How to Build Quality Software

Software engineering is the branch of engineering that uses the scientific, mathematical, and computer techniques to develop software's within budget and on time. It helps to develop software that is reliable, maintainable, efficient and a software that adheres to the user requirements.

Software engineering guides to the development of software in such a manner that the software is in accordance to the user's needs. The specifications given by the user are of utmost importance. Thus, software engineering deals with ways that leads to user satisfaction. The general goal of software engineering is to build quality software that is economical, useful and safe for the people.

Following are main goals of software engineering:

Improve the productivity of programming/ development process:

The main goal is to improve the productivity i.e. large scale output by applying less resources and reducing the hard work required to do that work. in other words, little input and large output is the objective leading to achievement of maximum throughput.

Controlling and predicting the cost of software development:

The cost is another important factor that decides whether the product/software is good or not. The cost is decided at the analysis phase to ensure that the cost is in accordance with the user's budget. But at the later stages the cost will sometimes overrun and this extra cost is taken care of during the analysis phase.

Although, the extra cost is taken care of during the analysis phase but steps must be taken to control and eliminate such costs in the early phases so that the software is developed within budget.

Improve the comprehension of developed software system:

Comprehension refers to the documentation or the manual that is provided after the software has been developed. The documentation is a detailed document that shows how to use the software and is meant for users not familiar with the product/software. Thus, the comprehension should be appropriate and understandable by the user.

Producing what the customer wants:

The analyst tries his best to produce the software so that the software is produced according to the user's specifications. The software should always be in accordance to the user's specifications or in accordance with what the user wants. This is the main goal for an analyst to satisfy a user's need.

Producing software with the following attribute:

Reliability: Reliability is the measure of software ability to respond logically to unexpected situations and to respond predictably under normal conditions.

Efficiency: It is the ability of the software's ability to perform its operation in an expedient manner.

Clarity: It is the ability to be understood by those who maintain it.

Extensibility: It is the ability of software that shows how easily it can have its scope modified/expanded with minimal effect on the software's existing interface.

Producing the following with program:

Documentation: It is the manual description provided along with the software.

Specifications: All the requirements given by the user and understood by the analyst are written in a document. It is also referred to as SRS (Software Requirement Specification) document.

Requirements documents: It refers to the writing of user's specification in natural language understood by the analyst.

Development plan: It is the description that refers to the solution of the problem. It is prepared at design phase.

Improve the quality of the software product at all levels:

It means that the validation and verification should be performed at all levels i.e. after each phase. The quality must be improved at each step. After each step, the problem or the faults in the product should be identified and resolved. Hence, the quality gets improved.

If you follow the above rules or goals, then your software will definitely stand out among thousands of other software's. These goals will help you build a quality software.