Wondering how to create software from scratch? What skills does it take? What software platform or platforms do you use? Do you need to hire a software engineer and software developer, or is it something you can learn — with or without a computer science background?
We'll answer all these questions and more about how to build a program from scratch, covering topics including choosing a software platform/platforms, building a team, risk management, processes, and more.
How to Develop Software From Scratch: Key Takeaways
- Software solutions are holistic problem-solvers within your company, while an existing product may just be a bandaid.
- Custom software complements your key differentiators by letting you offer unique features that your competitors don't have — one of custom software's biggest advantages.
- Traditional coding requires lots of legacy software tools and large development teams — but no-code app development relieves much of that burden while saving time and money.
- The project management methodology you choose matters more than you think.
- Solidifying scope and anticipating challenges upfront will save you time, money, and frustration when building software from scratch.
Software Solution vs. Software Product
Is there a difference between a software product and a software solution? While they're closely related, there is a difference:
- Software Product: A pre-built piece of software designed for a specific task or small number of tasks in a wide variety of businesses and industries.
- Software Solution: A customizable software system designed to integrate seamlessly into your tech stack and solve a specific challenge unique to your business.
In other words, an out-of-the-box product may allow you to complete a task, but a custom solution offers personalized ways to improve the way you do business.
And when it comes to your customers, providing them with a unique experience instead of generic features is an incredible way to use custom software to stand out in your market.
Organizations often turn to developing software solutions because software products haven't solved their biggest challenges. Yet, while the benefits of custom software solutions are numerous, the cost can be prohibitive.
When you eschew programming languages and start coding without code (using no-code tools), custom software solutions become much more efficient and affordable. More on this later!
Cost of Building a Software Application From Scratch
Every software development cost estimate will vary widely. Variations in scope, complexity, and service provider rates all influence this. So when calculating ROI, it can be helpful to approach cost from the perspective of business size and user scale:
- Small businesses with fairly limited scope and complexity can expect to pay $50k+ for a fully custom, traditionally coded application built using programming languages.
- On the other hand, enterprise software with incredibly large scope and complexity could require $1M+.
So if cost is one of the major factors influencing your project, look for low-code and no-code software development agencies.
Why?
With traditional coded software from scratch, you're paying for team members who primarily manage servers and oversee complex deployments. This adds both cost and time to your project.
But with no-code tools, all of that is abstracted away from your team — speeding up development and saving you money. In fact, low-code platforms can reduce development time and cost by 50-90% compared to traditional coding (Redhat).
With tools like Xano, backend setup is a breeze. And database management has never been easier (see our What is Airtable post for more).
You'll also see more user-friendly interfaces thanks to the relative ease of features like drag-and-drop interfaces and other pre-built components.
Let's take a closer look at how you save money with a no-code software development team, compared to traditional coding.
Building Your Software Development Team
Developing software can't happen without your core software development team!
But the scope and size of these teams varies considerably. It mostly depends on whether you're coding from scratch with a programming language (or languages!) vs. a low-code or no-code solution.
A) Traditional Coding: Outsourced or In-House Software Development Team
When coding with a popular language or multiple programming languages, a successful software development team can get pretty robust.
- Business Analysts are the client experts responsible for determining the scope of the software and gathering requirements. They also answer questions for the development team.
- Architects help select the tech stack (every software platform and tool used in software development) for the project. They also orchestrate tech integration, database design, interfaces, and more.
- Project Managers are responsible for creating the development process plan, selecting workflow methodology, and choosing the best project management tool. They manage the timeline and milestones internally, and sometimes with clients.
- UI and UX Designer(s) are essential for building software. That's because user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design ensures an intuitive and seamless experience (UX) with a visually appealing look and feel (UI).
- The role of DevOps Engineer exists to manage servers, select software monitoring tools for the project and production environment, and develop continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
- Quality Assurance Engineers are essential throughout iterative builds, integration tests, and redeployment. Through test cases, bug reports, and moroe, they ensure everything works and appears as it should across each operating system and environment.
