Software Delivery Simplified | All You Need to Know

Anyone who has ever been involved in software development understands just how challenging it can be to deliver quality products on time. 

The proper software delivery practices will smooth your workflow, reduce errors, and align your team's efforts with the business objectives.

We'll help you get started. 

We're discussing everything related to software delivery, from basics to leveraging automation in your CI/CD pipelines. 

Together, these aim to make every deployment quicker, more reliable, and scalable.

Such practices helped the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), for instance, achieve a 51% faster delivery. But more about them in a second. 

Let's first begin with this question:

What Is Software Delivery?

Software delivery is the process of planning, developing, testing, and deploying software applications to end-users. Effective software delivery means integrating continuous integration, coding, and testing while also considering customer expectations and your company's goals.

Why Does Software Delivery Matter?

Good software delivery has a slew of interconnected advantages.

• Efficient delivery: You must streamline the entire software delivery lifecycle for quicker delivery times. Agile development practices lead to swift feature enhancements if coupled with continuous deployment. Besides, you’ll have real-time feedback to ensure your software product will meet all customers' demands in record time.

↓ This leads to:

• You can meet market demands better: Let’s say your team has a slower, unimproved software delivery process. The result is longer release cycles, more rework, and difficulty scaling your operations to meet growing customer demands. Conversely, streamlining your software management means better delivery of high-quality software products.

↓ This leads to:

• Higher customer satisfaction and competitive advantage: A smoothly running software delivery process skyrockets customer satisfaction. Quality releases assure more reliable products. Moreover, speeding up time to market gives companies with effective delivery pipelines a competitive advantage.

BDC, which we mentioned earlier, did all that. In three months with Axify, they reduced pre-development activities by up to 74% and quality control by up to 81%.

For them, this meant a 51% faster delivery time and, more importantly, $700,000 in recurring productivity gains annually.

Stages of Software Delivery Pipeline

1. Planning and Gathering Requirements

The first step is significant because it covers customer requirements to define a project's scope. In this stage, you’ll seek input from key stakeholders such as business analysts, project managers, and potential end-users. 

Remember: A clear explanation and understanding of all the business objectives precede software development. 

A well-defined project scope prevents scope creep and helps the project align with customer needs. Moreover, it provides a concrete basis for adequate resource allocations throughout the project life cycle.

2. Development

After the planning phase, developers begin to code and create the core functionalities of the software product. If you’re following an Agile approach, your development team will: 

• Break down the project into smaller, manageable tasks. 
• Write clean and efficient code. 
• Implement features in line with customer expectations. 

Unit tests are prevalent at this stage, where any code is tested for correctness to minimize the number of bugs afterward.

3. Integration

This is when individual pieces of code written by different team members are combined into one fully functional system. In this stage, most teams use version control systems and tools to manage code changes and minimize integration errors.

Continuous integration ensures the new code works with the rest of the system by the end. This phase is essential for the early detection of issues, thus accelerating bug clearing and making releases smoother.

However, most teams have testing as a separate phase. That brings us to the next point.

4. Testing

The testing phase in software entails checking that your software is high-quality and reliable. 

However, as suggested above, you don’t necessarily need a separate stage. Automated integration testing and unit testing help you find problems much faster. 

When you do extensive testing at each stage of the development process, you can find bugs earlier. The point is to increase your velocity, speed up delivery time, and improve flow efficiency. Plus, you’ll reduce the chances of failure when the code is deployed. 

5. Deployment

Deployment is when the software is released into the production environment for real-world use. 
This stage requires careful planning. For example, to minimize risks, you need to assess different deployment strategies, such as phased rollouts or blue-green deployments.

6. Monitoring and Feedback

After deployment, you must monitor the production environment to ensure the software is acting accordingly. 

You’ll need to: 

• Track key metrics such as response time, uptime, and user interactions to identify potential performance issues or areas for improvement. 
• Gather feedback from real users to refine your software. Notice patterns in feedback in terms of problems people have. This will help you add specific features or address certain bugs. 

Customer satisfaction is like your North Star, guiding the next iteration of the development process and feeding your continuous improvement efforts.

Fundamental Principles of Software Delivery

Collaboration

Successful software delivery relies heavily on the collaboration between various stakeholders. You’ll also need cross-functional teams of developers, testers, and operations personnel. 

Good team collaboration means: 

• Everyone is aligned with the project goals. 
• Any issues can be addressed quickly. 
• You have a culture of accountability and shared responsibility to meet delivery goals faster.

Iteration

Iterative development is a cornerstone of software delivery, especially if you’re taking an Agile approach. 

Your teams will build and improve the product incrementally. You will break down the software development process into smaller cycles so they can deliver features faster while also gathering feedback to refine future iterations. 

This iterative approach also allows teams to address performance bottlenecks more effectively by allowing them to concentrate on resolving specific issues in each cycle.

Quality Assurance

Continuous testing throughout the software delivery lifecycle ensures that each release meets high-quality standards. As we said above, you need a rigorous testing regimen, which includes both unit tests and integration tests, to find bugs early. That way, you can ensure the product is stable. 

But quality assurance is not just about catching bugs.

