There are thousands of products on the market when it comes to software serving different industries. While most developers create excellent software products that work, many seem to forget about the other aspects that can make a product extraordinary. The elements of good software matter just as much as its sales do. Hence, in order to have an excellent software product, you need to have five fundamental characteristics embedded in the core of your software’s existence.
You could be a software developer looking to perfect your product, or you are interested in software but not sure if it’s going to be user-friendly. Simply take a look at the below characteristics that can set your software product unique from the rest and determine which ones are still missing from yours:
What are the Characteristics of Good Software?
1. Security
Any software needs to be built using excellent security practices. We’ve seen over the years how some software has done the job it was supposed to, but security features have let the product down massively. A good piece of software would have been planned in detail, from security to speed. But, it’s the security that proves to be the most important when it comes to a good software product. And with an increase in security threats nowadays, any software needs to gain this factor.
Also, the software shouldn’t have any adverse effects on the data or hardware. The software should help a user to take proper measures to keep their data secure from external threats. Since security needs to be an ongoing process in software, regular issues/glitches will need to be updated automatically it. Secure software needs to protect the user’s data from disclosure, alteration, and destruction.
2. User-Friendliness
User-friendly software means how easy to use is the software. Navigation is very important as it determines the person’s journey through moods while using the software. User-friendliness of good software can be defined through the user interface, i.e., the smooth flow of the software design. Any software with a fantastic UI (User Interface) design is a product that’s going to get more notice than one that doesn’t.
All software needs to be user-friendly; otherwise, users aren’t going to be able to navigate easily enough to use some of the features the software offers. The number of effort or time required to learn how to utilize the software should be less. The ultimate goal of software should be that it is user-friendly even to IT-illiterate people.
3. Speed
Does your software take forever to load? If it does, it hasn’t been developed properly. Along with all the latest coding standards, features, and libraries that a software developer has access to, it’s not hard to create software that’s responsive. If the speed of the software you’re using isn’t sufficient, then it’s probably time for you to look elsewhere. There are many software out there that can offer the same features and still be proactive in responses and reactions.
Excellent software to be loved needs to be fast in both function and interface. There needs to be lightness in the actions being executed. Good software with no to minimal lag will still seem more speedy than most of the other software out there in the market. A speedy software shows focus and determination to complete tasks as demanded.
4. Efficiency
Efficiency is essential for any piece of software to be a success. It not only needs to do the job it was built for, but it also needs to be able to offer excellent features that can help users undertake tasks quickly. Efficiency mostly relates to the way software uses accessible resources. Software with efficiency means that it deals in proper value in the time and money of the user. So when selecting software, the process should be more clearly defined.
The software should be able to cater to the exact demographic of the user to give excellent efficiency during its usage. There are plenty of products on the market that cater to different industries, but there are only a handful of products that can help individuals and businesses when it comes to efficiency. For example, if you look at the medical billing software offered by Open Practice Solutions, the features implemented in it make processes of billing in the medical industry much more efficient for the clients than the rest.
5. Features
Of course, there are thousands of software products on the market that were built with simplicity in mind. The features that software offers are the essential purpose of its existence. It should be clearly defined in the appearance, components, and capabilities to look like the best software product. However, there are also those products out there that can do much more for the money you pay for it. A feature-rich product isn’t necessarily a better software product, but it’s one that can do more for you, and that should be considered when purchasing the software.
6. Flexibility and Maintainability
One of the characteristics of excellent software is its flexibility and maintainability.
The flexibility of the software is determined by how easily you can add or modify or remove a software’s functionality without hampering the current operation. Change is inevitable in software development; it can occur during the development process itself or may require adjustments as per future requirements. Thus, flexibility is highly appreciated.
Maintainability is somewhat similar to flexibility. While flexibility focuses on major functional extensibilities, maintainability is more about modification of the error and minor corrections. Often the ones who develop the software is not the one to maintain it. That’s why proper documentation is essential, which includes interface definitions, code documentation, and more. The quality of software documentation affects the maintainability of the product.
7. Portability
You can’t ignore the fact that the portability of software is important. Software portability is the usability of the software in different configurations. Portability is vital for many reasons.
Good software mainly has a lifetime of 15 years, whereas hardware is continuously upgraded and changed every four to five years. Thus, a sign of excellent software is that it can be implemented on three or more different hardware configurations over its lifetime.
Besides, you should know that porting software to a new environment is comparatively less expensive than developing analogous software from scratch. It’s safe to say that portability is a crucial factor when it comes to development cost reduction.
Bottom Line
Software developers are becoming much more knowledgeable when it comes to design, and that means the above characteristics aren’t hard to find in an excellent product nowadays. However, there are still many developers learning the ropes who are yet to master the programming languages they use. It simply depends upon the quality of resources that one uses to provide an excellent software product. So, make sure you have the best quality resources to develop your software to come out as a unique product in the market.
A Digital marketing expert with a passion for all things digital. With a wealth of experience in the field, can excel at crafting and executing data-driven marketing strategies that drive results. Also, loves to travel and explore new things.
