Steps to Follow while Building an Enterprise Software 

The software industry is changing at a breakneck pace, with a lot of jargon and buzzwords in use. In this competitive environment, businesses frequently face difficulties. In the age of digitally aware users, modern businesses are steering. It is for this reason that the majority of businesses around the world are taking a strategic approach to enterprise software development. We'll walk you through a detailed analysis of enterprise software development in this article. But, before we go any further, let's take a look at how Enterprise software benefits businesses, the development process, how much it costs, and how it contributed to the industry's positive outlook.     

What is Enterprise Software Development  

Enterprise software development is the process of creating an application or platform that solves critical problems and includes functionalities that reduce inefficiencies, improve internal communication, and, ultimately, improve the lives of employees. Enterprise application software is a clever method to acquire centralized control over your company. It provides an organized work environment and streamlines operations for organizations. Among the many advantages are:

• Seamless flow of information and data sharing
• Simplified IT processes
• Reduces the cost of software maintenance.
• Better adaptation to market shifts
• Increased operational efficiency

Mobirevo is a leading Enterprise Software Development Company in Nigeria (Port Harcourt, Lagos, and Abuja). We build enterprise software solutions of all complexity levels for businesses. You can utilize our team's combined experience in enterprise software engineering, API integration, enterprise software development services, legacy system modernization, enterprise web software development, and app portfolio consolidation.  

Enterprise Software Development Process 

If done correctly, implementing enterprise software in your business can propel your company to new heights, but if done incorrectly, it can turn a simple process into a complex one. Let's take a closer look at the procedure.

1. Prepare A Blueprint First

Prepare a detailed plan that includes your project plans, schedules and timelines, cost estimation, and other software requirements before you begin enterprise software development. 

• Project Plan: On paper, create a detailed plan for the enterprise software you want to develop. The project plan will aid in the identification of development tools, programming languages/frameworks, and platforms that will be used to shape the software's future.
• Schedules and Timelines: Establish realistic deadlines and enlist the help of skilled professionals. This will show how long the software will take to deliver.
• Cost Estimation and Budgeting: Before turning on project mode, double-check that the software is affordable and user-friendly.
• Software Requirements: Make a list of everything you'll need to get started with your development. Personnel, tools, hardware, and other resources are included.

2. Evaluate The Project's Requirements

You must ensure that all software requirements are listed and understood by all stakeholders at this stage. You set up meetings with the team to explain the timeline, resources needed, and other software components. Prepare a formal document with all the necessary details, and gather as much data as possible. You can assess your project's requirements holistically by doing the following:

• Analyze the current software.
• Conduct user and developer sessions and meetings.
• Surveys, contests, and questionnaires can be used to gather information from users.

3. Select the Correct Technology

To develop enterprise software, you'll need the right developer toolkit:

• The majority of businesses today have an ERP system hosted in the cloud or on a local server. It is thought to be more secure.
• Choose the right programming language for enterprise software development. JavaScript frameworks are ideal for frontend development, while Node.js is ideal for backend development.
• Select a dependable database for storing large amounts of data. Small businesses with a high demand for standardization will benefit greatly from relational/SQL databases.

4. Find A Skilled Team

It's difficult to find the right pool of talent for enterprise software development. A priority should be given to assembling a team of professionals who can handle the entire process intelligently and efficiently. The evolution challenges, data migration, and transitional period are all managed by a team of ERP implementation experts. You'll need a professional team that includes:

• Project Managers
• Analysts
• QA Engineer
• Consultants

5. Software Design 

The vast majority of software projects are either poorly planned or poorly executed. Make sure your plan is realistic and interactive when designing and developing it. The design process will be a piece of cake now that you've listed the software requirements. The information you've gathered will assist you in customizing the software to meet your specific business needs. Create a prototype before finalizing your design and share it with all stakeholders for approval. The software's architecture may be complex, but it is easy to understand.

5. Software development

Finding the right balance between software excellence and business value is crucial when developing enterprise software. Any blunder can send things in the wrong direction. It's time to develop the software after you've finalized your development tools and software design. The developers can now begin coding in accordance with the project's SRS (software requirement specification). It is critical not to rush through the development phase, leaving some barriers or loopholes.

7. Software Quality Assurance

Make sure to thoroughly test the final software before delivering it to clients. To eliminate errors and bugs, test the software on various levels. Various software tests are performed to ensure the software's flawless functionality.

