How to Effectively Manage Your Project Throughout the Software Development Life Cycle - A complete guide

Have you ever thought about technologies like autonomous vehicles, smart homes, or augmented reality features? How do people operate them? Of course, all of those things are run by sophisticated software.

However, no matter how sophisticated the software is, it needs to be flexible, easy to maintain, and easy to enhance. How do software developers achieve that? The answer is based on planning at each step of the software development life cycle.

The software development life cycle, including its definitions, phases, and models, will be discussed in this article.

What is the software development life cycle, and why does it matter?

The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a series of steps that a team of software developers must follow to develop and maintain software. A lot of developer teams use the software development life cycle to meet customer needs in a certain amount of time while cutting costs and using fewer resources.

Why is SDLC essential?

There are many planned software projects that have a tendency to spiral out of control, leading to missed deadlines, hasty decisions, and fruitless attempts to control the situation. So, businesses can establish a software development life cycle to avoid those problems. For software developers, it means understanding what they do now and what comes next. The following are some key advantages of SDLC:

• It provides visibility for the parties engaged in software development;
• It allows business owners to retain control over the project;
• It ensures predictable deliveries throughout an entire software development process;
• It minimizes risk, for example, going over budget or deadline;
• It ensures that the software development process continues until all expectations are met.

To ensure the resulting software will meet the demands of both business owners and end users, all projects should have an outlined software development life cycle.

Software Development Life Cycle Phases

To successfully complete a deliverable for the client, there are consistent SDLC phases that must be followed, regardless of the SDLC methodology you choose. Here is the list that summarizes the fundamental functions of typical SDLC phases:

Requirement Gathering and Analysis

This step includes a collection of requirements for software product development from stakeholders, industry experts, and even potential customers. After that, the project owners outline the project scope, defining a budget, resources, deadlines, potential risks, and quality assurance requirements.

All requirements are encapsulated in a formal document, the Software Requirement Specification. Project managers, business analysts, and software developers will refer to this document frequently.

Designing

In this phase, your goal is to translate software development requirements into design. This is when you elaborate on a project proposal by developing a plan for meeting the requirements laid out by the customer. Once you have a plan, design concrete specifications for the developers to utilize, like screen layouts and other materials. During this phase, you need to analyze the problem in the context of the organization’s policies and objectives.

Implementation or Coding

Implementation, or coding, is the most time-consuming phase of the software development life cycle. Using the design document, software developers write code for the components. The tasks are divided among the team members according to their areas of specialization. Front-end software developers are responsible for creating an interface and its communication with the server.

Database administrators add necessary data to the database. Software developers use coding guidelines and various tools to write and implement code. The result of this phase is a working software product and a source code document.

Testing

Now that the code has been written, it is time to test the software to ensure it meets the requirements. During this phase, the software undergoes different kinds of tests:

• Functional testing: Ensuring that software is in line with the requirements described in the Software Requirement Specification;
• Performance testing aimed to determine how the software works under a workload (its speed, responsiveness, and stability);
• Unit testing: Testing each component individually. If any of those has a flaw, software developers responsible for it have to go back and fix it.
• Security testing: As the name suggests, this type of testing aims to verify the system's security;
• Usability testing: This type of test involves testing user-facing components to determine if the software is intuitive, easy to use, and understandable for users.

Deployment

The tested software has been released to the market for beta testing. The first users' feedback is gathered by the support team, and software developers fix any bugs discovered during this phase. Following that, a new and improved version is released. In addition, additional software maintenance and its ongoing improvement are included in the deployment stage.

Maintenance

The software is maintained throughout the maintenance phase to ensure its continued usefulness. The original software could be modified to make it a workable and bug-free solution.

What are the models of SDLC and what is the difference between them?

There are many models for the software development life cycle that you can use, and each one has a different set of steps for the process' success. We'll describe a few of the well-known models below, along with their corresponding benefits and drawbacks.

Waterfall Model

The waterfall is the first model used for software development. This model consists of different phases, including requirements gathering, designing, building, testing, development, and maintenance. Simple and easy to use, waterfall enables you to generate specific outputs for each phase along with reviews.

This sequential life cycle model should be chosen for small projects with clear instructions. Although expensive, this type is flexible. You can evaluate the software's viability and continuity before using this model.

V-Shaped Model

The V-Shaped Model and Waterfall Model both have a rigid, well-thought-out plan. However, the V-shaped model places a strong emphasis on testing, which is the biggest distinction between it and the waterfall approach. To minimize errors as the team implements the plan, testing should be finished after each phase.

Prototype Model

The prototype model is one of the software development life cycle models in which a prototype is built with minimal requirements. A prototype is a model or sample of a product made for the client’s evaluation and feedback regarding the desired finished product. After studying the prototype, the client can decide on the features they need in the desired product. It is suitable for a project in the phase of idea.

Agile Model

The Agile Model addresses many issues that conventional models are unable to address. Various incremental and iterative process models that emphasize client satisfaction and process adaptability are included. Utilizing this tool is primarily done in order to create software that meets customer needs. The benefit of this approach is that product owners can see the results of each short cycle, provide feedback, and make corrections if needed.

Agile models are the best option if you want to speed up your team's development process but don't want to use documentation. These tools are adaptable and flexible, but understanding them takes a lot of experience because breaking up a product into smaller sections to deliver particular features is a difficult task.

Spiral Model

This model combines the iterative development process model and the sequential linear development model. One of the most versatile models is the spiral. When using the spiral model, you must repeat the procedure until you get the desired outcome. Your tool will get better with each use.

The Spiral Model has four stages: identifying the requirements, creating the baseline, creating the software itself, and assessing the risk. The spiral model makes it possible for operations teams and developers to combine the workflow, cutting down on inefficiencies and saving time.

Big Bang Model

The Big Bang Model largely rejects planning. Additionally, there is hardly any emphasis placed on gathering requirements; instead, developers are expected to use trial and error to come up with a workable solution. With this model, development begins immediately, and the code is written quickly. Short-term projects are better suited for the Big Bang Model.

Iterative Incremental Model

An iterative incremental model initially constructs a partial implementation of a complete system in order for it to be in a deliverable state. There is an expansion of functionality. The working product is delivered after any flaws from the previous delivery have been fixed. Up until the end of the product development process, the procedure is repeated.

Iterations are the term used to describe these processes' repetitions. Every iteration ends with the delivery of a new product increment. Iterative Incremental model can be used when a project has new technology and lengthy development schedules

Conclusion

Software development is a huge undertaking and requires thorough planning, regardless of the model. After that, the SDLC continues with post-launch maintenance, including software updates and support. That helps businesses ensure the resulting software meets the customer's requirements.

Now that you understand software development life cycle and some of its models, it’s time to get started. You can contact MLTech Soft. We will give you some advice on how to build a software development life cycle for your project.