Software Development Life Cycle
In systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, the systems development life cycle, also referred to as the application development life-cycle, is a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an information system / software application.
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a series of crucial phases defined for teams producing and delivering high-quality software.
Understanding SDLC allows teams to avoid issues by creating and owning checks and balances early in the development and delivery life cycle. This includes incorporating feedback and insights during the software development process to continuously deliver value in a repeatable, quick, and sustained fashion.
Each phase of the SDLC corresponds to a role or responsibility that contributors to the software must understand, manage, and optimise to deliver their software services optimally.
These stages include:
1. Requirements Gathering
2. Software Design
3. Software Development
4. Testing & Integration
5. Code Amendments & Re-testing
6. Deployment
7. Training and Go-Live
8. Post go-live support
1. Requirements Gathering
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In this stage the team will gather the customers’ requirements, issues and expectations related to the software application or service.
Other activities related to this phase can involve creating a detailed plan, software specifications, documentation, project planning and resourcing.
2. Software Design
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In the software design phase the team will make software design decisions around the architecture and technology to be used. This involves creating design documents, coding guidelines and frameworks that will help the team develop the best solution to meet the software requirement specification and customer goals.
3. Software Development
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In this stage the teams build and package the software. Decision making and support is provided by a Technical Lead Consultant and maybe also a Product Manager or Project Manager throughout. This will enable the development team to quickly adapt to new technologies and resolve any unexpected challenges.
4. Testing & Integration
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In this stage the new software is tested for quality and performance. This includes unit testing, end-to-end testing, and user acceptance testing. If any issues or bugs are identified in this stage, they are reported back to the Project Manager and development team.
5. Code Amendments & Re-testing
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If any issues or bugs are reported in the test phase, they are sent back to development to rectify. Once the problems are fixed, those areas are re-tested.
6. Deployment
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Once the software is tested and signed off, the software is deployed into a production environment. All the requirements, design, build and testing information is documented and a copy of this is saved by the development team for future support and development, and a copy is provided to the customer.
7. Training and Go-Live
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Once the solution has been tested, deployed and documented, the final stages are to train users on how to use the new product and go-live. Go-live is the point in time when the users start using the new application.
8. Post go-live support
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Depending on the complexity of the product, it may be important to monitor the performance of the product, environments, and networks to ensure ongoing optimal performance. This process will involve incident management and resolution of any issues or changes made to impact a customer.
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