7 Phases of Software Development Life Cycle

What is Software Development Life Cycle?
Software Development Life Cycle is a framework outlining critical steps in software development, from research & ideation to implementation & maintenance.
Following the Software Development Life Cycle helps businesses enhance development speed, reduce risks, cut costs & deliver high-quality software products.

#Step 1: Identify problems & goals
A software development cycle starts with gathering input from all related
parties including stakeholders, clients, salespeople, developers as well as intensive market research. The goal is to thoroughly understand the strengths and weaknesses of the
current system while identifying the major problems the project must address.

At the end of this phase, everybody should have a general project idea of the software they want to develop & how it can help solve their problems.
Normally, the project manager & business analyst are responsible for this phase.

#Step 2: Define requirements & plan
The project team then can use this information to conduct a feasibility study, with careful consideration for economical, operational & technical aspects.

At this stage, an SRS (Software Development Requirement Specification) document is often used. The file includes all specifications needed to build the desired software,
such as its features, tech stacks & platforms. Moreover, the project team also needs to identify all the necessary resources & how to allocate them.

In general, this step includes:
– Targeted goals & scope of the project
– Project team structure
– Project roadmap & scheduling
– Labour & material resources needed
– Estimated costs
– Potential risks & actions to take
– Feedback from all parties (stakeholders, customers, developers, sales, etc.)

#Step 3: Design & prototype

Turning the aforementioned SRS document into a structure friendly with programming logic, in this phase, the project team dives into how to achieve the desired
development outcome, by choosing a suitable approach, architecture, modules & more.

This information is documented in a so-called DDS (Design Document Specification). Important stakeholders must also review the DDS carefully to make sure that
they agree with all design ideas proposed.

The design stage encompasses
– Overall Product architecture:
define the relationship between essential elements of the software.
– User interface design:
ensure that end users can easily navigate through the software & understand
its function.
– System interface:
how two computer systems exchange data with each other And more.

With a thorough design, the following development phases can be done without much hassle.

#Step 4: Develop Software
At this step, developers create the software following the guidelines & project timeline specified previously. With many components of software to develop,
this is the most time-consuming process in the Software Development Life Cycle. Normally, the manager will divide the project into smaller modules & assign them
for different developers to work on simultaneously.

To implement the code, developers often rely on various programming tools such as compilers, interpreters, debuggers, etc. Or you can outsource the entire development process
with an outsourcing software development team.

#Step 5: Test (Quality Assurance)

Testing is a key stage of the software development life cycle.

Then the project team needs to test the outcome to ensure it meets the requirements in the specification. Testers need to review the quality of each coded component as well as whether they work well together as a whole, resulting in a bug-free final product with an enjoyable user experience.

Some development modern approaches encourage testing alongside other stages in the software development life cycle. To put it differently, testing can be a subset part of all other software development stages for the best coding quality with the least risk possible.

This phase, however, is solely dedicated to testing activities. From code quality, and integration to security & performance, all aspects of the software are spotted for defects.
Developers have to fix any errors found until the product fulfills the requirements.

#Step 6: Deployment
Now when the software is ready, it’s time to launch it for everyone. The development team will deploy the software to a production environment where all users can access its services.

A production environment for a website, for example, is its hosting server.

Commonly, before official launching, developers will release the software in a staging environment first to test how it performs in real life.
Stakeholders or the client team also gain access to this staging environment to provide feedback on the software user experience, its functionality & more.

#Step 7: Optimize & maintain
Maintenance is a vital part of the software development life cycle, as software often needs constant updates to satisfy its users & adapt to businesses’ new requirements.

Normally, companies will take advantage of users’ feedback to develop better features & fix any remaining bugs.

Credit : https://rikkeisoft.com/blog/software-development-life-cycle/