Almost every developer, at some point, would have been involved with monolithic software releases, with persistent bugs and interdependencies. The entire team would have to put a lot of effort into the release to ensure that there are no setbacks. This practice in the software development Dubai industry is also the reason why software tend to require a lot of patches once it goes out to production. 

If the company doesn’t adhere to best practices and standards to make the release seamless and smooth, the project would be delayed which in turn will negatively affect the company’s reputation. A good solution is to go Agile and automate the deployment while ensuring collaboration between the development and operations team right from the beginning. Continuous integration and continuous deployment will help address defects as soon as they are identified. 

That said, here are a few secrets to a better software release cycle shared by a leading software development company in UAE. 

Go for a modular architecture

It’s best to release any software program easily and frequently i.e. the release should come naturally in the cycle. For a company leveraging Agile methodology, the best approach to making the release part of their culture is to build a modular architecture. Instead of going for one big application, they should modularize it into various parts. 

The modularization would allow the team to group similar features into smaller applications or components. On top of this, there should be API contracts between the components and the application. API testing can be automated to ensure compatibility and minimize risks in the release. Essentially, the practice makes release cycles much simpler and less complicated. 

Ensure collaboration

Effective software development requires involvement of and collaboration between every department from product management to operations. One team may have to empower and inform other teams. For instance, the development team may have to clarify the context for the operations team, say in making the bill of materials for each release. The testing team may have to work with the development team to rectify a persistent issue or tweak the code to provide better functionalities. The operations team can work with other teams to rectify issues that arise in production. Such collaboration would ensure fewer bugs on release.

Automate the release

To effectively improve the release culture, automating the release is key. Companies should at least automate the release to a staging environment. They can follow up by automating production deploys next. The practice complements frequent release cycles, while also ensuring shorter testing times. 

Conclusion

Almost all companies offering business technology advisory services recommend liberally using automation in the SDLC. This also allows the team to focus more on core tasks and innovate. Making releases natural can make a huge difference in how a software development company operates, making it easier for them to get code out to production.