• Code Quality: Reduces bugs and crashes to produce crystal clear code that is readable and easy to change as needed.

• Unit testing: This identifies various components to ensure that each software unit functions as expected.
• Integration Testing: This procedure identifies any bugs or flaws in the interaction of integrated units. To ensure smooth operation, all units are thoroughly tested.
• Performance Testing: This test eliminates the software's performance bottlenecks. Coders then test the software's speed, response time, reliability, resource usage, and scalability under the anticipated workload. They also ensure that the software runs smoothly even when multiple users are using it at the same time.
• Security Testing: Developers conduct security testing to identify any dangerous threats, vulnerabilities, or risks. It detects security flaws in software and fixes them through coding.

Your software is now ready for deployment after the testing phase has been completed successfully.

8. Software Deployment

At this point, your enterprise software is ready to go to market. Getting manual approval to deploy the software is the focus of the deployment phase. Some businesses use automated software deployment tools, such as Application Release Automation (ARA). Employees must be taught how to use the software once it is made available to them. At this point, your newly developed enterprise software will be released smoothly.

9. Maintenance and Support

Following a successful launch, you must regularly monitor the software to ensure its flawless functionality. Because there is always room for improvement, the software can be updated and altered in response to user feedback. Regular checks will also reveal any software bugs or defects that may be obstructing its performance. In addition to identifying bugs, it is critical to eliminate them to avoid software problems.                 

Enterprise Software Development Tools

1. Version Control: Git

Version control is a technique for tracking and managing software code changes. SCM (source control management) systems are tools that allow teams and developers to keep track of their projects' progress. Version control allows developers to see the entire revision history of a project or file and, if necessary, revert to a previous version. Git is now the most widely used version control system for developers all over the world. Its low cost (ahem...FREE) and functionality give developers more options than alternatives like Perforce and SVN, and its growing popularity suggests that Git is the way of the future.

2. Git Hosting Service

You'll need a hosting service for your repositories if you want to save your project history with Git, or you can host them yourself. Companies should consider price, storage capacity, integrations with existing tools, and other factors when deciding which hosting service to use. Enterprise teams frequently host their repositories on multiple services. Which Git hosting services are the best for enterprise development teams?

• GitHub: Users can host, review, and manage their code on GitHub, an open-source platform.
• GitLab: This is a full DevOps platform, with code hosting and a full CI/CD toolchain all in one place.
• Bitbucket: Code management, project planning, collaboration, testing, and deployment are all available through this Atlassian product.
• Azure DevOps: A Microsoft product that allows teams to collaborate and build better code by hosting private Git repositories in the cloud.

3. Git GUI (Graphical User Interface)

A Git GUI, like your smartphone's interface, translates what's going on behind the scenes of Git into an interface that your eyes and brain can understand. The GitKraken Git GUI, which has been voted #1 dev tool for four years in a row, allows developers to see their Git repos' history and code changes in a beautiful technicolor graph and simplifies complicated Git commands into drag-and-drop actions. Enterprises struggle to standardize and scale Git across their development teams without a Git GUI. This tool should not be considered a frill, but rather an essential component of your DevOps strategy. By leveraging the benefits of a GUI, Git developers will have a more productive workflow, and these tools will make collaboration a breeze. In the 2020 DevOps Report, learn more about how Git Client adoption can make or break your strategy. GitKraken, in particular, was designed with teamwork in mind. Users can see who is working on which files and when they made changes thanks to the graph. Each team member can be identified by their Gravatar image, and collaborators and their related commits are highlighted in a different color on the graph. Depending on your team's environment requirements, GitKraken Enterprise and GitKraken Pro licenses are available. GitKraken Pro can be used if you have Internet access, whereas GitKraken Enterprise is designed for teams working in disconnected or fire-walled environments. Both GitKraken Enterprise and Pro come with robust account management tools that are ideal for managers in charge of large teams or departments. GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps and their related enterprise offerings, as listed in the previous section. Finally, one of the best aspects of GitKraken's Git GUI is how user-friendly it is for new Git developers. The introduction of this tool will significantly reduce the resources required for onboarding new team members. Furthermore, because GitKraken provides a consistent user experience across operating systems, both in terms of UI and performance, all of your developers can collaborate regardless of which OS they prefer. 

4. IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

Because of the convenience they provide, IDEs have become increasingly popular among software developers. An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software suite that combines many of the tools programmers use to write and test software into a single user interface. A developer who does not have access to an IDE spends time deciding which tools to use, configuring them, and learning how to use them. An IDE organizes everything into a logical framework with a consistent user interface. The following developer tools are commonly found in IDEs:

• Code Editor
• Compiler or Interpreter
• Debugger

IDEs may also include the following:

• Code library
• Unit tester
• Testing platform

What Are The Best-Integrated Development Environments (Ides) For Enterprise Development Teams?

• For the fourth year in a row, Microsoft's Visual Studio IDE has been named a top 20 #MustHaveDevTool.
• IntelliJ IDEA, PhpStorm, Android Studio, and PyCharm are among the other popular IDEs that made the Top Developer Tools for 2020 list.

5. Issue Tracker

Although the concept of issue tracking has been around for decades, task tracking software has advanced significantly in recent years. Many tools, in particular, have thoughtfully added features tailored to software developers and development teams. Individuals and teams can use task tracking for software development to record and track the progress of tasks from start to finish. These tools can provide valuable transparency and accountability when working in a group, ensuring that everyone is on the same page when it comes to who is responsible for what and when deadlines are approaching. Users can visualize their tasks in Kanban boards, calendar views, or as a dashboard with Glo Boards for the task and issue tracking. Glo is directly integrated with GitHub, allowing users to track large projects using GitHub Milestones. GitHub Actions can also be used to automate the manipulation of cards on your Glo Board. These features allow developers to perform and track tasks across platforms from the same tool, reducing context switching. Glo also includes a timelines view, thanks to GitKraken Timelines, a tool for enterprise development teams to plan and communicate project goals and milestones.

6. Automation Server

Software development teams are constantly battling to meet tight deadlines and deliver high-quality software on time and within budget. Unexpected complications in configuring builds or migrating code from staging to production environments are common challenges for enterprise teams that have not taken the time to optimize their DevOps workflow. These problems can be easily avoided by implementing an automation server, which streamlines the packaging and delivery of software while also allowing for automated and consistent configuration. When something goes wrong, automation servers provide immediate feedback. A warning can be issued to a developer or team if a commit breaks a build (based on the configurations you have set up). This is useful not only for maintaining the integrity of the built-in question but also for preventing other team members from checking out the bad commit and spreading the problem further. Finally, automation servers allow your developers to test in a controlled environment without affecting final delivery. What Are The Best Enterprise Architecture Automation Servers?

• Jenkins, the most popular open-source automation server, has a wide range of plugins for developing, deploying, and automating your projects.
• Travis CI is a continuous integration service that allows you to build and test projects using GitHub repositories.

7. Testing Framework

Testing frameworks are essential to a successful DevOps strategy because they provide high-level guidelines for creating and designing test cases, as well as a combination of practices and tools to assist QA teams in testing more effectively. These tools are beneficial to enterprise teams because they speed up testing, improve accuracy, lower maintenance costs, and reduce the risk of error. Another tool to aid in the timely and cost-effective release of the software. The majority of testing frameworks include:

• Coding standards
• Methods for managing test data 
• Object repos
• Process for storing test results 
• Info on how to access external resources

Testing frameworks, many of which reside within the code base, are used to test functions and code directly. As a result, many of these tools are limited to a single coding language, because each language has its own syntax, patterns, and paradigms. Which Testing Frameworks Are The Most Popular Among Enterprise Development Teams?

• Jest, a JavaScript Testing Framework, is compatible with Babel, TypeScript, Node, React, Angular, Vue, and other programming languages.
• Selenium, on the other hand, is a UI/automation testing driver that works with a variety of languages.
• JUnit and PHPUnit are two other popular testing frameworks.

8. Container Management System

Containers have become a major focus for enterprise teams looking to improve their DevOps strategy, and they're yet another tool that can help you meet delivery and budget targets. Have you noticed a pattern yet? Containers, one of the most popular enterprise app development tools, make it easier to move software from one computing environment to another. This could be from a developer's machine to a test environment, from staging to production, or from a physical data center machine to a virtual machine in a school. When two supporting software environments are not identical, problems can arise; however, the software isn't the only complication. Issues can also arise due to differences in network topology, security policies, and storage capabilities. Containers encapsulate an entire runtime environment, including the application and all of its dependencies, libraries and other binaries, and configuration files, into a single package. Containerized applications are lighter than virtual machines because they run on a single operating system. Because of their small size, a single server can host more containers, reducing the resources required by enterprise teams. Containers can get up and running almost instantly, allowing them to come in and save the day at the last minute from a disastrous build. What Are The Best Enterprise Architecture Container Management Tools? The top two container management tools, according to the 2020 DevOps Report, are Docker and Kubernetes.

