed requirements, which are fixed in the terms of reference. In this case, the budget and time frame for desktop application development is approved after the analysis and re-evaluation. Analysis and re-evaluation is performed to gain a deeper understanding of the tasks.
• Time and material. The calculation model is suitable for projects which demand a regular change of tasks in search of the needed solution. The client pays for the actual hours worked by the team.

When both parties have completely decided on how the work will go, the account manager sends the signed contract. A project manager joins the project. He manages the team, checks the quality, and timing.

Thus at this stage, the developer and the client define:

• a preliminary assessment of the project and task scoping;
• a preliminary budget of the project.

Analytics

To make sure that the developers and the client have the same understanding of the result, purpose and functions of the product, an analyst is included in the project. The purpose of the stage is to gather the client’s requirements for the project and translate them into the language of development. The analyst’s task list varies depending on the scope of the project and the degree of elaboration of the initial requirements, but in general it boils down to the following tasks:

• define the client’s business objectives;
• clarify, formalize, and agree upon the requirements;
• Identify priorities.

Usually everyone is confident that they understand what features are needed. However, when the analyst begins to describe why these functions are needed, it turns out that different stakeholders see the task differently.

Design

The goal of the design phase is to make the product pleasant, understandable, and usable. As part of this stage, the designer constantly consults with the analyst and asks him how to do better. Together they design based on a prepared set of artifacts.

Development stage

Next, the web development department, namely the frontend developer, works with the layout. He typesets the interface elements, linking the screens together logically and functionally, using HTML markup, CSS style sheets, programming languages, frameworks, and libraries.

A backend is a set of hardware and software tools that are used to implement the logic of an application. The task of backend development is to make sure that the response from the server reaches the client and that the designed blocks function as intended.

Testing

To make sure that all parts of the software work as expected, software testing is necessary.

QA engineers check first compliance of the design and technical task. Prepare test documentation, do manual and automated testing. All this helps check the operation of different software parts of the project and minimize bugs.

Delivery and support

When the product has been tested, the developers deliver the finished project to the client. For example, deploying the project on a server. They also help select the server and configure it.

Software development is a multi-stage and complex process. Some stages can occur in parallel, and development approaches can be combined with each other. Much depends on the specific goals and objectives of the project.