It's also true that "apart from the programmer's labor cost and some necessary hardware support, there seems to be little money to spend". Because the basic cost of developing software alone is the cost of research and development manpower and hardware. For example, some programmers will develop a small software for their own entertainment, and the cost will not be too high. (But it still takes a lot of effort, but the cost of software in a relatively mature market is not that high. )
However, once the software needs to be made public for more people to use, such as the software independently developed by the IT department of an enterprise, practicality must be considered. At this time, the workload of programmers will increase greatly, and it is not just the IT department involved. Independent research and development software is still the case, not to mention software that wants to go to the market to serve more people.
The following is a concrete comparison of the differences between the three:
1) When an independent programmer wants to develop a software according to his own ideas:
1? 32) When an enterprise chooses to develop software independently, it will generally go through the following steps:
This involves several costs:
1, personnel cost: independent research and development of a new software is not a simple code stacking, the process needs to involve the product owner, visual/interactive designers, R&D personnel, testers, and finally release and let all employees install the APP for use;
2. Time cost: It usually takes a long time for a software to go online from scratch. When the business personnel waited for half a year and found that the product was finally developed, the business requirements changed, the labor results of R&D personnel were invalidated and restarted, and the development time was prolonged again.
3. Maintenance cost: The strength of the developer and the experience of the team project will directly affect the subsequent maintenance iteration. Teams that independently develop enterprise software are often inexperienced, and the later complex improvement and maintenance are almost doomed at the beginning of the project, not to mention the secondary development task brought by the constantly updated demand.
The above costs are borne by a single enterprise, and the cost of this software use mode is very high. (Unless the enterprise makes a software that is difficult to use casually)
3) When the developed software faces the whole market, it will generally go through the following steps:
Compared with independent software research and development, market-oriented software needs to be tested by the market, which requires higher innovation and practicality of products. Every step of product development needs to be more detailed, and the software functions are constantly updated and improved. Every position requires professional responsibility. Therefore, in addition to R&D personnel, there are also product managers, testers, UI designers, visual designers, marketing, operations, technical support, implementation consultants and other positions, and the labor cost has increased significantly.
However, this kind of software is innovative and practical, and it has been tested by the market and met the needs of most people. So the cost is shared, and the price of many softwares is actually not high (even many softwares are used for free, and the cost is recovered by other means, such as advertising and advanced services). On the contrary, the cost of the second kind of software specially developed for enterprises is borne by the enterprises themselves, and the cost is much higher.