You’ll also need to ensure the software meets customer requirements and solves their subconscious needs. Reducing the risk of failure is one side of the coin; the other is maintaining your users' trust.

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement is a fundamental principle that you’ll also meet in Agile and DevOps best practices. The point is to implement regular feedback loops so your teams can analyze their performance. That way, you’ll find areas for improvement. 

After all, you want to drive efficiency and ensure your software evolves in line with customer needs and business goals. 

What Are Software Delivery Models?

Software delivery models define how your project moves from concept to deployment throughout your software development lifecycle.

The Waterfall Approach

The Waterfall approach is a linear approach to software delivery because each phase must be completed before the next begins. This model works if you have well-defined project requirements and little expected change. 

The main advantage is a structured, disciplined process with distinct planning, execution, and maintenance phases. However, a lack of flexibility usually leads to long timelines and difficulties adapting to changing customer needs.

The Agile Approach

The Agile model lets you be more flexible and complete tasks faster by breaking projects into smaller, manageable tasks that can be delivered within a sprint. These are completed iteratively, so you can make quick adjustments based on customer feedback and changing project requirements.

CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery)

CI/CD is a crucial component of the Agile and DevOps frameworks. 

We already mentioned the importance of automating code integration, testing, and deployment. Continuously merging and testing code from different developers results in faster releases, quicker feedback loops, and higher software quality.

Software Delivery Management + Best Practices 

Good software delivery management depends on following these steps.

1. Hire Skilled Teams

Building a balanced team means hiring software developers with diverse skills. You’ll need a mix of frontend and backend expertise, plus roles like QA testers and product owners who understand the entire software delivery lifecycle. 

• Start by identifying the core strengths you need for each distinct phase of development (planning, coding, testing, etc.). 
• Build a team with full-time developers, freelancers, and cross-functional roles to ensure you have the right expertise throughout the software development lifecycle.

2. Provide the Right Tools

Choosing the right tools is crucial, so start with your project requirements and workflows. 

For example, you may need version control systems to manage large codebases or automation tools to streamline repetitive tasks. 

For example, Axify integrates with many software development tools, providing real-time data to track performance.

3. Clear Goals and Expectations

Setting clear goals starts with aligning your project scope with your team's capabilities. Break down big-picture objectives into smaller, actionable goals you can track during daily standups. 

4. Choose the Right Delivery Method

Selecting the suitable delivery model depends on your business needs. The Waterfall model can work for structured projects with fixed requirements, but consider Agile if flexibility is vital. 

If unsure, run a small-scale pilot to see which method best fits your team’s workflow. Axify’s performance metrics can help you understand how different models affect your team’s workflow and delivery pipeline, giving you actionable insights on which method best aligns with your goals.

5. Rigorous Testing

Don’t just rely on testing at the end of your project; incorporate continuous testing throughout the development cycle. Remember that using tools like Selenium for automated browser testing or Postman for API tests can drastically improve the quality of your software. 

Besides, Axify’s real-time dashboards can help you monitor all engineering metrics to ensure that every phase of delivery meets high-quality standards.

6. Celebrate Milestones

Boosting morale through small wins makes a huge difference in long-term productivity. We suggest setting short-term goals that align with your project phases and celebrating their completion. 

Acknowledge the hard work through team shoutouts or small rewards, even if it's just completing a sprint. Recognizing these achievements will make retrospective meetings more engaging and keep your team focused on future milestones.

7. Be Flexible and Plan for Change

One thing we’ve learned is that change is inevitable. You should always build flexibility into your software delivery strategies. 

So, use tools like Jira that allow for adaptive project management. When unexpected changes arise, run a quick risk assessment to see how they’ll impact your delivery timeline and adapt accordingly. Flexible goals and processes mean fewer surprises and a smoother overall project flow.

8. Licensing Management

Proper licensing management protects intellectual property and secures software against piracy. Teams neglect this area, only to face serious compliance issues later. 

9. Software Delivery Methods

When choosing between on-premise, SaaS, or cloud-based delivery, consider your project’s security requirements, scalability, and budget. 

SaaS models offer flexibility and frequent updates, making them ideal for agile environments. On the other hand, on-premise solutions may be necessary for projects with strict data control needs. 

Conclusion: Benefits of Automation in Software Delivery

• Efficiency: Automation helps you speed up repetitive tasks. That way, your team has more time to focus on building better features. Therefore, you can increase output while maintaining high customer satisfaction.
• Consistency: Automation ensures that each deployment follows the same process every time, reducing variability. This leads to smoother, more predictable releases.
• Scalability: Automating processes allows your team to manage larger data volumes and handle growing software applications without bottlenecks. That way, you can stay on top of demand.
• Reduced human error: We all know manual interventions can lead to mistakes. Automating routine tasks minimizes these errors and ensures smoother deployments with no missed deadlines.

That’s why you need Axify.

Software delivery management has challenges: delays, misaligned goals, and bottlenecks. Axify helps you solve these problems by providing real-time insights into your engineering metrics. Use Axify to track progress, forecast delivery times, and streamline your process—all while ensuring your team stays aligned with your business goals.