How to Develop a School Management System Software: What is this Article About?

In today’s tutorial, you’ll discover all you need to know about how to develop school management system software. We will look at the major reasons why you should design school administration software and how the main stakeholders – mainly professors, students, parents, and schools themselves – would profit from such a system. In addition, we will look at the issues you must consider before the development stage, as well as what it looks like and what stages it takes.

Interested? Keep on reading. 

What is a School Management System Software?

Because of the pandemic and worldwide digitalization, schools have been forced to develop an entirely new system of educational process management that would simplify schedules, online home-school books, and so on and provide a solid foundation for e-learning. And in this post, we’ll show you how to develop school management system software for a school administration system.

School management software attempts to make educational and administrative duties easier to manage. It enables schools to track daily school activities from a single platform. Such software automates and optimizes instructors’ workloads, simplifies enrollment processes, and allows teachers and parents to track children’s academic progress.

A school management system, from a technological standpoint, is a piece of software that employs numerous CRM technologies, such as central data storage, data collecting and analysis, central data management, and tracking of all registered users.

This program handles information on students, such as personal data, grades, attendance, and so on, as well as information about teachers’ learning plans and learning materials, curriculum, administrative information, and so on. School management software provides a variety of features, such as video conferencing, planners, attendance monitoring, and evaluation choices for teachers.

School Management System Software: Trends and Statistics

Before you learn how to develop school management system software, let’s look at some statistics. The market of school management software is anticipated to be worth $41B by 2028. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2025, 90 percent of all public schools will provide a combination of in-person and online instruction.

What’s more, the market of school management systems is expected to reach a CAGR of 13.5% by 2026. This growth is majorly triggered by increased digitization in the education domain, inclination towards e-learning, and emphasis on enhancing the quality of education. 

Why Do You Need to Develop a School Management System Software?

RewiSoft Case: Studiously 

Your end-users – kids and teachers – will benefit greatly from the school management software.

Furthermore, because of this program, parents may monitor the learning process.

Finally, it enables schools to handle all school administration activities.

As a result, an increasing number of educational institutions require school administration software to assist their learning activities. And you can help them while also benefiting yourself.

Now, let’s take a look at some of the benefits you may provide when you learn how to develop school management system software. 

Reducing routine in the learning process

The world has changed a lot, and so has education. Lessons that were interesting in the last century don’t seem to work the same on modern students. As a result, teachers must come up with something fresh: new techniques, digitalization, gamification, and so on. This is one of the areas where school management software might be beneficial.

Automation of the learning process

There are many aspects in the learning process that make no sense in modern classrooms. Analog diaries, class journals, offline parent gatherings are just a few of them. With the aid of school management software, all of these factors can and should be digitized.

Transparency of the educational process

Putting more emphasis on learning process automation – makes the processes more visible. All of the grading, schedules and instructional resources are housed on a single platform that all members of the learning process may simply access. 

24/7 monitoring for parents:

Parents have 24/7 access to the platform and can see their children’s academic results when they want to. Apart from that, they can see the schedule of all the tests, etc. Another important aspect is that parents can see only their child’s marks, helping to avoid comparisons that can be very traumatic for children. 

Transparency of exams and tests

All stakeholders — students, professors, and parents – may access the exam schedule, subjects, and results thereafter.

Clarity of the whole educational process for students

With the help of school management software, students can see what they are expected to learn during the following term, when they will be assessed, etc. 

Improving student involvement in the learning process

Digitalization of learning processes and a combination of online and offline classes works wonders for the student’s engagement.

Improving data privacy:

All the data is stored within one highly secured platform. However, be certain that you work with a provider who understands how to design school management system software in a safe manner. Assess the data expertise of your partner-to-be and take a look at their data portfolio to make the right choice. 

Inventory monitoring

Schools typically have a lot of equipment for different subjects (e.g., maps and globes for geography, footballs for PE, etc.) All this equipment has to be accounted for, which is relatively easy with school management software. 

Convenient tool for communication

Such systems often have built-in messengers that greatly improve communication between students and teachers, as well as between teachers and school management.

Now, let’s discover how all these benefits can be achieved with a single platform. The answer is – the school management system consists of different components. What are they? Keep on reading and learn. 

How Does School Management System Software Work in Real Life?

The next step in the study of the question of how to develop school management system software will be the components of this system. School management software comprises five different components – educational, financial, employees, inventory, and task systems. Let’s take a closer look at them together. 

Educational system

This section focuses on the learning process itself. It is used to help students learn more efficiently, plan classes, and evaluate pupils for teachers.