- Back-End Developer(s) create the data processing power for a software project by writing server-side code. They work closely with the project database, integrations, and API. They're essential for fixing bugs on the back-end during quality assurance testing, too.
- Front-End Developer(s) create what end users see when using the app, building upon the work of the UX and UI designers. The front-end developer may write their own code or use existing templates or tools, and during quality assurance, you can find them fixing bugs on the front-end.
B) Low- and No-Code Software Development Team
That traditional development team was pretty enormous, right? With low- and no-code platforms as the foundation for your software development project, the team shrinks considerably — improving efficiency and reducing costs.
Here's what you can expect:
- Project Managers are responsible for building the project plan and workflow. On a no-code development team, a project manager also typically takes on the role of Business Analyst and Quality Assurance Engineer because they don't need to understand code to decipher the work and provide feedback.
- Architects orchestrate the right tech stack and drive technical design decisions. No-code projects require effective databases with strong data design and a eye for security and performance, which is why they still require an architect. But since many no-code tools integrate multiple functions into a single tool, these projects may use fewer tools (though not always — your team should prioritize optimal functionality over sheer number of tools).
- Example: Airtable combines the database layer with a pseudo computer/server layer for automations and a pseudo UI/UX layer for interfaces. But these layers have limitations: data record limits, limited number of automations, and lack of interface customization options, to name a few. That's why it may be better to use some components of Airtable but not others. It all depends on your unique situation — that's why custom-designed solutions are better than pre-packaged software products.
- While you can separate the roles of UI/UX Designers if desired, many skilled designers can meet both of these needs without increasing team size.
- Full-Stack Developer(s) are still essential for no-code development teams, but thanks to the relative ease of these tools, 1 or 2 full-stack devs can typically handle both back-end and front-end development. That's because all the logistical messiness that comes with traditional code — DevOps, project configuration, servers — is abstracted away, creating room for developers to focus on UI/UX and business logic.
The Software Development Process from Scratch: Iterative Development and Key Considerations
Many articles outline the software development process as though it's a linear approach, also known as "waterfall." You would develop your scope, build a draft, edit that draft, and achieve a final product.
But most software projects don't work that way — instead, they take an iterative approach. Let's learn more about what that means and how it impacts the traditional concept of an end-to-end process.
Waterfall vs. Iterative Development and Agile Methodology for Software Development
Waterfall
Waterfall project management methodology involves defining a scope, building a wireframe or prototype, and refining the product internally (often on a strict pre-determined timeline) until it's complete and ready to be released.
Waterfall projects take awhile to launch, since the product isn't usually deployed at the end of each feedback cycle. And with cascading milestones, if any one review goes off the rails, the rest of the project scope and timeline must be rebuilt.
Iterative/Agile
In iterative development or agile methodology, it's a given that your software project will go through multiple versions, reviews, updates, and tweaks throughout the development process — and that won't stop you from releasing the product early and re-releasing often.
In agile methodology, you work in sprints.
Sprints are short cycles (typically 1-4 weeks each) in which you ideate, build, test, and refine, typically releasing the software application in its current state at the end of each sprint.
While sprints typically work on a strict review cycle, you aren't held to a specific deliverable in the same way a waterfall project would be.
When you develop software this way, you anticipate that you'll learn as you go, release the product in increments, and build on each release with feedback along the way.
This is typically the best approach for software development projects. It allows you to get to market faster! You also have the benefit of expecting the unexpected — scope creep, feedback delays, etc. — while avoiding significant impact to the overall project and timeline.
Key Considerations Across Software Project Sprints
Each sprint involves the following components:
1. Define requirements and app features for the software
Determining your goals, target audience, and scope early allows you to set specific goals for the sprint. You can revisit as needed in future sprints, but aim to get the requirements nailed down as much as possible at the outset.