• Docker is the undisputed king of the container market, allowing teams to securely build and share applications across the globe.
• Kubernetes, a Google-developed open-source container management system, can be used to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications.

9. Configuration Management Tool

Configuration management is a process for ensuring that all system resources—computer systems, servers, and other assets—are known and trusted, and for creating and maintaining consistency in a product's performance. After all, system security is critical, especially for businesses. Configuration management necessitates a significant amount of automation to achieve the aforementioned objectives. This is where configuration management software comes in. Automation makes it far easier for teams to incorporate checks and redundant tasks; it also reduces the risk of human error and improves the experience of enterprise teams managing large systems. What Are The Best Enterprise Security Configuration Tools?

• Ansible provides straightforward solutions for automating infrastructure, applications, networks, containers, security, and other systems.
• Chef helps enterprise teams work more efficiently by enabling continuous automation across IT processes.

10. Data Monitoring Tool

Enterprise teams can benefit from data collection and analysis to accurately plan release timelines and meet goals. There are a variety of data monitoring tools available depending on the type of data you want to analyze. The following are some of the most common data points for enterprise development teams:

• The length of time it takes to finish a task.
• Team speed and capacity
• Timeline for project status and progress

Because the data points that enterprise teams are hoping to track can be quite different. One of the most valuable features of data monitoring tools is the ability to curate your customized data highlights into a single dashboard, allowing product managers to easily visualize and compare analytics side by side. What Are The Best Monitoring And Reporting Tools For Businesses?

• Grafana is an open-source analytics and monitoring solution that provides a platform for teams to track all of their desired metrics. No matter where the metrics are stored, users can query, visualize, alert on, and understand them.
• The Release Planner from Axosoft is designed to keep track of progress so that enterprise teams can deliver software on time and within budget. The dashboard includes a burndown chart to visualize a development team's progress, a speedometer to show velocity, and more.

 

Enterprise Software Development Best Practices                

Building effective CI/CD pipelines is at the heart of enterprise software development best practices. The goal is to create an iterative, ongoing system that merges all developers' working code into a shared repository (CI) and ensures code can be easily released at any time, even as it changes constantly (CD). The pipeline is the deployable unit path once CI and CD are integrated. Pipelines are triggered when code changes are committed to a shared repository. Build, the five stages of testing, version control, and, finally, deployment are common pipeline steps. This is significant because it ensures that software is only deployed when it is "ready," which means that there are no known bugs or vulnerabilities and that the software will perform as expected.

1. Automate All Software Testing Phases

First and foremost, your organization will want to automate all phases of software testing. Software testing is an essential component of the software development lifecycle because it ensures that your software is ready for deployment. There are numerous types of testing, but there are five major categories of testing that can be automated. Here's a quick recap:

• Integration Testing: Integration testing ensures that code changes have been properly integrated into the larger application and are ready for the next stage of testing. This is the best time to identify bugs and issues and implement fixes.
• Functional Testing: Functional testing determines the quality of software by ensuring that all required features meet the formal test scripts. When functional testing is finished, the results are compared to the expected results from the environment. If this type of testing is not carried out, functional flaws may not be discovered until the software has been deployed.
• Acceptance Testing: Acceptance testing is a method of ensuring that the correct software was created to meet the needs of the end-user. You can send the software down two different paths in automated testing. One path represents the ideal scenario, in which the user completes all the steps correctly and the software performs as expected. In another scenario, there is an error (for example, the user forgets to fill in a necessary form). This testing determines how the software would perform in less-than-ideal conditions and how they can be improved.
• Quality Control: Quality control is carried out to ensure that all non-functional requirements are met. The goal of non-functional testing is to improve the product's reliability, usability, and maintainability. Quality testing examines how the system operates rather than how the software behaves as a whole.
• Staging Testing: Staging testing is the final type of testing and should be completed after the software is deemed ready for deployment. Staging testing ensures that the software can be deployed in an environment similar to the production environment. You will be able to create a seamless and effective testing plan if you understand the distinct requirements of each stage.

