Industrial software development may be approached from different angles. At Codespring, the industrial software development category includes both software developed for specific industries and the wider B2B software development category.
The key criteria to define industrial software development are:
Scalability:
On all dimensions: administrative, functional, load, generation and heterogeneity.
Security:
Planned and managed across the entire SDLC to provide integrity, confidentiality and availability.
Architecture:
Intended to address scalability, change speed, integration and interoperability, resilience and robustness.
Data volume:
Generated throughout the analyzed industrial or business process and its users.
Standards:
Considered from both ways: industry specific standards and software development standards.
The Industrial Software Development Process
The industrial software development process per se, follows the key stages of any software development but has a few particularities. They outline the key differences of large scale, high availability and reliability software projects.
Business Analysis
It is the time to understand the domain area, its challenges, its distinct processes, that are often more complex. The team also tries to detect and analyze the interconnection between new and existing applications, continuing with analyzing the nature, type and volume of data transmitted between applications and systems. In the end, the overall constraints and restrictions will be investigated.
Proof of Concept
Due to the complexity and particularities of industrial software, the POC (proof of concept) is an essential part of the cycle. It will be built in order to support the feasibility of the proposed software solution and to isolate potential technical issues. The concept will be tested by all the parties concerned by this software solution.
Architecture Design & Specifications
In the context of industrial software development architecture will focus on meeting the requirements of reliability, availability and security. They are essential for delivering high quality industrial software solutions.
Development
The actual programming activity during the industrial software development process is a multi-stage journey. One distinct aspect is that the quality of the code must be guaranteed. On top of that, the development team must consider to create room for permanent improvements and new feature development.
Testing
Before releasing the software into the industrial plant or ecosystem, it will have to pass a set of tests that will prove its reliability, availability, integrity, effectiveness and usability. Specific to industrial applications are: user acceptance test and factory acceptance test. The testing will occur in environments that are very close to the reality because the customers want to make sure that the system will actually run accordingly in real context.
Deployment
Considering that industry and business environments are very different, the step of activating and installing the newly developed software is customizable depending on the customer. The complexity of the systems where the new software will be running dictate the type and stages of deployment. In the context of continuous delivery model, the continuous configuration automation and the possibility to execute customized configurations take the lead roles.
Maintenance & Support
As expected, complex or large software systems require effective maintenance and support. The team assigned for the process will work on a maintenance and support plan, while also taking into consideration potential errors, solicited modifications or optimizations agreed with the customer. For industrial software, maintenance and support is normally delivered for multiple years.
Challenges of Industrial Software Development
As presented along the full industrial software development life cycle, the field brings a set of major challenges for software development teams:
Reliability
The reliability of the software in real environment is decisive. The customers count on that the software always runs as it should and the users of the system always receive what is expected according to the specs.
Security
The security of software, hardware, systems, networks and data are top priority. The team must foresee potential threats and set the appropriate defense mechanisms. Due to the diversity of industries and businesses, security plans and procedures must be adjusted as needed.
System Constraints
The system constraints are inherent to industrial software development. Dealing with a wide array of equipment, devices and tools the engineering team will often investigate what are and what could be the memory, computation, transmission and connectivity capabilities of the system.
MVP (minimum viable product)
The MVP (minimum viable product) is both a challenge and an opportunity that creates room to test the software application or solution in the market. This practice has been embraced by many organizations in recent years, because most of the time the uncertainties related to the final solution or product is not derived from the technical side, but from the market side.
Complexity
The complexity of industrial systems sets the tone for any industrial software development project. From a high level point of view, It is important to understand that the industry specific engineering team must work and explain the software engineering team what needs automation and digitization. The deep dive into the industrial process with its exact workflows, input and output requirements is the foundation for building high performance software.
Why Industrial Software Development at Codespring?
Having a proven track record with developing software solutions for over fifteen industries, during more than two decades, we are proud to count Codespring team among the fittest providers of industrial software development in Europe.
23 years in the field: Yes! Codespring has been developing industrial software since its foundation in 1998 and it has grown as one of its core competencies.
Senior level expertise: The core software engineering team has constantly upgraded its technological skills and has set in place a system to guarantee the organic growth of the expert team. Be it a new industry or a new project in a known industry, we constantly build on our knowledge base.
Industrial software tool set: Building software at industrial scale requires not only the knowledge but also the tools to do so. Codespring’s industrial software tool set relies on three pillars: DevOps practices, technology stack and the training & mentoring program.
Reference projects: A customers referral worth more than a hundred arguments. We invite you to check our industrial software development references and ask about our working model.
Key industry verticals: Industry 4.0, logistics, building and construction, energy and power supply, home automation and appliances, media & entertainemnet, banking & finance, security & alert management.
Should all the above sound good to you, our team will be happy to analyze your industrial software development needs and discuss potential solutions.
The Industrial Software Development Know-How
The greatest asset of a software development team is its collective know-how. Having this beautiful history with industrial software development projects, Codespring team has the knowledge on how to accomplish complex systems. While working with us you will benefit of:
Increased process control over the industrial software development cycle, due to the experience in the field;
Quality assurance through high performance testing tools and procedures
Interdisciplinary work fluency since we have always been working with multiple discipline teams, departments and people from our customers organizations and business ecosystem.
DevOps intensive approach of the software development process
Proficient use of cloud/private technologies that are already an essential part of the new industrial model in the world.
Primarily, we consider that the best match happens when both parties acknowledge that the know-how of your industry experts will be exponentially strengthened by the know-how of our software development experts.