What are your goals for the product? Who is your target audience? What's your unique selling proposition?
2. Build a project plan
This is where you define how to develop a software product from scratch. What will your development process look like and what should the client expect to review in each sprint?
3. Design UX/UI
What functional modules will your new software application require? How will the program function, and what will the user interface look like — across different browsers, Android devices, Apple devices...? Where and how will key features appear? What will navigation look like? You'll cover all of this with UX/UI design.
4. Architecture design
Now it's time to turn wireframes into code. How will the software be built? Will your integration approaches be middleware-based, point-to-point, or other? What software platform will serve as the base of your project?
5. Develop software
Your developers step in to code the solutions designed by the project team. Each sprint involves building software and releasing new versions in their preferred delivery automation environments (such as continuous integration/continuous delivery). With each subsequent sprint, they will build on that functionality, continue to test, and add new features.
6. Quality assurance testing
Is everything working as it should? What bugs are coming up on the back-end and front-end of your software project? QA engineers and/or project managers step in to ensure you're creating software that does its job.
7. Launch the software solution
With a minimum viable product (MVP) approach, you’ll deploy a software application many times over the life of the product. Frequent versioning allows teams to iterate across sprints, identify and fix bugs, and scale the product over time.
8. Gather stakeholder and user feedback
Client and end-user review cycles are crucial steps in building software from scratch. Real-world feedback helps teams improve the product, elevate the user experience, and increase viability in the market. Future iterations of your product depend on regular and thorough feedback cycles.
9. Monitor and maintain the solution
The process doesn't stop at deployment! The team must monitor the released software to make sure it continues to behave as expected. Monitoring and alerting tools can remove some of the manual labor, allowing the team to see if users are able to utilize new features successfully and watch for errors.
Top Challenges When Developing Software
Look out for these pitfalls along the way.
1. Scope creep
Scope creep is probably the biggest challenge when building software. It's easy to get excited about new features and keep wanting to add more and more to your scope, even when — or especially when! — it was always meant to be a simple program.
Be aware that scope creep can be costly, negatively impact your project timeline, and unwittingly steer you away from your original goals.
The remedy? Working with a strong development team who can clearly identify and outline your goals, define and stick to scope, and deliver software that gets the job done effectively, without costly and extraneous additional features.
2. Protecting against vulnerabilities
When you create software from scratch, there will always be a new hack or other vulnerability to consider. That's why sufficiently protecting against security vulnerabilities can be so difficult. Your development team must identify the biggest risks and secure those first. Beyond that, budget is the main factor in additional protections.
In the case of no-code and low-code tools, the platforms typically carry the responsibility of protecting against new vulnerabilities. And while robust access controls can be tricky to set and maintain with traditional code, no- and low-code platforms simplify this process.
3. Evolving technology and innovation
Open source software packages are constantly changing, which often requires code updates to accommodate the latest, most secure versions. At a higher level, there's always a new tool on the market — so it's easy to get distracted and implement technology that isn't really needed.
But strong tech partners can explain the purpose and benefits of changing or integrating additional platforms. It's difficult to keep up with the rapid pace of the software development landscape, but industry pros use these tools all day every day — so they have the insight to steer you in the right direction.
4. Software development team collaboration
Development teams must be aligned on goals and timelines at all times to avoid delays. Likewise, communication with the client must remain clear and open. If not, project requirements, feedback, and expectations will be misaligned, leading to dissatisfied clients and customers.
The easiest way to streamline communications? A lean team with less overhead. No-code and low-code software development teams are smaller and nimbler, enabling simplified collaboration and communication.
5. Tracking dependencies
Dependencies are the ways in which different pieces of your software rely on one another to work. Tracking dependencies helps you best manage the evolution of your new software without breaking it — and the right tools will automate this process for you.
That's why expert software development teams use project management tools to document dependencies in your new software, clearly showing what each piece is responsible for and how it interacts with the larger system. With this documentation, your system will effortlessly grow and scale with you.
