The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a process used by software engineers to develop and maintain software. The SDLC typically includes the following phases:
- Requirements gathering and analysis: In this phase, the software development team works with stakeholders to gather information about the desired features and functionality of the software. The team also performs a feasibility study to determine if the project is viable and what resources will be required.
- Design: In this phase, the software development team creates a detailed design for the software, including the overall architecture, database design, user interface, and individual software components.
- Implementation or coding: In this phase, the software development team writes the code for the software. This is where the design is actually coded into a computer program.
- Testing: In this phase, the software is thoroughly tested to ensure that it works as intended and meets the requirements established in the first phase. This includes unit testing, integration testing, and acceptance testing.
- Deployment: In this phase, the software is deployed to the intended users. Deployment can include installing the software on the user’s computer, or it can include deploying the software to a web server for online access.
- Maintenance: After deployment, the software is maintained to fix bugs, improve performance, and add new features. Maintenance can also include updating the software to stay compatible with newer hardware and software.
- Agile methodologies: The traditional Waterfall method of SDLC is not the only method, Agile methodologies have been widely adopted in software development. Agile methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban, and Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) are more adaptable and flexible, allowing teams to respond quickly to change and deliver software in shorter sprints.
- Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD): These methodologies allow development teams to integrate code changes frequently and deploy them automatically, it helps to improve the quality of software, allowing teams to catch issues early, and reducing the risk of defects in the final product.
- Security considerations: security is an important aspect of software development, during the SDLC, a security assessment should be done and security vulnerabilities should be identified and mitigated before deployment.
- Measurement and monitoring: during the maintenance phase, teams should continue to monitor the software and its performance, as well as gather feedback from users, this helps to identify areas that need improvement, and it allows teams to make data-driven decisions about new features or changes to the software.
Overall, SDLC is a cyclic and iterative process that helps software development teams to build, test, and deploy high-quality software that meets the needs of the stakeholders. The process can be done using different methodologies, and it’s continuously evolving to improve the quality and delivery of software.User Acceptance Testing: Before Deployment, a testing phase where end-users test the software and give their feedback and input which help to identify any issues or bugs that need to be resolved before deploying the software.