What is Software Development Life Cycle and why is it important?
The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a process-driven methodology that is used throughout the development of a software product and is an essential part of the development process. SDLC is a methodical procedure that ensures that software built meets the highest quality standards while also providing high accuracy that meets customers needs.
SDLC promotes efficient planning, building, and maintaining software products. Each SDLC phase comprises of unique set of processes and deliverables that are transferred to the next phase.
The phases of SDLC play very vital roles and therefore is of great importance in software development. These phases are as follows: project planning, time scheduling, budget estimation, standard set of activities and deliverables, project tracking, risk mitigation, post deployment, and maintenance support.
There are 7 phases of SDLC:
- Planning
- Requirement analysis
- Software design
- Software development
- Testing
- Deployment
- Maintenance
Each phase is described as follows:
Planning
The goal of this step is to determine the scope of both business and client problems, as well as solutions, resources, costs, time, and process to resolve them.
Requirements Gathering
It is the stage at which teams consider the project’s functional requirements. The team conduct problem analysis and analyze end-user requirements to ensure that the new system meets their expectations. All requirements are formalized in a collaborative document between the software development team and client.
Design
The design phase of software development has the primary goal of translating requirements into software design. This stage entails designing the entire app and its components.
Development
This phase aims to convert approved designs into a consistent working system that meets all of the requirements identified earlier in the life cycle. The development phase brings software design to functional life.
Testing
As long as there are no bugs and the software satisfies all requirements, quality assurance and testing process continues to help the project get finished successfully.
Deployment
The sixth phase starts once the software testing phase is finished and the system is free of all bugs and errors. The software’s functionality in a live setting is the aim of this phase. This stage includes the installation of the newly developed system in a live environment.
Maintenance and Support
Maintenance and ongoing updates make up the final stage. If clients want to, they get support for further advancements, better performance and additional functionalities.
Conclusion
Following comprehensive plans based on different phases of software development life cycle results in on-time delivery of successful software products and services reducing risk factors and promoting procedural workflows.
