Custom-made Software
| Opening |
| Software can be either made to satisfy needs of large number of consumers and then mass-marketed or made on request of specialised customer with very specific needs. The second type mentioned is usually called as custom-made software and typical features are that it is very specialised, often expensive and useful for only limited group of users. |
| Software Life-Cycle |
Every software has a limited "life expactancy", since sooner or later it becomes obsolete and stops being used. Therefore we speak about the software life-cycle which extends from the initial planning to create the software to its coming out of use. During the life-cycle the software goes through several phases that may differ, but are quite common to the majority of software pieces. The most important and common phases are:
1) Initial phase - includes initial planning, contract conclusion etc.
2) Software development phase
3) Distribution phase
4) Utilisation and maintenance phase - no software is usually distributed in bug-free form and can hardly function properly for a long time in ever changing software enviroinment. Therefore some maintenance is always needed to ensure a suitable usability of the software.
Wikipedia article on ISO 12207, which is an ISO standard for software lifecycle processes.
| Custom-made Software |
There may be various legal relationships giving an impulse to the custom-made software creation. These relationships would be either bilateral or multilateral. There would always participate a developer on one side and a party that has some interest in creating the software (e. g. use it, make profit through it). The relationship would often be created through the written contract that may be called e. g. "Software Development Contract". Since the custom-made software tends to be quite specialised and more expensive then the generic software it is often vital to construct very detailed and precise contract that should cover various aspects of the software life-cycle.