The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Muzirat
2 min readMar 21, 2024

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Before we dive into the important bits of Software Testing, it’s crucial we familiarize ourselves with the The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), the backbone of any software project.

The software industry uses the Software Development Life Cycle as a process to design, develop, and test high-quality software. It strives to create software that is reliable and efficient, meets or surpasses client expectations, and is completed on schedule and within a budget.

Here the typical phases of SDLC process:

1. Requirements Gathering and Analysis:

The initial phase where business requirements are gathered and analyzed to shape software requirements. The development team collaborates with stakeholders such as end users and business analysts. The team aims to understand the software solution’s business objectives using methods such as interviews and workshops. This process involves going over existing documentation and procedures. Identified requirements or demands are documented and refined to align with project objectives.

2. Design:

During this phase, software requirements are converted into a detailed software design plan. This comprehensive blueprint includes architectural design considerations, database structuring, and the development of user interface designs, among other things. The primary goal is to translate the identified requirements into a tangible framework that effectively guides the next phase of the development process.

3. Implementation or Coding:

In this stage, actual code is written to bring the carefully thought-out design idea to life. This is one of the longest phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) because of the amount of development work needed to convert conceptual designs into working software solutions.

4.Testing*:

The phase where software is tested to ensure it is working as expected and meets the requirements gathered in the first phase. This includes testing levels like unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and user acceptance testing.

5. Deployment:

Once the software is tested and approved, at this stage it’s ready to be deployed to the production environment. This is where the software becomes available for use. This phase typically involves software installation, configuration, potential data migration, system switching and ongoing monitoring to ensure functionality.

6. Maintenance:

After deployment, regular updates to repair bugs, improve functionality, and adapt to changing demands or surroundings. A banking app, for example, may be updated to fix security vulnerabilities or to include new features such as mobile payment choices, guaranteeing optimal performance and user pleasure..

The cycle is the standard

The process is crucial in any software development model, be it Waterfall, V-model or any others. The only difference is the timeline in which these phases occur.

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