Software development process in systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, is a process of creating or altering information systems, and the models and methodologies that people use to develop these systems. In software engineering, the SDLC concept underpins many kinds of software development methodologies. These methodologies form the framework for planning and controlling the creation of an information system: the software development process.
The System Development
Life Cycle framework provides a sequence of activities for system designers and
developers to follow. It consists of a set of steps or phases in which each
phase of the SDLC uses the results of the previous one.
A Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) adheres to important phases that are essential for developers, such as planning, analysis, design, and implementation, and are explained in the section below. A number of system development life cycle (SDLC) models have been created: waterfall, fountain, spiral, build and fix, rapid prototyping, incremental, and synchronize and stabilize. The oldest of these, and the best known, is the waterfall model: a sequence of stages in which the output of each stage becomes the input for the next.
1) Preliminary
Analysis: The objective of phase 1 is to conduct a preliminary analysis,
propose alternative solutions, describe costs and benefits and submit a
preliminary plan with recommendations.
2) Conduct the
preliminary analysis: In this step, you need to find out the organization's
objectives and the nature and scope of the problem under study. Even if a
problem refers only to a small segment of the organization itself then you need
to find out what the objectives of the organization itself are. Then you need
to see how the problem being studied fits in with them.
3) Propose alternative
solutions: In digging into the organization's objectives and specific problems,
you may have already covered some solutions. Alternate proposals may come from
interviewing employees, clients , suppliers, and/or consultants. You can also
study what competitors are doing. With this data, you will have three choices:
leave the system as is, improve it, or develop a new system.
The Development Life
Cycle
As with most
undertakings, planning is an important factor in determining the success or
failure of any software project. Essentially, good project planning will
eliminate many of the mistakes that would otherwise be made, and reduce the
overall time required to complete the project. As a rule of thumb, the more
complex the problem is, the more thorough the planning process must be. Most
professional software developers plan a software project using a series of
steps generally referred to as the software development life cycle . A number
of models exist that differ in the number of stages defined, and in the
specific activities that take
place within each
stage. The following example is a generic model that
should give you some idea of the steps involved in a typical software project.
