What Is SDLC? Understand the Software Development Life Cycle

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) refers to a methodology with clearly defined processes for creating high-quality software. in detail, the SDLC methodology focuses on the following phases of software development:

• Planning
• Testing
• Deployment
• Requirement analysis
• Software development
• Software design such as architectural design

How the SDLC Works

SDLC achieves these apparently divergent goals by following a plan that removes the typical pitfalls of software development projects. SDLC works by lowering the cost of software development while simultaneously improving quality and shortening production time.

Many organizations tend to spend few efforts on testing while a stronger focus on testing can save them a lot of rework, time, and money. Be smart and write the right types of tests. SLDC can eliminate redundant rework and after-the-fact fixes. It then creates the software through the stages of analysis, planning, design, development, testing, and deployment.

It’s also important to know that there is a strong focus on the testing phase. As the SDLC is a repetitive methodology, you have to ensure code quality at every cycle.

Stage 1: Planning and Requirement Analysis

Planning for the quality assurance requirements and identification of the risks associated with the project is also done in the planning stage. Requirement analysis is the most important and fundamental stage in software development life cycle.

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.

Stage 2: Defining Requirements

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.

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.

Stage 3: Designing the Product Architecture

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.

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. SRS is the reference for product architects to come out with the best architecture for the product to be developed.

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

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.

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. The programming language is chosen with respect to the type of software being developed.

Different high level programming languages such as C, C++, Pascal, Java and PHP are used for coding.

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

The product may first be released in a limited segment and tested in the real business environment. Once the product is tested and ready to be deployed it is released formally in the appropriate market. Then based on the feedback, the product may be released as it is or with suggested enhancements in the targeting market segment.

Sometimes product deployment happens in stages as per the business strategy of that organization. After the product is released in the market, its maintenance is done for the existing customer base.