What is a Software Development Life Cycle? Phases and Models

Software development life cycle (SDLC) is a methodical process that guarantees the quality and accuracy of the software built. The goal of the SDLC process is to create high-quality software that fulfills customer demands. The system development should be finished within the budgeted time frame. The SDLC consists of a comprehensive plan that outlines how to organize, create, and maintain particular software. Each stage of the Software development life cycle life cycle has a distinct process and outputs that feed into the following stage. The term “SDLC” (Software Development Life Cycle) is also used to refer to the process of developing an application.

How does the Software Development Life Cycle Works? 

The Software Development Life Cycle merely provides a list of all the steps necessary to construct a software application. This improves the effectiveness of the development process and lowers waste. Additionally, monitoring guarantees that the project remains on schedule and remains a viable investment for the business. Many businesses will divide these steps into more manageable sections. Technology research, marketing research, and a cost-benefit analysis are three types of planning that can be done. Other actions could combine with one another. Since developers must address testing-related errors, the Testing and Development phases can coexist.

Software Development Life Cycle Process

The SDLC process outlines the various steps involved in creating software to produce a high-quality end product. The stages of the SDLC cover the entire life cycle of a piece of software, from conception to retirement. Following the Software development life cycle process results in the software being developed in a methodical and controlled manner. Delivering a high-quality product that meets the needs of the customer is the goal of the Software development life cycle. Requirements gathering, designing, coding, testing, and maintenance are the phases that the Software development life cycle has identified. It’s critical to follow the phases if you want to deliver the Product in a methodical way. A team is divided to work on a particular product feature of software that needs to be developed, and they are free to do so. One developer chooses to design first, the other to code first, and the third to work on the documentation. This will result in project failure, so it is essential for team members to have good knowledge and understanding of each other’s roles in order to deliver the desired outcome.

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The Seven Phases of the Software development life cycle

1. Planning

Project managers assess the project’s terms during the planning phase. This entails estimating labor and material costs, developing a schedule with specific deadlines, and establishing the project’s teams and organizational structure. Including stakeholder feedback in planning is also possible. Anyone who stands to gain from the application is considered a stakeholder. Try to solicit opinions from prospective clients, programmers, industry professionals, and sales representatives. Planning should distinctly outline the application’s scope and goal. It charts the team’s course and provides everything they need to successfully create the software. Additionally, it establishes limitations to prevent the project from escalating or deviating from its original objective.

2. Define Requirements

To determine what the application is intended to do and its requirements, defining requirements is considered to be a part of planning. For instance, a social media app would need to allow users to connect with friends. A search function might be necessary for an inventory program. Determining the resources required to complete the project is another aspect of the requirements. For instance, a group might create software to manage a machine for custom manufacturing. The machine is necessary for the procedure.

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3. Design and Prototyping

The design stage creates a working model of the software program. The design features a few things, such as:

Programming language, industry standards, general design, and the use of any templates or boilerplate are all specified in the architecture.
Customer interaction with the software and how it responds to input are defined by the user interface. Platforms – Specifies the operating systems and hardware that the software will run on, including Apple, Android, Linux, Windows versions, and even gaming consoles.
Programming includes techniques for resolving issues and carrying out tasks in the application, in addition to the programming language itself. Security – Describes the steps taken to secure the application, which may include password protection, SSL traffic encryption, and secure user credential storage.
Communications – Specifies the channels through which the application can talk to other resources, like the main server or other instances of the application. A step in the design process that includes prototyping. In the iterative software development model, a prototype is comparable to one of the early software versions. It gives a fundamental idea of how the application looks and functions. Stakeholders can see this “hands-on” design. Utilize comments to enhance the application. Prototyping changes are less expensive to implement than rewriting existing code to implement changes in the Development phase.

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4. Software Development

This is the actual program writing. A small project might be written by just one developer, whereas a big project might be divided into several teams and worked on by them all. Use a source code management or access control application during this stage. These tools aid programmers in keeping track of code modifications. They also support ensuring that various team projects are compatible with one another and ensuring that objectives are met. Besides coding, there are numerous other tasks involved. A lot of developers need to work in teams or brush up on their skills. It’s crucial to identify and correct errors and glitches. The development process is frequently slowed down by tasks like compiling code to run an application or waiting for test results. Software development life cycle is able to predict these delays.

Instructions and explanations are appreciated by software developers. A user manual for the application is one example of formal documentation. Additionally, it can be casual, such as comments in the source code that describe why a developer employed a specific technique. The documentation is useful for all businesses, even those that aim to make software that is simple and intuitive. A brief overview of the essential features of the application that appear upon the first launch can serve as documentation. Video tutorials for difficult tasks are one option. Users can find answers to technical questions or problems by consulting written documentation such as user manuals, troubleshooting guides, and FAQs.

