I don’t know if this is the right forum, but I have an idea for a software program, and no ideas on how to create one. Where should I start in either looking for someone to do this for me, or is it something that can be reasonably learned in under a year? It would be a program I would want to sell…this is my great, “why didn’t I think of that” idea that will bring me fame and fortune (yeah, right!).
I’ve searched for an existing program, but there doesn’t seem to be one on the market. I want to fill this void. Any ideas on where to start?
In general, learning enough about software to create a marketable product in under a year would be a difficult thing. That said, depending on the complexity of the project and how much time and effort it’s going to be, you may be able to do it. Some Web apps and/or simple database apps (like what you could do with MS Access) are simple to learn.
However, any piece of software with any complexity at all will probably involve working with a professional programmer. If you’re really serious about developing this idea, the best way to get it to market is to hire a programmer. If you don’t have the cash, well, it’s hard to start up any business without cash. You may be able to find a coder who will work on a contract that stipulates payment only if and when the software sells. I just finished up a project I did on that plan. However, as the risk involved was high - I get no money for 3-4 months of work if the software doesn’t sell - the payment is also quite high. I also had to be convinced that this really was something that could sell. They convinced me, I did the work, now we’re all waiting to see if the thing pops.
I believe if you have the right development software and a good Programming book you can learn to produce complex working programs in well under a year. (I have Borland C++ Builder 6, which makes it very easy to create a windows application with little knowledge of C++)
There’s plenty of programmers on the boards, including yours truly. What needs to be done depends largely on what your program needs to do. It might be something one guy can do in a weekend, or it might take a team of several programmers several months to develop. Probably the first step you ought to take is to discuss it with someone who knows about such things, who you feel you can trust not to steal your idea, and get some ideas of the degree of complexity, what kind of research needs to be done, and in general whether your idea is feasible, or has been implemented in some form elsewhere.
I went to college for 2 years and Uni for 3, but in those 5 years I actually picked up programming in a very short time (Pascal, at College, within weeks. C++ at Uni, within weeks) and spent the rest of the time being bored mindless by all the other aspects of software development.
Using Borland Builder I can (or could, before I let my ‘skill’ get rusty) write a mini application to do something interesting (like an app to show a thumbnail view of all pictures in a directory) in one day. So I am confident that an ‘outsider’ could pick up enough programming knowledge to combine with a good Development app (in which the vast majority of the hard work or code is done for you) in months.
Well, here are some other tasks you’ll need to give some thought to. This is by no means a complete list, and you can safely assume that for every line item below, multiple books have been written on the topic. You’ll also note that I don’t even really mention legal aspects; that’s because legal is a mystery to me.
There are books on the software development process, so you may want to cruise the bookshelves at your local bookstore.
General:
Scheduling
Budgeting
Raising capital if you don’t already have it
Getting set up for taxes & other legal hoop-jumping
How are you going to survive while working on your product?
Where will the development take place physically? Will team members have easy access to each other?
How will you handle handoffs between team members?
How will you handle revisions to the product once it’s out the door?
How will you handle alpha and beta testing?
Team-building:
Sizing the project
Choosing the team (design, development, test, marketing, documentation, legal)
Choosing appropriate skillsets
Hiring appropriate numbers of people (you’ll want multiple team members if only to cross-check each others’ work)
Writing & reviewing contracts for people you hire
Marketing:
Marketing plan
Implementing the marketing plan
Package design
Designing & implementing a sales system
Manufacturing (burning CDs, printing documentation, shipping, etc.)
Product design:
Market research
Developing requirements, use cases, etc.
Developing feature specifications
Reviewing requirements, specifications, etc.
UI & graphic design
Usability evaluations
Accessibility reviews
Localization
Development:
Dev architecture
Dev design specs
Building the dev environment, source control, etc.
Architecture & spec reviews
Coding, code reviews, self-test
Documentation:
Doc plans
Building the doc management system, source control, etc.
Writing the actual docs (hard copy? online? web-based?)
Doc reviews
How will you handle updates to docs?
Test:
Test plans
Test specs
Building the test environment
Plan & spec reviews
Implementing a bug tracking system
Running the actual tests
Hunter Hawk I don’t mean to argue but I think that’s overkill for one idea that one person may want to sell, possibly as limited shareware. It sounds like the OP wants to create something that would be a one-programmer task and might be sold relatively informally.
I think we need more specific info from the OP though. I am thinking it’s something small and shareware. You are thinking the OP wants to create the next MS Word!
Hunter Hawk gives some good advice. Based on my own experience, I want to tell you that one of the most important things is marketing. If you have no marketing outlet, you really will not be successful.
Generally, if your idea is good, you can probably find a programmer to do it for you for sweat equity. Most programmers I know love to develop, and do it on their own time as well as at work. Many of them have an entrepreneurial (sp) spirit and would love to team up with somone.
If you would like, you may email me and I’ll try to give you a candid view of difficult it would be to develop and also my opinion of its market potential.
Lobsang, I’m a huge fan of Borland Builder - what the heck is Borland doing? I’m disappointed with their direction.
Yeah, it’s hard to tell from the OP, which is why I have “sizing the project” as one of the items. But kittenblue would still need to give some thought to all (or almost all) of those things even for a small project–the issues will scale up in size and complexity for large projects, but that doesn’t mean they’ll go away for small ones.
Yes, I was thinking small and mundane, and possibly shareware, but who knows. I have a teenager who is studying C++, but I also have a few programmer friends. This would probably be the best way for me to go. There are many software programs out there on the market that do similar things…they will do A,B,C,D and E…but I want to create one that does A, C, D, F, G & H…B and E are just a waste of time. Thanks for the advice, all of you. If I have more questions, I’ll let you know.
My research was that less than 4% of people pay for shareware. My experience was less than 1%. We had huge downloads the first few weeks - over 700 the first night. We never saw 1000 dollars total as shareware.
I do not recommend shareware, unless you love to program and do it for the fun of it.