Financial systems

This component is tackled by the school administration. It allows managing all the money flows that are active in school, calculating the needed sums of money, etc. 

Employee system

This component of the school management system is designed to measure staff performance. Each teacher and administrative worker should be aware of their KPI, as well as a day off and vacation balance. This is especially important for the transparency of all processes. 

Inventory system

As we mentioned above, schools have various equipment that has to be accounted for. So, this component of school management software is of prime importance when it comes to inventory management. 

Task system

Coming back to the transparency – all members of the learning process, as well as people that ensure the proper functioning of the schools, have to have a clear vision of what is expected from them and what is to be achieved. 

Now, let’s dive into the more technical part of this article and answer the question of why you should go for the development of school management software and not use out-of-box one. 

How to Develop a School Management System Software: Custom vs Ready-Made

Custom School Management System Software Development: Pros & Cons

We will not lie to you when talking about how to develop school management system software, telling you that it is impossible to have a somewhat successful solution using a ready-made solution. However, if you use the ready-made templates, you risk becoming one of the millions of similar learning platforms. And you want to be unique and authentic.

It is far more difficult to execute the needed functionality and a specific level of service quality with out-of-the-box solutions. So, it is a good idea to create a custom school management system.

Ready-Made School Management System Software: Pros & Cons

Custom platforms are more profitable. And here is why. Implementation of custom solutions provides you with the flexibility to choose the exact features you need. You get to choose your partner to work with based on your budget, timeline, and needs. So, it is a good idea to consider developing a custom solution.

However, there are some critical aspects you have to take into consideration when you develop school management software. So, how to develop school management system software successfully? Let’s discover together.

How to Develop School Management System Software Without Mistakes?

Only an experienced team of contractors

To create a school management system that has the potential to succeed, you need skilled professionals. Yes, effective project delivery takes teamwork. The development process requires: 

• software developers to work on code itself;
• designers to ensure your school management platform looks great;
• testers to take responsibility for the code quality;
• project manager to manage the tasks within the development process;
• business analyst to understand the market state and needs. 

Implement the system modularly

You don’t have to implement all the components of your system at once. Think what components are more important (typically, it’s the learning system itself) and implement them first. Remember – little goes a long way. 

Usability is very important

The system will be used by people of different generations. Make sure that you come up with the optimal functionality that will be understandable and logical for all of them. 

Conduct onboarding for all staff

Onboarding of school staff is of prime importance. You have to educate your users. If you fail to communicate clearly who you are and what you do with your product, your potential customer will find someone else.

Comply with legal requirements

Pay close attention to the legislation that concerns e-learning. 

Integration with third-party services

If you want to increase the popularity of your school management software, consider connecting it with third-party services such as Moodle, Kahoot, Trello, and even PayPal.

There will have to be an SDLC

Finally, as we will discuss later in this post, you should go through each stage of the software development lifecycle.

How to Develop School Management System Software: Must-Have Functionality

RewiSoft Case: Studiously

In this part of the how to develop school management system software guide, we will look at the essential features you should include in your school management system for instructors, students, parents, and school administration.

For teachers

• Online class journal;
• The ability to assign and check homework;
• Creating tests and exams;
• Video and chat with students or their parents;
• Evaluating students;
• Adding educational materials;

For students

• Schedule of lessons and exams;
• Availability of training materials within the platform;
• Curriculum;
• Handing in homework;
• Video calls and chats with teachers;
• Information dashboard;
• Online classes;

For parents

• Access to the marks of their children;
• Monitoring the child’s progress;
• Communication with the school;
• Tuition fees;
• Reporting;
• Parent meeting;

For school Management

• Financial and salary management;
• School inventory management;
• Creating new programs;
• Communication with employees;
• Online meetings;
• Statistics and reporting;
• HR.
  

What Do You Need to Know Before Developing a School Management System Software?

Here are the aspects that you need to clearly communicate with your vendor:

Select the required technical stack

• Programming language: School management systems can be developed in basically any programming language. However, make sure that your partner has profound knowledge in React.js and Node.js, as well as HTML, JavaScript or CSS;
• Experience in the development of e-learning platforms and ERP systems. You need to make sure your partner will ensure the delivery of a good product, reliable customer service, as well as product integration.

A complete development team is required

Your team for school management software development has to be strong and experienced. You definitely need professionals such as business analysts, designers, developers, DevOps experts, QAs, etc. 

This is not a quick process

As the development of such a system is a very comprehensive process, it takes time. How much? We answer this question later in the article. 