6. Version control
When you create software, version control is essential throughout the development process. It allows you to track changes to the software at each iteration, and revert to previous versions as needed if something breaks. Without proper version control, a mistake could break your software irreparably, because you may not be able to restore an older draft.
No-code and low-code tools come to the rescue here, too! Choosing platforms that have version control as well as snapshotting for database backups will protect you in the case of a catastrophic error. Platforms such as Xano, Make.com, and Airtable all support these features.
7. Rigorous testing for successful deployment and integration
Quality assurance testing with test cases and automated test scripts helps you identify issues early on. But stakeholder and user feedback gives you another layer of insight into the real-world experience.
Testing early and often while creating software gives you the best chance of error-free launches and happier customers. Yet, even with ample testing, it’s impossible to know every single way an end user will use the software. That's why an expert software development team involves its clients in the testing and validation process. Professional services firms know their customers better than anyone, and this intimate knowledge helps catch edge cases that might otherwise be missed.
How to Find an Expert Software Development Team
One factor in finding your perfect software development team is the type of partner you want.
Are you looking to:
- Expand your in-house team (staffing)?
- Find a single expert on a temporary basis (freelancer)?
- Partner with a group who can act as your own expert software development team (agency)?
Whichever option you choose, it's important to understand the level of service you can expect. Do they just deliver a product, or are they a true partner?
For example, here at Crispy, we're an end-to-end partner for your software development needs. We do more than you might think!
All our clients have to do is provide their dream-state vision (what an ideal piece of software would do for them) and any specific requirements you have. That's it!
We facilitate all the planning, tech selection, UI/UX design, development, testing, release, onboarding, monitoring, updates, and scaling.
Not only that, but we aim to make the entire process as easy-to-understand and transparent as possible. That way, your team understands all the benefits and intricacies of the software and feels confident using it for the life of your business.
What Are The Different Types of Software Development Tools?
Even a seemingly simple software project involves a wide variety of tools, making it tough for citizen developers to DIY. Here are many different types of programs used for software development, including traditional coding tools, low-code tools, and no-code platforms.
Build Tools
Build tools let developers write code in different programming languages and transform that code into an artifact ready for deployment.
- Jenkins: An open-source code automation server with continuous automated testing (including integration tests), plugins, and distribution capabilities.
- Gradle: An open-source build tool with ample API and plugins, high-speed build and deployment, and scalability.
Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
IDEs make coding easier by combining building, testing, editing, and packaging into one tool.
- Visual Studio: A leading option for Windows .NET and C++ developers, with an OS-agnostic option (Windows, MacOS, Linux) for multiple programming languages.
- IntelliJ: Coding assistance and collaborative features make this a great choice for a streamlined development process.
Source Control
Source control lets you develop, track, and manage changes to your code. This is critical for versioning updates, allowing you to pinpoint and reverse errors in and across functional modules during testing or deployment.
- Git: An open-source tool that works locally on the computer on which it's installed. There isn't an easy way to share code unless you use...
- Github: A developer platform using Git software that allows developers to create, store, refine, and share code. You get access control, wikis for every software project, and even task management. Which brings us to...
Project Management Tools
No matter what methodology your project manager and development team decide to use, project management tools are essential to keeping your scope, timeline, and budget on track. Don't skip this when building software from scratch.
- Jira: A classic choice for agile iterative development. Project managers can track sprints, share milestones and dependencies, and customize views.
- ClickUp: A multipurpose tool for project tracking, collaboration, document creation and management, time tracking, and more.
Profilers
Profilers analyze your code to ensure it's optimized for best performance. They don't typically handle more than one language — instead, they're specific to each programming language.
- Xcode: An IDE for iOS apps, containing an iOS-specific profiler.
- JProfiler: A common profiler for the Java programming language.
Load Testing Tools
These tools test how software systems perform under a heavy load (lots of requests to the app).
