Software development is an increasingly difficult task with increasingly complex IT infrastructures. Application developers need to program in an increasingly complex and flexible way.

The choice of development tools is also contains great significance.

In the implementation of the most important software development process, programmers are supported by multifunctional and various tools.

Before starting your own software development, you need to have at least a rough idea of?? what the resulting software should do and what requirements it should meet. Here we demonstrate our typical procedure for the initial collection of software requirements and specifications. We apply this procedure mainly for customers who do not have sufficient technical background to be able to handle these initial steps themselves.

Collection of requirements

During the initial discussions with the customer, we try to find out his needs and expectations regarding the software. At this stage, we also try to orient ourselves in the domain and terminology of the customer.

Functional specifications

After successfully collecting software requirements and analyzing them, we can proceed to write a functional specification. It is a detailed description of how the software should work, but without reference to a specific technology or detailed system architecture. The following areas should be considered when drafting a functional specification:

Data model - a formal description of data and information in the system and the relationships between them. When describing data, we try to use a form that is understandable to the customer.

     Description of functionalities - in simple terms, this is a description of what the software should perform with the data listed in point (1) and how the data should change depending on the performed actions.

      Interaction with other systems - even the simplest standalone applications allow data imports and exports. More complex information systems then need to be integrated with other existing systems. It is therefore necessary to describe the interaction and exchange of data with other systems and software, because if such an interaction is required, its implementation usually forms a significant part of the effort spent on software development.

      Roles and permissions - the functionality that the software offers to the user may depend on who is currently logged in to the system. It is necessary to define who can perform and under what conditions in the system - ie user roles and user rights.

      Graphical user interface - a description of what the user interface should look like to allow the user to perform all the actions described in point (2). It can also contain graphic designs, including the layout of individual elements. This is an area where even non-technical customers usually have a relatively clear idea of ??how the system should work.

     User interface functionality - what a user interface should be able to do to allow the user to work efficiently and, if possible, with the software. These are mainly various types of filtering, sorting, searching, scrolling or paging of a larger number of items, drag and drop. If there are requirements for rich user interface functionality, this means increased development costs, so it is necessary to well document the customer's idea of ??the level of comfort of the graphical interface in advance.

      Application performance - for the developed application, it is necessary to consider not only simple functionality, but also the required speed of the application under load. Sometimes it happens that the application works well for a certain number of users, but under heavier load it slows down so much that it becomes difficult to use. If you have special requirements for the number of users or the volumes of processed data in the closing and when generating reports, these requirements must also be stated in the specification.

       Based on the functional specification, we are able to prepare a qualified estimate of software complexity. Functional specifications serve as the basis of a contractual relationship in software development.