Software architecture is an important element

Due to the complex tech nature of school management software and the need to integrate different components there, you need to work hard on the software architecture. To succeed, you need to partner with a vendor that has top-notch professionals on board. 

How Can RewiSoft Help You With Software Development for Education

RewiSoft’s portfolio of educational software includes two main projects: Immerse and Studiously. Let’s take a closer look at them. 

Immerse partnered with us to improve the educational platform where students can learn directly from expert academics from world-class universities. Together with this client, our team improved the structure of the pages, reorganized the site navigation, rethought the structure and appearance of the homepage, and provided the most efficient way to enroll in the desired courses.

RewiSoft Case: Immerse

Studiously needed an online learning platform for university students where they will be able to test their skills and to prepare for the exams. We created an illustrative type of design for the website with a simple and intuitive user interface, where students are able to see their progress, a number of active subjects, completed items, the percentage of right/wrong answers across the platform, how many hours they spent, etc.

RewiSoft Case: Studiously

What’s more, for both these clients, we worked on the discovery phase, which involved requirement collection. During this phase, all the relevant information is collected from the customer to develop a product as per their expectation and requirements. 

After that, we continued to the architecture design stage. This stage of the software development life cycle involves designing the entire system and its elements, including the system’s architectural design and design of its components.

Using the documentation and architecture from previous steps, software developers write code for the components. The tasks are divided between the team members according to their area of specialization. Front-end developers are responsible for the client-side of the application. Back-end developers are responsible for API and database development. DevOps team working on the CI/CD process. QA engineers work on testing all delivered code and write automated tests for developed components.

After that we started the development and regression testing from the QA team. The tested version of the software is delivered for beta testing. Our team collects feedback from the users, fixes bugs, and implements improvements.

Let’s view the main stages of these collaborations in more detail.

How to Develop School Management System Software: Step-by-Step

We will break down the key stages of school management software development. Let’s take a look at them together in this how to develop school management system software guide. 

Point 1: Choose a reliable contractor

Your business success heavily depends on whom you choose to partner with. So, take your time to find a reliable provider to develop school management system software. Your partner should be able to create and scale your team promptly. 

Also, it is a good idea to assess the tech portfolio as well as testimonials of the vendor’s previous customers. You can find such information on directories (e.g., Clutch, the Manifest, FoodFirms, and others). 

Point 2: Describe your problems and What Needs to be Improved

After you have chosen a reliable contractor, you have to undergo eight stages on your way to school management system software development. 

You need to describe your idea clearly and communicate it to your vendor. It is a good idea to come to a vendor with clear requirements, references, do’s and don’ts. 

Point 3: BA and Product Discovery  

At this stage, RewiSoft professionals carefully research the market, conduct a competitor analysis, as well as the analysis of your target audience. These are the stages of business analysis. 

Also, during this stage, it is critical to identify business, users, and discovery goals, create user stories and customer journey maps. All these activities help to get through information on the product itself, the market it will operate on, its target audience, etc. 

Point 4: UX Design: Information Architecture and wireframe

Before this phase, make sure the goals of your UX design are clear. The key activities RewiSoft can help you with at this stage are:

• sketching your ideas;
• developing prototypes;
• gathering user input;
• make design decisions.

Based on the concept of the application and its design, we prepare a roadmap to start the UX design process. During this stage, we create the information architecture and wireframes.

Point 5: Testing

The testing stage allows bringing the prototype to a perfect state. There are three vital stages of testing: interview the focus groups, assessment research, and usability reports. 

Learn more about the stages of product design here. 

One of the bright examples of user experience testing is the Rewisoft UX Lab. The user in our lab gets a prototype.

Eye-tracking equipment captures how a user acts when interacting with the product. After that, the system displays the information, which allows comparing the data of actual use and analytics. Based on this, the product will be adjusted to boost its usability.

Point 6: UI Design: Design system and Usability

Consistency is the most critical aspect of the UI design stage. Rewisoft experts will ensure that all interface elements on your website will be of the same style, use your brand colors, and pick the fonts that will suit you the most. 

Point 7: Software Development Life Cycle

Point 7.1: Product Technical Documentation

During this stage, all the relevant information from the client is collected to develop a product as per expectations and requirements. The team should write technical documentation and choose technical stacks.

At this stage, the team should also define the requirements for functionality (requirements for the admin panel) and user roles (admin and super admin). The team should finalize the estimate and scope of work.

Typically you need professionals in such technology stacks – Node.js, React.js, .NET, Java, etc.

Point 7.2: School Software Development

Front-end developers are responsible for the client-side of the application. Back-end developers are accountable for API and database development. DevOps team working on the CI/CD process. QA engineers test all delivered code and write automated tests for developed components. 

