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Difference and Relation between Software product and Software process
In this tutorial, we will learn about the difference, relation between a software product and a software process.
By Monika Sharma Last updated : April 04, 2023
An overview
Software product and Software process: These two words are the one which is mostly confused with each other. In this article, we are going to explain each of these in detail.
What is a software product?
The final software that is delivered to the customer is called the software product. It is the outcome of the entire software development process. It may include source code, data, user guides, reference manuals, installation manuals, specification documentation, other documentation, etc. The software product does not have any information regarding the software process, like how it was scheduled, how many people worked on it, how the work was divided, etc. It only consists of the final application that fulfills the user's requirements.
What is a software process?
The software process is the entire way in which we produce the software. It is the entire journey from the idea of the Software to the final release of it. It includes all the activities that are performed to the form the final Software product, like the requirement analysis, designing of the software, coding, testing, documentation, Maintenance, etc. Hence, the software product can also be defined as the collection of all the activities that as a result leads to the formation of the software product. The Software Product may not contain details about the software process, but the software process has every detail about the final product from the very initial phase itself that how the software would be like.
Relation between software product and software process
Of course, both of these, the software product and the software process are related to each other. An efficient process is very important to produce a good quality software product. If the software development process is weak, then the final product will undoubtedly suffer.
However, the software product is more dependent upon the software process. This can be understood in the following way: If we have a software product, then it would surely have its history which is the software process. But, the case is not the same with Software process. An ongoing software process doesn't need to lead to a final product. There are chances that some problems may occur in the projects development phase and it may be canceled. And if we take a look at the present software scenario, then this situation is seen in more than 60 percent of the cases.