What is SDLC? Software Development Life Cycle Phases, Methodologies, and Processes Explained

SDLC strategies have been around since the 1960s, and most of its core concepts have evolved over time. This might come from a lightweight framework such as scrum or a traditional heavyweight framework such as the software development lifecycle (SDLC). Application lifecycle management (ALM) is the creation and maintenance of software applications until they are no longer required. Today, most teams recognize that security is an integral part of the software development lifecycle. You can address security in SDLC following DevSecOps practices and conducting security assessments during the entire SDLC process.

The software development team will take the client’s feedback, if any, and then improve the software. In fact, many organizations employ DevOps to bridge the gap between traditional ways of developing the software and managing sdlc phases operations. Once the design document is done, it is supplied to the development team, who start developing the source code for the proposed design. This phase is when all the software components are created and assembled.

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Phases & Models

“Shift left” means finding ways for these formerly siloed groups to work together to develop rapid, but also secure, code releases. The lean methodology gets inspiration from lean manufacturing principles and practices. It encourages teams to create a better workflow and develop a culture of continuous improvement. Its principles are – to reduce waste, make decisions mindfully, amplify learning, deliver faster, empower teams, and build holistically with integrity. In this model, prototypes are developed before creating the actual product. Prototypes have limited functions and performance but are sufficient to gauge customers’ needs, collect feedback, and improve the product until it’s accepted.

Once the software testing phase is over and no bugs or errors left in the system then the final deployment process starts. Based on the feedback given by the project manager, the final software is released and checked for deployment issues if any. During this phase, QA and testing team may find some bugs/defects which they communicate to developers. This process continues until the software is bug-free, stable, and working according to the business needs of that system.

Iterative Model

It also keeps everyone on the same page regarding the status of software development. This way, everyone can contribute as expected while communicating with greater transparency. The Spiral model combines iterative development with risk assessment, involving repeated cycles of planning, risk analysis, engineering, and evaluation.

Basically, SDLC helps make sure you’re on the right path to making awesome software that does the job right. Using the Software Development Life Cycle helps keep things organized when making software, making sure everyone knows what to do and when. If you want to look closer at how they differ, we’ve created a comparison of Waterfall vs Agile methods. Now that you know what the program or feature should do, it’s time to get visual.

Phase #1: Requirements Analysis

It then creates the software through the stages of analysis, planning, design, development, testing, and deployment. By anticipating costly mistakes like failing to ask the end-user or client for feedback, SLDC can eliminate redundant rework and after-the-fact fixes. At the same time, the Waterfall methodology is a linear and documentation-laden project management process with terminal phases. It means that each stage must be finalized before the next phase can start and there is no overlapping in the phases.

You can perform software testing manually or by using tools to track and detect the issues. This is a continuous process until your software is free of bugs and meets the quality standard. Developers take inputs from this document to derive the software architecture, which is like a skeleton of the software on which everything is built in the next stage. At this phase, you can plan the software infrastructure, user interface, and system architecture to ensure all the functional and non-functional are covered. It will help you build each software component without having to undergo costly rewrites.

Tasks and Activities in SDLC Development Phase

As Taylor articulated, your goal should be to think holistically about all the activities of a project and how to best manage each stage. If you want to learn how to build, deploy, and create high quality software you will want to follow a blueprint. It’s easy to identify and manage risks, as requirements can change between iterations. However, repeated cycles could lead to scope change and underestimation of resources. Fundamentally, SDLC trades flexibility for control by imposing structure.

The project manager, team members, and end user collaborate to identify potential risks that may impact the project. They use the SDLC alongside the engineering manager to organize their workflow. However, the SDLC is also a part of the holistic product development framework. Listen to users and iterate because through user feedback surveys and guidance you can start again at phase one scoping new requirements.

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SDLC’s first step is to understand the complete requirements of your customers before you actually move ahead to develop and deploy it. SDLC aims to produce high-quality software products while keeping the budget and time minimum. As technology advances, new tools like generative AI are shaking up the SDLC process, making development even faster and more exciting. So, whether you’re coding or designing, SDLC is your key to crafting software that stands out in the digital world. AI-powered language models enhance communication between stakeholders and developers by understanding and processing user queries accurately. AI-driven testing tools automatically create test cases, simulate user interactions, and detect potential bugs, resulting in faster testing cycles and improved software quality.

• At the end of the sprint, the team demonstrates their potentially shippable increment to stakeholders, conducts a retrospective, and determines actions for the next sprint.
• Whenever a user reports a bug or the team discovers a new flaw, the product moves back through its SDLC as many steps as necessary.
• After deployment, the launch may involve marketing your new product or service so people know about its existence.
• “Shift left” means finding ways for these formerly siloed groups to work together to develop rapid, but also secure, code releases.
• It also captures the structure in which these methods are to be undertaken.

I seek to take the abstract and provide examples that you, as students and practitioners of software development, can more readily relate to. During this step, current priorities that would be affected and how they should be handled are considered. A feasibility study determines whether creating a new or improved system is appropriate. This helps to estimate costs, benefits, resource requirements, and specific user needs.

The stages of SDLC are as follows:

This phase begins with the team collecting and assessing the functional requirement of the project. It gets carried out by the senior developers/testers of the team with information from the client, the pre-sales, market studies, and domain specialists of the industry. These inputs help in planning the project approach and to perform the feasibility analysis based on the financial, operational, and technical aspects.