We, as Software Engineers or Developers, must have come across the term SDLC. Today let's take deep dive into this term and learn how it has become the backbone of the Software Development process over the years.
What is Software Development?
Software Development is a process that aims to create software that meets various business requirements or personal objectives, by using different frameworks and programming languages. The process involves multiple stages like specifying requirements, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing to achieve the desired outcome. In a broader sense, it involves the process from conception to development and release of the software in a planned and structured manner to receive optimum results.
What is SDLC?
Software Development Lifecycle is a systematic approach the information technology industry uses to develop high-quality software in a stipulated amount of time. It is a roadmap to achieve desired results within the deadline. It consists of a comprehensive plan describing each step while developing the software which includes forming the idea, requirement analysis, and way to develop, maintain, test, and enhance the performance of the software. A Software Development Lifecycle involves the following stages-
- Stage 1: Planning and Requirement Analysis It is the first and the most crucial stage where the planning takes place & requirements of the software get defined. It requires brainstorming and research. The most skilled and experienced software engineers are involved in this stage who gather the requirements from the client, do the survey and check the project’s scope.
- Stage 2: Defining Requirements Once the requirements are gathered, it has to be clearly defined and documented to get approval from the client. An SRS (Software Requirement Specification) is used for this purpose. SRS acts as a formal report that has to be reviewed by the client before moving forward.
- Stage 3: Designing This step includes the inspection of feasibility and various architectural modules are proposed to simplify the implementation.
- Stage 4: Coding or Implementation The most interesting part for the software developer is coding where the designs are transformed into a computer-readable format. The developers initiate writing the code using the programming language chosen for them. This is the most time-consuming yet fruitful phase of SDLC.
- Stage 5: Testing In this stage Quality Assurance team plays a major role and checks whether the developed software has provided the desired results. The team ensures that the software is working according to the client's requirements. The QA team might find bugs that are required to be fixed by the development team until the desired results are achieved. This is an iterative process that is repeated until the software becomes bug-free.
- Stage 6: Deployment Once the testing is complete, the software is ready to be deployed and released for usage. The software may get launched for a limited segment for testing and feedback purposes depending upon the complexity of the project.
- Stage 7: Maintenance Based on the feedback received in the previous stage, enhancements are done to the product. Regular maintenance and upgradation are required for the success of the developed software.
Why SDLC?
After discussing all these points we can observe that SDLC provides control over the software development process to some extent. It helps break down the development process into smaller chunks for a better understanding of the problem statement. With the help of SDLC, the efficiency of the development process increases, and the performance of the product enhances.
How SDLC was introduced?
The origin of SDLC dates back to the 1960s when it was known as the “systems development lifecycle”. According to Geoffrey Elliott, this system was developed by large-scale corporates to build complex business systems that required huge data processing and analysis. Over time, variations of the framework have been adopted for the development of various complex projects according to the business requirements.
Till now we have discussed the importance of SDLC in the field of development and how it has made the lives of developers easier. Thus SDLC is a goal-oriented approach to solving real-life problems in an effective manner providing optimum results.
I hope you found this blog useful. Have a great time! Remember to like, share, and comment with your thoughts.