Point 7.3: QA

QA engineers test all delivered code and perform manual testing for developed components.

Point 7.4: Deployment & Integration

After the development and regression testing from the QA team, the tested version of the software is delivered to the users for beta testing.

Point 7.5: Maintenance

After the deployment of a product in the production environment comes the maintenance stage. If any issue comes up and needs to be fixed, if something is to be improved – the development team is responsible for all these activities at this stage.

Point 8: Analyze user feedback

After the previous stage, you should gather the feedback of your end-users. Ask all the stakeholders: teachers, students, parents, and others what should be improved in the final product, what they have difficulties with. 

Point 9: Improve and develop

When you know what your users struggle with, regarding the functionality of your system, make sure to improve all those weak spots, and voila – you are one step closer to owning the best school management system software in the market. 

How to Develop School Management System Software: Cost and Timeline

Like any other field, the prices for school management system development vary among regions, as they heavily depend on the cost of living there. Apart from that, the price depends on the seniority level of the task performers, workload, the difficulty of a task, and a range of other factors. 

There are three most popular outsourcing destinations: Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Each of these locations has its peculiarities, and prices there are different. Let’s see how much does it cost to create a school management system with vendors from these destinations. 

School management system development cost: Eastern Europe

The cost to develop a school management system in Eastern Europe depends on the country of the region you choose. Yes, rates of developers in Ukraine are lower than those in Romania or Poland. The lower cost of living in the country is – the lower the rates are. So, we recommend taking the cost of living index by Numbeo to the account. 

Prices for school management system development based on seniority level in Eastern Europe

When it comes to the seniority level of the professionals, the rate of a junior mobile app developer is around $35 per hour, while hiring a senior will cost you about $50 per hour. 

Cost of school management system development: Asia

If you’re searching for a mobile app developer in Asia, rates here amount to $10-$15 for a junior mobile app developer and $20-30 for a senior mobile app developer. 

Although the rates in Asia are the lowest in the global labor market, the region lags behind others in terms of digital adoption and the quality of the Internet. These factors may hamper your cooperation with developers based in Asia. 

School management system development cost: Latin America

One of the key factors that drive businesses (mainly US-based) to outsource to Latin America is geographical proximity and little time difference. 

If you choose to hire a junior developer in Mexico, Argentina, or other Latin American countries, prepare to spend from $30 per hour for junior professionals to $50 per hour for senior developers.

Prices for software development by project size

Typically, we distinguish startup-, middle-, and enterprise-level projects according to their complexity. 

The cost to develop a software also depends on your project’s size. Small or startup-level projects require less time to develop, fewer professionals involved, and, thus, are less expensive. On average, startup-level projects take around 150 hours to develop. 

Average rates for software development per technology in different regions:

Average rates per technology:

Average rates for design:

You should also consider how long the school management system software development takes. We calculated how much time each stage of development will consume for different sizes of businesses:

Product discovery:

• Enterprises: 60-120 hours;
• Middle-size project: 30-60 hours;
• Small projects: 15-30 hours;

UI/UX design:

• Enterprises: 100-250 hours (UX), 200-300 hours (UI);
• Middle-size project: 60-100 hours (UX), 55-110 hours (UI);
• Small projects: 30-45 hours (UX), 25-50 (UI); 

Development:

• Enterprises: 20-50 hours (technical documentation), 250-500 hours (frontend), 300-600 hours (backend); 
• Middle-size projects: 12-25 hours (technical documentation), 120-200 hours (frontend), 130-210 hours (backend);
• Small projects: 8-10 hours (technical documentation), 70-90 hours (frontend), 80-100 hours (backend);

Quality Assurance:

• Enterprises: 80 hours;
• Middle-size projects: 40-80 hours;
• Small projects: 40 hours.

With this information, you can estimate the approximate development cost and timeline of your project.

Summary

How to develop school management system software successfully? It requires many stages and comes together with some challenges.

There are different aspects to consider. For instance, you have to test your idea, come up with the features set you would like to implement and gather a strong team. 

The team should unite the experts including developers, DevOps experts, QAs, business analysts. Also, when the system is ready, you have to streamline the process to work with different stakeholders, such as teachers, students, parents, and schools themselves. 

As far as the development process itself is concerned, you have to go through different stages. They are, for instance, writing project requirements, creating a business plan, undergoing product discovery, developing MVP, working on UI/UX design, and more. 

So, school management system development is a comprehensive process. This path, however, gets more manageable if you partner with a reliable provider. 

Good luck!