Software Development is Simple & Easy

If you have a software project in mind, whether it’s to improve company processes or a new start-up idea, you’ve probably heard that software development is “complex”. But why is that? New apps, websites, and software tools pop up every day, and some of them gain major success. Building a software project can’t be that hard.

Design is Overrated

What is design really? Just pretty colors and photos arranged in a cool way. Who needs user interface/user experience (UI/UX) experts that tell you how to layout your app and how users will interface with it? Sure, they may have gone to school to learn “best practices” that have been refined over decades based on user feedback and testing, but is all that actually important? Not really.

All you really need to do is choose your favorite colors and you’re halfway there! The more eye-catching, the better. Plus, you can find pretty much any image you’d need for free on Google. Only lawyers care about copyright laws anyways.

Coding isn’t Complex

It’s not as if coding is a multi-discipline skill that people study for years to learn. After all, there are toys geared toward teaching kids how to code. If children can do it, how difficult can coding be? Plus, in movies, hackers can break into “complex” systems incredibly fast. Sometimes they don’t even look at the screen while they code! I’ll admit, most of the hackers are portrayed by actors, but when have movies ever exaggerated anything?

Oh, and some companies have the audacity to call coders “engineers” as if programming is hard. Just tell A to do B or C, based on what the user input is. Easy! Plus, online, you can hire developers for a dime-a-dozen from anywhere in the world.

Testing is a Myth

Often the products that gain a competitive advantage are the ones that are first-to-market. Keeping that idea in mind, it’s critical for you to launch your project as fast as possible! Rather than spending time in the Alpha and Beta stages testing your product and ensuring it is free of bugs, you should launch immediately. Any bugs that Quality Assurance specialists would’ve found during a testing phase will be found by your users anyways (free labor)! Eliminating testing saves you both time and money.

Maitenance Shmatenance!

Your project has launched – what’s next? Nothing!

Now you can just sit back and let your new software rake in the dough. Sure, users may give feedback on bugs or request additional features, but you already launched the product so there’s really no need for you to make any changes. And if the bugs are so bad that your users can’t even use the app, clearly that’s user-error and nothing to do with you.

All This to Say…

April Fools!

The statements above are all clearly ridiculous, and yet there is still a huge misconception over the complexity of software development. Whether that’s because it’s intangible, misunderstood, or a variety of other reasons, people consistently undervalue the level of effort, experience, and expertise needed to build successful software projects.

From defining your MVP, to the hidden complexities in design and development, to determining scale, and more, there are so many aspects of software development that get overlooked. Like with anything, the more you learn about software development, the more you realize you don’t know. That’s why it’s critical to find a consulting developer who won’t lie to you by promising an “easy” project. Seek a firm that is candid and honest about the complexities of your product. It may seem impossible, but great developers are out there! You may have even found the right one already.