What Are The Main Reasons Why Software Development Is So Hard?
Brutal failure percentages, Extensive delays, miscommunication, overgrown costs, upset clients. All of these elements are normal in the software development process. As per a recent report, only thirty-five percent of software projects are “successful,” which means these projects met the deadline well in-budget and the requirements set by the client are thoroughly fulfilled. Around 18 percent were absolute failures, and the remaining jumbled through in the middle.
Software Development is a profoundly technical process, but it is not the technology that muddles. Instead, it’s the human-technology interface, mainly,
- the difficulty that people in managerial positions have in gaining clarity of the technical world.”
- the assumptions and speculations that these people make about software in development.
All this asks for the question, why is software development so hard?
Relatively new industry
Software systems are fundamentally driven by a technique of discovery, innovation, and production of new components such that each new system is a custom project created from start. While the construction industry predominantly uses prefabricated materials and parts, the majority of these parts machine-made and have been tried and tested on many other projects. However, the software industry doesn't have a wide range of pre-built components that other industries have.
Potential point of failure
Each software project is a custom-built, undergoes minor to major changes based on customer’s requirements. This implies, each piece of code is unproven and should be tested. But this does not sound practical in the real world. Even if it was viable to document a test scenario for a line of code you still cannot be sure that there weren’t some undetermined elements that could cause an error. As well as testing each line of code is a small fraction of the nut challenge, each line of code is a part of a system, so there exist dependencies, therefore the whole system needs to be tested to ensure correct functionality of the software as a whole.
Thus, development demands implementation of certain coding standards and testing at different levels, but all this comes with added costs. It is an expensive and tricky business. All this suggests that outsourcing is a safer option than in-house software development. How much does it cost to outsource software development? The exact figure may vary based on the software functionality, graphics, criticality and testing requirements, but it is cost savvy.
Ambiguous requirements from the client
No matter how perfect your piece of code is, if it fails to comply with user requirements it is a total miss. A journal was published stating the average project experiences about twenty-five percent requirement change from the requirements complete phase to the first release. This is the notorious scope-creep crisis that plagues nearly all software projects. Usually, it starts once the first wireframes set-out which causes the users to dive deeper about the requirements.
Pacing up with the new technology
New technologies are growing at a frightening pace, there is an imperative demand for evolving skill sets. The main obstacle for a developer is clear-cut: a constantly changing learning curve. There is always a new technology or language to master to stay up to date, there exists no period of static production. Learning new technologies comes with added costs, making outsourcing a better option. But, How much does it cost to outsource software development, considering the scope and complexity it is a lot cheaper option than in-house development.
