First Major Deployment

Question

I have built many c# programs over the last few years, and I'm confident I can get a program to do almost anything.

But up till now they have all been in-house programs where I have been around to watch over the installation and updates.

Someone has approached me to build a program to be sold, the program itself I know I can take care of, but is there anything I should be looking into before publishing a program for sale?

I'm thinking I must perform a security test, get a software licence? anyone know a good place for me to read up on this?

Answer 1

Number one issue: licensing. Check licenses of libraries you use, maybe some of them are for non commercial purposes.

Number two issue: installation package and user manuals. Everything you give to the client must be self explanatory, easy to understand and answer very silly questions (can I install it on drive D: because I have a drive D: with lotsa space, but your manual doesn't say anytinh about installing it on any other drive than C: ... etc.)

Number three issue: updates. How will you manage them? Automatic? User driven? Separate downloadable files?

Number four issue: your copyright.

Number five issue: protection of your copyright (protection from piracy, etc.).

Number six issue: if you sell internationally - check the law of that country regarding copyright, patents, security etc.

Number seven issue: make sure your software is secure, integral, fast, doesn't provide blue screens etc.

If you live in US or other country with software patents issues - make sure you don't use any copyrighted solutions (like one click shopping "feature", etc.).

I hope it's a good starter.

Answer 2

You are going to have to look at Deployment of .Net applications MSDN

Click Once might come in handy also.

And dont forget to put into place fail safes, stack traces etc ... so you can easily trace down bugs and solve them fast ...

Edit : updated with english link