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Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a framework that defines the steps involved in the development of software at each phase. It covers the detailed plan for building, deploying and maintaining the software.
SDLC defines the complete cycle of development i.e. all the tasks involved in planning, creating, testing, and deploying a Software Product.
SDLC Process
SDLC is a process that defines the various stages involved in the development of software for delivering a high-quality product. SDLC stages cover the complete life cycle of a software i.e. from inception to retirement of the product.
Adhering to the SDLC process leads to the development of the software in a systematic and disciplined manner.
Purpose:
Purpose of SDLC is to deliver a high-quality product which is as per the customer’s requirement.
SDLC has defined its phases as, Requirement gathering, Designing, Coding, Testing, and Maintenance. It is important to adhere to the phases to provide the Product in a systematic manner.
For Example, A software has to be developed and a team is divided to work on a feature of the product and is allowed to work as they want. One of the developers decides to design first whereas the other decides to code first and the other on the documentation part.
This will lead to project failure because of which it is necessary to have a good knowledge and understanding among the team members to deliver an expected product.
SDLC Cycle
SDLC Cycle represents the process of developing software
SDLC Phases
Below are the various phases:
Requirement gathering and analysis
Design
Implementation or coding
Testing
Deployment
Maintenance.
1. Requirement Gathering and Analysis
During this phase, all the relevant information is collected from the customer to develop a product as per their expectation. Any ambiguities must be resolved in this phase only.
Business analyst and Project Manager set up a meeting with the customer to gather all the information like what the customer wants to build, who will be the end-user, what is the purpose of the product. Before building a product a core understanding or knowledge of the product is very important.
For Example, A customer wants to have an application which involves money transactions. In this case, the requirement has to be clear like what kind of transactions will be done, how it will be done, in which currency it will be done, etc.
Once the requirement gathering is done, an analysis is done to check the feasibility of the development of a product. In case of any ambiguity, a call is set up for further discussion.
Once the requirement is clearly understood, the SRS (Software Requirement Specification) document is created. This document should be thoroughly understood by the developers and also should be reviewed by the customer for future reference.
2.Design
In this phase, the requirement gathered in the SRS document is used as an input and software architecture that is used for implementing system development is derived.
3. Implementation or Coding
Implementation/Coding starts once the developer gets the Design document. The Software design is translated into source code. All the components of the software are implemented in this phase.
4. Testing
Testing starts once the coding is complete and the modules are released for testing. In this phase, the developed software is tested thoroughly and any defects found are assigned to developers to get them fixed.
Retesting, regression testing is done until the point at which the software is as per the customer’s expectation. Testers refer SRS document to make sure that the software is as per the customer’s standard.
5.Deployment
Once the product is tested, it is deployed in the production environment or first UAT (User Acceptance testing) is done depending on the customer expectation.
In the case of UAT, a replica of the production environment is created and the customer along with the developers does the testing. If the customer finds the application as expected, then sign off is provided by the customer to go live.
6. Maintenance
After the deployment of a product on the production environment, maintenance of the product i.e. if any issue comes up and needs to be fixed or any enhancement is to be done is taken care by the developers.