Software development (also known as application development, software design, designing software,software application development, enterprise application development, or platform development)^[1] is the development of a softwareproduct. The term "software development" may be used to refer to the activity of computer programming, which is the process of writing and maintaining the source code, but in a broader sense of the term it includes all that is involved between the conception of the desired software through to the final manifestation of the software, ideally in a planned and structured process.^[2] Therefore, software development may include research, new development, prototyping, modification, reuse, re-engineering, maintenance, or any other activities that result in software products.^[3]

Software can be developed for a variety of purposes, the three most common being to meet specific needs of a specific client/business (the case with custom software), to meet a perceived need of some set of potential users(the case with commercial and open source software), or for personal use (e.g. a scientist may write software to automate a mundane task). Embedded software