After the planning and prioritization process is completed, the production process of the teams begins with the aim of presenting the product to the end user. This process includes the steps of preparing, presenting and improving a product designed to solve users’ problems with the cooperation of different teams. Although the product development process varies within the framework of the market and needs, in the most general sense, it consists of the following steps and processes.
Idea generation: First of all, ideas are put forward about which need of a new product will meet the customer or how it will differ from an existing solution. How these ideas solve the problem or what benefits they bring, unlike existing solutions, has a decisive influence on the final benefit. The data that can be used while generating ideas can be benefited from customer feedback, market research, prominent technological trends or brainstorming studies by teams.
Market research: After the ideas are determined, market research should be conducted to determine whether the ideas have a counterpart in the market, whether they are really needed, whether they bring a real solution to the problems, and to determine the possible market demand. In this process;
- The target audience should be determined, the demands and needs of the target audience should be determined accurately,
- If any, other actors in the market and direct competitors should be examined and their solutions, approaches, strong and weak points should be determined,
- The user needs identified in the previous stage should be analyzed in more detail,
- By following the trends in the market, possible developments should be foreseen in the process in which the product will be presented, and the product should be designed not for today, but for the time it will go to the market and survive.
Developing the conceptual design: At this stage, the first concept of the product is designed. In this process, the Product Manager works with stakeholders, designers and developers to decide on the product’s features, functions and intended user experience. Again at this stage, the requirements and features of the product are determined. The design developed here will be enriched with the experiences and feedback gained during the product development process and will be changed.
Design and prototyping: The user interface and user experience templates, sample pages and prototypes are prepared and improved. Feedback is received recursively for improvement processes and necessary improvements are made based on each feedback.
Development: The software development process begins after the basic examples for design and prototyping are revealed. Software development teams divide the identified requirements into smaller parts (task or story) and develop on each one in an agile or iterative process. It is the step where communication within the team will be the highest, and almost all teams must work together to optimize the quality of the product that emerges during the development process.
Testing and Quality assurance: The developed product must be rigorously tested to detect defects and malfunctions to ensure that the product complies with the specified requirements and performs at its best. At this stage, the application can be subjected to the following tests in order to achieve the desired quality:
- Functional tests: Tests whether each function in the application correctly meets its requirements. In this test, each function must consistently deliver the results the user expects in response to various inputs.
- Performance tests: It is used to measure the stability, speed, scalability and responsiveness of the product under different conditions.
- Security tests: It aims to ensure that all vulnerabilities, vulnerabilities, risks and threats that may cause damage to the user, the systems on which he works and the data he uses are detected and eliminated while still in the development phase, and to eliminate undesirable possible results before meeting the real world.
- User acceptance tests: These are the tests that measure the extent to which the product meets the user’s needs and ultimately the aim is to gain the user’s approval. It can be applied as Beta testing, Application testing, Field testing or End user testing, depending on the product and market.
Distribution and release: After successful testing or resolution of detected findings, the product is released to target environments or released to market. At this stage, it is of great importance to work with the infrastructure team to complete the preparations in advance, to establish the infrastructure, and to determine the integration points and technical dependencies.
Feedback and iteration: After the product is in use, feedback should be collected from stakeholders and users to identify the points that need to be changed and improved. These feedbacks can be obtained directly from the people or by using the controls and records located behind the application. As a result of the inferences obtained from the feedback, later versions, improvements and features are planned on an iterative basis. At this stage, the Product Manager plays a role as a decision maker, especially in adding and prioritizing development points to the Product Backlog .
Maintenance and support: After the product comes to life, it needs a continuous and regular maintenance and support activity. In this process, the application is supported within the framework of the user’s questions and requests, with security updates, functional updates, by correcting the errors. At this stage, the Product Manager works with the support and development teams to keep the product stable and customer satisfaction at the highest level.
Throughout all these processes, the most important factor in achieving success is the establishment and maintenance of uninterrupted and efficient communication and cooperation between stakeholders (Product Managers, Designers, Software Developers, Testers, Marketers and Sales Team).
Various infromation from the sites https://www.techtarget.com, https://www.javatpoint.com and https://www.netsolutions.com are used while writing this article.