What is Software Development Life Cycle: Everything You Need to Know

Developing software is complex, but businesses can accomplish the objectives by implementing a course of action. The SDLC approach supports the entire software development process, from planning to its final deployment, ensuring the timely completion of your projects.

This blog discusses what is Software Development Life Cycle, its stages, and models that can help you develop your software more controlled and efficiently.

So, let’s get started.

What is the Software Development Life Cycle?

SDLC or Software Development Life Cycle is the compilation of sequential phases or steps that help businesses develop software efficiently.

With this approach, companies can properly plan, analyze, design, test, deploy, and maintain the software to deliver a better operational experience. Once implemented, the process turns into an organized course of action allowing businesses to fully inspect before applying.

What is the Importance of the Software Development Life Cycle?

SDLC from the time of its involvement showcases its importance and they are listed below:

• Helps estimate project costs by providing a pre-notion through a structured framework allowing businesses to get a theoretical understanding.
• Detect issues during the early stages by applying testing protocols to ensure the final software delivers results efficiently.
• Provide flexibility to the software development phase to adapt to any frequent changes in the requirements.

What are the Stages in the Software Development Life Cycle?

SDLC is further divided into different phases or stages counting to seven and here’s the description of each stage to help understand it better:

Stage 1: Preparation & Planning

Success in any project depends on identifying and counting the elements required to complete the work. It is the planning process that initiates the overall procedure and in building the software, it stands on the pole position presenting its importance.

The planning phase involves several tasks to clarify to the developer what to engineer. It includes:

• Discussion related to methods and sources to gather qualitative and quantitative requirements to identify the scope and objectives of the project.
• Estimation of costs to invest in developing the project and the financial risk to face due to unforeseen incidents.
• Clarity on the current user-related problems and how the supposed software can help to reduce or remove them.
• Estimating a rough idea of how much duration is required to complete the project includes the testing period that could delay the process.
• Record the required resources that help to develop the software and allocate these resources to facilitate specific tasks.

These actions define the planning phase but are limited to the theory about how businesses plan their course of action. It depends on the approach they want to ensure the best results in the project. So it may vary or include additional initiatives based on the software and its objectives.

Stage 2: Analyzing Requirements

Requirements are information about user expectations from the software. The company collects details from different sources, like market analysts, or clients. This information is collected and finally placed in a document which is the Software Development Requirements Document.

Businesses perform several tasks to analyze the requirements efficiently, which include:

• Identifying the apt sources to collect information to understand the market and users to prepare a more customer-centric software.
• Utilizing sources like market analysts to acquire details on trends and market conditions, and clients to discuss the requirements of the supposed software.
• Finalizing the acquired details and placing them into the SDR document listing software features, and functions.

It is important to note that clients and market analysts evaluate the final document. This helps to learn if any crucial aspects have been missed or if there’s more to add in the requirement section. After thoroughly inspecting the requirement document, the approval is given to begin or start working on the design.

Stage 3: Foundational Design

Though the business has completed the planning process, the design phase requires insightful clarity. That is why preparing a prototype software develops an understanding of the practical workings of the application.

A prototype software is a visual aid informing the team about its functionality. Also, businesses can examine the code implementation and the flaws it contains. Moreover, it helps to collect real-time feedback and get the user’s perspective, transforming into an informational guide that helps to perfect the application for better results.

Also, developing a prototype prior to the final software reveals the vulnerable areas. These flaws impact the software functionality and overall user experience. But with a prototype at hand, the business can still make improvements for better performance.

Stage 4: Final Development

Before coming to this phase in software development, businesses must remove all of the flaws in the application. It arrives with the understanding and correct functioning and this information helps organizations proceed with the final development of the software.

With the in-hand design, companies start developing the final software. It includes:

• Real-time implementation of the designs prepared by the company as raw to program the final software.
• Engineering capable software that can achieve its objectives, offers excellent user performance with fewer flaws.
• Administer SDD (Software Design Document) and other coding guidelines to use apt programming language to write the codes.
• Employing consistent code reviews to ensure the code’s appropriate placement and find any bugs or flaws.

Completing this stage leads to functional software developed with insightful planning, extensive analysis, near-perfect designing, and apt coding. This application embodies the company’s objectives and efficiently benefits the customer.

Stage 5: Software Evaluation

Deploying the software in the market should be based on an understanding that it would yield results as expected. The confidence to take this step arrives after thoroughly analyzing the application.

After developing the software, a final test derives a better look at its efficiency to perform the tasks. Testing is not a one-time step, it is a consistent process to check if everything stays intact according to the plan. These regular inspections occur at every stage revealing loose areas to work on.