5. Testing

Before making an application accessible to users, testing is essential. Security testing is one area of testing that can be automated. For complex deployments, create a simulated production environment since another testing is only possible in a given environment. Each function should be tested to make sure it operates properly. Performance tests should be conducted on various components of the application to eliminate any processing hangs or lags. The testing phase of sdlc assists in lowering the number of bugs and hiccups users experience. Higher user satisfaction and a better usage rate are the results of this.

6. Deployment

Users can access the application during the deployment phase. The deployment phase is often automated by businesses. A payment portal and download link on the business website could suffice. Another option is to download an app to a smartphone. Deployment can be difficult as well. One illustration is switching from a previously developed application to a company-wide database. The database uses a number of other systems, so integrating the upgrade might take more time and effort.

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7. Operations and Maintenance

The development cycle is nearly complete at this point. The program is finished and in use in the field. However, the Operation and Maintenance phase is still crucial. Users find bugs in this stage that weren’t found during testing. These mistakes must be fixed, which may lead to new development cycles. Future releases of software that uses iterative development models will include more features in addition to bug fixes. A new Development Cycle can start for every new release.

Software Development Life Cycle Models

Waterfall model in Software development life cycle

The waterfall model of the Software development life cycle is widely used. This method divides the entire software development process into different Software development life cycle phases. The results of one phase serve as the input for the following one in this Software development life cycle model. This Software development life cycle model requires a lot of documentation because earlier phases outline the tasks that must be completed in later phases.

First, requirements are gathered and analyzed. Only after the requirements have been set in stone can system design begin. The SRS document produced in this case serves as both an input and an output for the System Design phase. Documents that serve as input for the following phase—implementation and coding—are created during the system design and software architecture phases.
Coding is completed in the implementation phase, and the software created serves as the input for the testing phase of sdlc that follows. The developed code is thoroughly tested during the testing phase to find any software flaws. When a defect is fixed, it is retested and entered into the defect tracking tool.

Incremental Model in Software development life cycle

There is no distinct model from the incremental model. In essence, it consists of waterfall cycles. At the beginning of the project, the requirements are split into groups. The Software development life cycle model is applied to the software development process for each group. Every release adds more functionality as the Software development life cycle life cycle is repeated until all requirements are met. Every cycle in this method serves as the upkeep phase for the previous software release. The incremental model has been modified to allow for overlapping development cycles. After that, the following cycle might start before the previous one is finished.

The feature that will be developed in the iteration is chosen and put into practice. Phases such as requirement analysis, design, coding, and testing are completed during each iteration. Iterations do not require extensive planning. After each iteration is finished, a product is verified and sent to the client for review and feedback. The newly added feature is combined with customer feedback in the following iteration. As a result, the product gains features as iterations progress, and the final build contains all of the product’s features.

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V-Model in Software development life cycle

Testing and development are planned concurrently in this type of Software development life cycle model. Therefore, the Software development life cycle validation phase is on the other side from the verification phases. By the coding phase, V-Model joins.

Agile Model in Software development life cycle

Agile methodology is a technique that encourages ongoing communication between developers and testers throughout the Software development life cycle process of any project. The entire project is broken up into manageable incremental builds when using the Agile methodology. Each iteration of these builds lasts one to three weeks, and they are all offered in iterations.

Spiral Model

A process model driven by risk is the spiral model. The team can adopt components from one or more process models, such as waterfall, incremental, or waterfall, by using this Software development life cycle testing model. The waterfall model and the best elements of the prototyping model are combined in this model. Rapid prototyping and concurrent design and development tasks are combined in the spiral methodology.

Big bang model

The big bang approach to software development and coding emphasizes all available resources with little to no planning. When necessary, the requirements are recognized and carried out. This model functions best when a small development team is working on a project together. It is also helpful for software development projects in the classroom. In an ideal scenario, neither the requirements nor the anticipated release date is known.

Summary

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a methodical approach to creating software that ensures its accuracy and quality.
Software Development Life Cycle or Systems Development Life Cycle is the full form of SDLC. In software engineering, the Software development life cycle provides a framework for a common set of tasks and outputs. The phase of requirement analysis is carried out by the senior team members. Feasibility Everything that needs to be designed and developed during the project life cycle is included in the study stage. The system and software design documents are created during the design phase of sdlc in accordance with the requirement specification document. Developers begin creating the entire system during the coding phase by writing code in the programming language of their choice. The application is tested in the following phase to ensure that it functions as intended by the customer.

When the software testing phase of sdlc is complete and there are no bugs or errors left in the system, installation and deployment can start. The maintenance facet includes engagement, upgrade, and bug-fixing activities. Some of the most widely used Software development life cycle models in software engineering include Waterfall, Incremental, Agile, V model, Spiral, and Big Bang. Software testing’s Software development life cycle consists of a thorough plan that outlines how to organize, create, and maintain particular software. If you are interested to learn new coding skills, the Entri app will help you to acquire them very easily. Entri app is following a structural study plan so that the students can learn very easily. If you don’t have a coding background, it won’t be a problem. You can download the Entri app from the google play store and enroll in your favorite course.

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