Java application development process? (Step by step)

Dave!

Hey folks,

I'm wondering if anyone knows of a website that details the steps taken when developing a piece of software or an application of some sort?

For example, there's loads of these kinds of tutorials floating around for web design:

http://blog.jakerocheleau.com/2009/05/30/how-to-design-a-web-20-website-template-seller-photoshop-mockup/

Starting from scratch, someone gives you a brief, and you have to develop it.

For larger projects it's not feasible probably, but I'm sure for smaller ones it'd be quite handy to have the developer outline his thought process and so on?

In particular I'm looking for a java one as that's the language I'm trying to improve on I should also specify that I know there's plenty of tutorials that dissect the 'hello world' application, but I'm talking about something a bit more complex with several classes, etc.

Cheers

NeverSayDie

Well, that's a fairly "how long is a piece of string" question, and the answer really depends on what kind of project it is, what the business context is, who's doing it, how big the project is, etc, etc. That said, software engineering does involve various standard approaches and practises to try and get a handle on the process.

Very broadly speaking, you start by finding out the requirements for the project, then work out a specification for what the software/system needs to do, then design an architecture that will support that, then implement it (that's where the Java/XYZ comes in), then test it, then deploy it, then spend the rest of your days maintaining, supporting and bug fixing. Keep in mind that it's not a rigid series of steps - requirements can and will change mid-way through the implementation, or your architecture turns out to be too inflexible, or performance problems cause a partial redesign, etc etc.

A few links and books that might offer some insight;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_development_process
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mythical-Month-Essays-Software-Engineering/dp/0201835959
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Software-Engineering-Practitioners-Roger-Pressman/dp/0071267824

Don't worry too much about the Java part, the language is fairly irrelevant at that stage of the process (not to say you mightn't pick a particular language, but it probably won't affect the design all that much).

If you're looking for a step-by-step guide to software projects like that template tutorial you linked to, you're not going to find one. There's a reason software engineers and project managers are paid reasonably well

Dave!

Thanks for the post

There is plenty of open-source software out there though, so it's quite possible some kind soul has decided to put up a step by step guide of some application or other !

I'll check out those links, cheers

NeverSayDie

Hmm, I may have misinterpreted your post a bit - if you're mostly just looking for material on building software, not software development projects as a whole, I'd google for material on "object oriented design" or "design patterns", that may help. The book "Code Complete", or ones on UML, might also be of interest.

It's still largely something you pick up from experience though, every non-trivial piece of software is going to be a bit different, and there's a fair bit of skill to designing the structure of them.

NeverSayDie

Dave! wrote: »

Thanks for the post

There is plenty of open-source software out there though, so it's quite possible some kind soul has decided to put up a step by step guide of some application or other !

I'll check out those links, cheers

Well, the problem is it's only really a step-by-step process to extent I outlined the activities involved above. You can apply things like design patterns and practises to standardise architectural components a bit, and use things like UML to communicate your designs in a standard way, but it really isn't something you can list detailed steps for any random project. It's as much art as science I reckon, and every project is different.