- Gatling: A popular load tester to ensure optimal performance and scalability.
- Apache JMeter: Java application testing for web applications and more.
Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) Tools
These tools allow for a highly iterative development process. Make incremental changes with integration tests and automatically deploy each update with ease.
- Travis CI: Connects to source code control tools including GitHub, with simple syntax, parallel building, and autodeployment.
- CircleCI: With a focus on speed, security, and extensibility, this CI/CD tool helps iterate and scale any software project.
Testing Tools
Reliable testing facilitates rapid iteration and deployment — so successful software development depends on reliable testing tools.
- Selenium: Automates web applications for rigorous testing in browsers.
- Postman: API development and testing platform, including workspaces and governance.
Software Logging
Software logging tools record events while a software program runs. This lets you confirm what works well, but also track and identify errors for test cases.
- Logstash: Open source data processing platform with ample plugins for software logging from multiple sources.
- Graylog: Robust software logging tool with search, visual reporting, compliance, and more.
Software Monitoring and Alerting
Deployment doesn't mean your software will run seamlessly forever. Monitoring and alerting are crucial steps to ensure the health of your software in its current state, future iterations, and at scale.
- Datadog: SaaS platform for cloud-based applications, offering monitoring and alerts along with log management.
- Instana: Real-time full-stack observability tool by IBM with 1-second granularity.
How to Build Software from Scratch FAQs
How hard is it to build software?
Building software from scratch is tough, and there's a steep learning curve. In our opinion, it's one of the harder engineering disciplines because there are so many variables at play.
Each software project will have different combinations of computer hardware, different internet speeds/locations, different web browsers and web browsing settings, lots of different ways to store and compute data, etc.
All of those different variables can play a major role in how software is built and how it performs.
How do you create software from scratch? How to make a computer program from scratch?
The exact process varies depending on whether it's a web development project, a mobile app, a cloud-based or localized program, etc. But most software projects will be built using iterative development (incrementally improving on the original product) and follow these basic steps:
1. Define goals, target audience and market, requirements, and app features for the new software
2. Build a project plan
3. Design UX/UI
4. Architecture design
5. Develop software
6. Quality assurance testing
7. Launch the software solution
8. Gather stakeholder and user feedback
9. Monitor and maintain the solution
How long does it take to build software from scratch?
If you code custom software from scratch by using a programming language like Java (or multiple other languages), it takes a considerable amount of time and involves large teams, extensive complexity, and a solid plan.
However, relying on low- and no-code tools cuts this time significantly by providing a managed service for your developers.
With no-code, instead of spending time on the granular details of managing servers and wrangling large-scale deployments, your team can focus on the business logic and specific needs of your unique organization. Ultimately, this yields a better-fit solution in less time and at lower cost.
What's the best way to build a software product?
The best way to create software is to first listen to the customer. Learn all about their unique needs.
Defining the correct scope upfront lets you set the right goals, measure the right metrics, and build the right solution.
If you create software based on a generic need — or with more or less complexity than the ask requires — you're likely to bust your budget by relentlessly modifying the product and redefining scope.
Apart from that, follow tried-and-true software development processes such as agile methodology. It's an industry standard for a reason.
What programming languages do I use to build software?
These days, you don't need to learn Java or C++ to create software! In fact, with the right prompts, AI tools such as ChatGPT can write code for you in whatever language you choose.
What's more valuable in building software is understanding the business, translating software requirements into tasks for your development team, architecting the right combination of tools to achieve your goal, and designing and implementing the right solution.
All of this can be done using time- and cost-saving low- and no-code platforms such as Airtable, Make, Zapier, Bubble, Softr, and more.
Creating Software From Scratch: We've Come a Long Way
Got a technology pain point that you just can't seem to solve? Dedicating too much manual labor, time, and budget into it? Chances are, a custom app or workflow automation can solve your problem and help you get back to business.
Let us help: get in touch.