The final test helps to check and see if the applied solution works properly and removes the flaws from the code. With this assessment, businesses learn whether to move ahead or stretch their time to adjust the issues.

Stage 6: Software Deployment

The objective of the business is to deploy or release the software in the market for the end-users. The deployment stage specifically targets presenting the software in the actual industrial environment to observe its functioning.

The entire deployment process includes:

• Releasing or introducing the newly developed software in the open market for the end-users
• Offering an instructional manual or training program for users to understand the software.
• Analyze the behavior of the software during its actual usage and consumption.
• Develop a contingency plan or second route to ensure a safer path in case of unforeseen results.

After running a series of tests and thorough inspections, businesses release their software in the market to see its performance in the beginning. Also, it is an opportunity for them to receive feedback based on the usage of the software.

Stage 7: Conducting Maintenance

A first release of the software is not only a milestone achieved but also an opportunity to collect information on its progress, failures, and future scope. Users interact with the software to notice its capabilities and what it lacks.

This brings the phase of software maintenance and it includes:

• Observing the market performance of the software to realize how far the software is from its optimum potential.
• Acknowledge the feedback and reviews from the users to ascertain the areas to conduct maintenance.
• Conduct maintenance on a thorough scale to remove the bugs and fix issues previously skipped.

Maintenance is the last stage in theory but it does give businesses a chance to reflect on the software and make it more functional. Also, companies can prepare an actual report of its performance and acceptance from users, deciding on the future scope of the software.

What are the Popular Models in the Software Development Life Cycle?

The software development life cycle model is a framework that helps organizations arrange the phases systematically to suit their purpose. Each model has a distinct approach allowing them to restructure the stages to match the requirements.

Here are a few popular models in the SDLC:

Spiral Model

This model contains the principle structure of two models: waterfall and iterative. The spiral model offers businesses a chronological and repetitive approach to their software development. As the name goes, its diagrammatic or visual representation contains a spiral structure denoting the phases in the SDLC. The count of these spirals depends on the project and the amount of risks it carries.

Agile Model

It contains a group of development processes or methods with a few basic similarities but also has differences in them representing their distinct nature. The Agile model in SDLC helps businesses prepare to amend and adjust for new requests. Also, the model focuses on keeping steps that directly support the projects and avoids unessential steps stretching the project.

Waterfall Model

It is the foundational model of all other SDLC models but businesses do not prefer it. The Waterfall model is the earliest in the list and works efficiently when the project has well-defined objectives and requirements. Aligning this SDLC model with large-scale projects proves fruitful as it is highly effective when errors are few. It is easier to inspect, find, and fix the bugs since the duration is long.

Iterative Model

An approach that combines the rigid waterfall model steps with the flexible iterative design. This model helps create semi-finished software that is capable of deployment. It is a cycle-based model where you get permission to apply changes and steps at each stage to improve the product for quality deployment. The last stage presents a complete version of the software matching requirements.

V-Shaped Model

It contains a sequential approach that appears and works in V-shape, hence this model was named. The V-Shaped model contains various stages and a testing period is associated with each stage. This testing period allows a proper analysis of the accurate implementation of the plan and it is the only method to proceed to another stage. So, the last stage provides you with completely functional software.

Big-Bang Model

The simplest yet costliest model in the software development life cycle. This model does not depend on planning, which increases dependency on time and money. Its name is based on the scientific principle of the Great Big Bang, the cause of the universe’s birth. The model starts from nothing denoting no planning, similar to the theory.

Best Practices to Choose the Appropriate SDLC Model

Here are some of the practices businesses can follow to choose the appropriate model:

Project Requirements

The first practice businesses should involve in selecting the SDLC model is examining the project requirements. Companies have to inspect if the specifications are definite or will change in the future. It decides whether to opt for a rigid or flexible model for your project.

Client Participation

Before selecting the SDLC model, businesses must identify if they need any involvement from the clients. Some projects require inspection and input from the client to remain updated with the changes. Choose the model that supports the frequent participation of clients in the process and a model that suits the situation of their less involvement.

Time & Budget Restraint

Budget and time play an important role in any project. However, it is also important to select the correct SDLC model. Every project has different specifications like time duration or budget amount. Hence, businesses should consider checking the limitations on time and budget to select the best model for the project’s success.

Conclusion

It is no secret that effective software development life cycle implementation becomes the key to completing the project successfully. Its models and stages help businesses advance toward the supposed objective. However, companies must develop the expertise which is not easy.

As a digital product engineering services company, we have much experience and knowledge to help you succeed in implementing SDLC stages.

If you aim to understand the concepts and apply SDLC stages in your project, our team awaits your communication to discuss your requirements.