2. Ensure Security Throughout the Process

Throughout the software development lifecycle, auditing and compliance should be a top priority. The last thing a company wants is for their confidential data to fall into the hands of the wrong people. While compliance issues can be time-consuming and frustrating, ignoring them can have serious consequences such as data breaches, audit failures, and a loss of brand reputation. 

3. Never Let One Person Have the Deployment Key

When establishing a deployment process, your organization will never want just one person to have access to the deployment keys. User approvals can be set up in BuildMaster to ensure that only certain users can send a build to deployment. This increases security and ensures that builds are only released when they are complete. Furthermore, you don't want just one person to understand how to deploy a build. This can cause issues if a user leaves the company or goes on vacation during a time when a deployment is required. By carefully documenting deployments, you ensure that other users can step in and deploy a build when necessary.

4. Properly Manage Your Applications

To keep your applications safe, predictable, and confidential, make sure your organization's applications are properly managed. This includes using universal packages and not storing your software solely in public repositories. Users can easily package applications and components with Mobirevo's ProGet. ProGet enables you to use universal packages to distribute your applications and containers uniformly. ProGet also integrates with Docker images for containerized software. Furthermore, ProGet enables you to build a dependable infrastructure on your servers or in the cloud, allowing you to replicate feeds across different ProGet instances around the world to allow different teams to share feeds without the need for complicated global infrastructure.

5. Make Certain You're Load Balancing

Additionally, load balancing is critical for organizations to ensure server uptime. High-traffic websites must juggle millions of concurrent requests in today's computing. Enterprise software development best practices recommend adding more servers to handle these requests more cost-effectively. Load balancers ensure that your servers do their jobs (routing client requests) while maximizing speed and capacity and ensuring that no single server is overworked. The process of efficiently distributing incoming network traffic across a group of backend servers is known as load balancing. When more servers are added to a system, the load balancer automatically sends requests to these new servers. Load balancing is important because it enables businesses to work collaboratively without incident.

6. Reduce Configuration Drift Between Teams and Locations

In an ideal world, configurations across developers' environment servers would be consistent. However, as new features are introduced, changes are made to the hardware and software infrastructures regularly. As a result, infrastructures differ across environments. Ignoring configuration drift has several serious consequences that you should avoid. Security breaches and security outages are two of the consequences of configuration drift.  Furthermore, configuration drift can lead to a poor user experience and a lack of visibility into the impact of changes. Otter from Mobirevo ensures that applications run properly by minimizing configuration drift. Otter continuously monitors your servers for configuration changes and alerts you if there is any drift. Servers can be configured to automatically remediate drift, or you can schedule remediation and other configuration changes as needed.

7. Keep Versions Organized

Your organization will want to keep versions organized to ensure that all developers are working on the same version of a build. The process of recording changes to a file or set of files over time so that versions can be recalled and altered is known as version control. 

8. Use the Most Up-To-Date Tools

DevOps is a relatively new methodology, which means that new technologies and tools are constantly appearing in the industry. Organizations must keep up with the latest tools and practices to remain competitive. DevOps tools are classified into several categories, including automation tools, configuration management tools, and enterprise applications development tools. While the number of available tools can be overwhelming, we have created a blog on how to evaluate tools to assist you. Mobirevo can help you in implementing enterprise software development best practices. Creating a new application can be a time-consuming and overwhelming process. Fortunately, several best practices can assist your organization in reaching its full development potential. Software development will become less complicated if these enterprise application best practices are followed. Mobirevo DevOps tools save developers time, reduce release risk, and enable stakeholders to bring their vision to life more quickly. All with the people and technology you currently have.  

Conclusion    

Enterprise software development is an iterative process that never ends. And we hope that this article will provide you with a solid foundation for your next enterprise software development project. At Mobirevo, we provide next-generation enterprise software development for the web, mobile, and desktop to streamline business processes and improve the customer experience. Our cutting-edge web and mobile solutions help large organizations in becoming long-term global success stories by re-engineering solutions of varying complexity. You can contact us today to get a free quote. Our team at Mobirevo strives to provide unrivaled services to all of our valued clients. You can also check out our case study page to see our client's portfolio and get a better understanding of the quality of products we deliver. Also, contact us if you have any questions about our services, and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Want to receive more content like this? You can sign up for our newsletter, which features curated opinions, and Mobile app development tools for building remarkable digital assets. If you sign up for our weekly newsletter, you will be the first to know when we publish awesome content like this. You can also visit our blog to see other content created with love by our amazing team.

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