Several different methods can be used when developing applications. Though a complete discussion of development methods is beyond the scope of this documentation, most development methods share the following four major steps:
This step involves determining exactly what you want the application to do. By deciding the application’s capabilities before you begin coding, you can better determine what resources will be required to complete the application. It’s a good idea to document the application requirements so everyone working on the application is working from the same set of requirements.
Before actual coding begins, you should document how you’re going to implement each function in the application. This process often will indicate potential problems that will occur in the implementation. By carefully working through this process, you’ll be able to solve many problems in your application design before you begin coding.
After you’ve determined how you’re going to implement the application, you can begin the actual coding.
As parts of the application are completed, you can test them to determine whether they operate as designed. If you thoroughly documented how to implement the application, many of the problems that would ordinarily have been found by testing will already have been solved.