Aim: Phases in software development project, overview.
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a process used by the software
industry to design, develop and test high quality software’s. The SDLC aims to
produce a high-quality software that meets or exceeds customer expectations,
reaches completion within times and cost estimates.
Stage 1: Planning and Requirement Analysis:-
Stage 2: Defining Requirements:-
Stage 3: Designing the Product Architecture:-
Stage 4: Building or Developing the Product:-
Stage 5: Testing the Product:-
Stage 6: Deployment in the Market and Maintenance:-
SDLC Models:-
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a process used by the software
industry to design, develop and test high quality software’s. The SDLC aims to
produce a high-quality software that meets or exceeds customer expectations,
reaches completion within times and cost estimates.
- SDLC is the acronym of Software Development Life Cycle.
- It is also called as Software Development Process.
- SDLC is a framework defining tasks performed at each step in the software development process.
What is SDLC?
SDLC is a process followed for a software project, within a software
organization. It consists of a detailed plan describing how to develop, maintain,
replace and alter or enhance specific software. The life cycle defines a
methodology for improving the quality of software and the overall development
process.
The following figure is a graphical representation of the various stages of a
typical SDLC.
Stage 1: Planning and Requirement Analysis:-
Requirement
analysis is the most important and fundamental stage in SDLC. It is performed
by the senior members of the team with inputs from the customer, the sales
department, market surveys and domain experts in the industry. This information
is then used to plan the basic project approach and to conduct product
feasibility study in the economical, operational and technical areas.
Planning for
the quality assurance requirements and identification of the risks associated
with the project is also done in the planning stage. The outcome of the
technical feasibility study is to define the various technical approaches that
can be followed to implement the project successfully with minimum risks.
Stage 2: Defining Requirements:-
Once the
requirement analysis is done the next step is to clearly define and document
the product requirements and get them approved from the customer or the market
analysts. This is done through an SRS
(Software Requirement Specification) document which consists of all
the product requirements to be designed and developed during the project life
cycle.
Stage 3: Designing the Product Architecture:-
SRS is the
reference for product architects to come out with the best architecture for the
product to be developed. Based on the requirements specified in SRS, usually more
than one design approach for the product architecture is proposed and
documented in a DDS - Design Document Specification.
This DDS is
reviewed by all the important stakeholders and based on various parameters as
risk assessment, product robustness, design modularity, budget and time
constraints, the best design approach is selected for the product.
A design
approach clearly defines all the architectural modules of the product along
with its communication and data flow representation with the external and third
party modules (if any). The internal design of all the modules of the proposed
architecture should be clearly defined with the minutest of the details in DDS.
Stage 4: Building or Developing the Product:-
In this stage
of SDLC the actual development starts and the product is built. The programming
code is generated as per DDS during this stage. If the design is performed in a
detailed and organized manner, code generation can be accomplished without much
hassle.
Developers
must follow the coding guidelines defined by their organization and programming
tools like compilers, interpreters, debuggers, etc. are used to generate the
code. Different high level programming languages such as C, C++, Pascal, Java
and PHP are used for coding. The programming language is chosen with respect to
the type of software being developed.
Stage 5: Testing the Product:-
This stage is
usually a subset of all the stages as in the modern SDLC models, the testing
activities are mostly involved in all the stages of SDLC. However, this stage
refers to the testing only stage of the product where product defects are
reported, tracked, fixed and retested, until the product reaches the quality
standards defined in the SRS.
Stage 6: Deployment in the Market and Maintenance:-
Once the
product is tested and ready to be deployed it is released formally in the
appropriate market. Sometimes product deployment happens in stages as per the
business strategy of that organization. The product may first be released in a
limited segment and tested in the real business environment (UAT- User
acceptance testing).
Then based on
the feedback, the product may be released as it is or with suggested
enhancements in the targeting market segment. After the product is released in
the market, its maintenance is done for the existing customer base.
SDLC Models:-
There are
various software development life cycle models defined and designed which are
followed during the software development process. These models are also
referred as Software Development Process Models". Each process model
follows a Series of steps unique to its type to ensure success in the process
of software development.
•
Waterfall
Model
•
Iterative
Model
•
Spiral
Model
•
V-Model
•
Big Bang
Model
•
Agile
Model
•
RAD Model
•
Rapid
Application Development and Prototyping Models
