Software Development Life Cycle
software, development
SDLC is a process that defines the various stages involved in the development of software for delivering a high-quality product. SDLC stages cover the complete life cycle of a software i.e. from inception to retirement of the product.
Adhering to the SDLC process leads to the development of the software in a systematic and disciplined manner.
Purpose:
The purpose of SDLC is to deliver a high-quality product that is as per the customer’s requirement.
SDLC has defined its phases as, Requirement gathering, Designing, Coding, Testing, and Maintenance. It is important to adhere to the phases to provide the Product in a systematic manner.
For Example, the software has to be developed and a team is divided to work on a feature of the product and is allowed to work as they want. One of the developers decides to design first whereas the other decides to code first and the other on the documentation part.
This will lead to project failure because of which it is necessary to have a good knowledge and understanding among the team members to deliver an expected product.
SDLC Cycle represents the process of developing software.
Below is the diagrammatic representation of the SDLC cycle:
Given below are the various phases:
During this phase, all the relevant information is collected from the customer to develop a product as per their expectation. Any ambiguities must be resolved in this phase only.
The business analyst and Project Manager set up a meeting with the customer to gather all the information like what the customer wants to build, who will be the end-user, what is the purpose of the product. Before building a product a core understanding or knowledge of the product is very important.
For Example, A customer wants to have an application that involves money transactions. In this case, the requirement has to be clear like what kind of transactions will be done, how it will be done, in which currency it will be done, etc.
Once the requirement gathering is done, an analysis is done to check the feasibility of the development of a product. In case of any ambiguity, a call is set up for further discussion.
Once the requirement is clearly understood, the SRS (Software Requirement Specification) document is created. This document should be thoroughly understood by the developers and also should be reviewed by the customer for future reference.
In this phase, the requirement gathered in the SRS document is used as an input, and software architecture that is used for implementing system development is derived.
Implementation/Coding starts once the developer gets the Design document. The Software design is translated into source code. All the components of the software are implemented in this phase.
Testing starts once the coding is complete and the modules are released for testing. In this phase, the developed software is tested thoroughly and any defects found are assigned to developers to get them fixed.
Retesting, regression testing is done until the point at which the software is as per the customer’s expectation. Testers refer to SRS documents to make sure that the software is as per the customer’s standard.
Once the product is tested, it is deployed in the production environment, or the first UAT (User Acceptance testing) is done depending on the customer expectation.
In the case of UAT, a replica of the production environment is created and the customer along with the developers does the testing. If the customer finds the application as expected, then sign-off is provided by the customer to go live.
After the deployment of a product on the production environment, maintenance of the product i.e. if any issue comes up and needs to be fixed or any enhancement is to be done is taken care of by the developers.
A software life cycle model is a descriptive representation of the software development cycle. SDLC models might have a different approach but the basic phases and activity remain the same for all the models.
The waterfall model is the very first model that is used in SDLC. It is also known as the linear sequential model.
In this model, the outcome of one phase is the input for the next phase. Development of the next phase starts only when the previous phase is complete.
Advantages of the Waterfall Model:
Disadvantages of the Waterfall model:
V- Model is also known as Verification and Validation Model. In this model Verification & Validation go hand in hand i.e. development and testing go parallel. V model and waterfall model are the same except that the test planning and testing start at an early stage in V-Model.
a) Verification Phase:
(i) Requirement Analysis:
In this phase, all the required information is gathered & analyzed. Verification activities include reviewing the requirements.
(ii) System Design:
Once the requirement is clear, a system is designed i.e. architecture, components of the product are created and documented in a design document.
(iii) High-Level Design:
High-level design defines the architecture/design of modules. It defines the functionality between the two modules.
(iv) Low-Level Design:
Low-level Design defines the architecture/design of individual components.
(v) Coding:
Code development is done in this phase.
b) Validation Phase:
(i) Unit Testing:
Unit testing is performed using the unit test cases that are designed and is done in the Low-level design phase. Unit testing is performed by the developer itself. It is performed on individual components which leads to early defect detection.
(ii) Integration Testing:
Integration testing is performed using integration test cases in the High-level Design phase. Integration testing is the testing that is done on integrated modules. It is performed by testers.
(iii) System Testing:
System testing is performed in the System Design phase. In this phase, the complete system is tested i.e. the entire system functionality is tested.
(iv) Acceptance Testing:
Acceptance testing is associated with the Requirement Analysis phase and is done in the customer’s environment.
Advantages of V – Model:
Disadvantages of V-Model:
The prototype model is a model in which the prototype is developed prior to the actual software.
Prototype models have limited functional capabilities and inefficient performance when compared to the actual software. Dummy functions are used to create prototypes. This is a valuable mechanism for understanding the customers’ needs.
Software prototypes are built prior to the actual software to get valuable feedback from the customer. Feedbacks are implemented and the prototype is again reviewed by the customer for any change. This process goes on until the model is accepted by the customer.
Once the requirement gathering is done, the quick design is created and the prototype which is presented to the customer for evaluation is built.
Customer feedback and the refined requirement is used to modify the prototype and are again presented to the customer for evaluation. Once the customer approves the prototype, it is used as a requirement for building the actual software. The actual software is built using the Waterfall model approach.
Advantages of Prototype Model:
Disadvantages of Prototype Model:
The Spiral Model includes an iterative and prototype approaches.
Spiral model phases are followed in the iterations. The loops in the model represent the phase of the SDLC process i.e. the innermost loop is of requirement gathering & analysis which follows the Planning, Risk analysis, development, and evaluation. The next loop is Designing followed by Implementation & then testing.
Spiral Model has four phases:
(i) Planning:
The planning phase includes requirement gathering wherein all the required information is gathered from the customer and is documented. Software requirement specification document is created for the next phase.
(ii) Risk Analysis:
In this phase, the best solution is selected for the risks involved and analysis is done by building the prototype.
For Example, the risk involved in accessing the data from a remote database can be that the data access rate might be too slow. The risk can be resolved by building a prototype of the data access subsystem.
(iii) Engineering:
Once the risk analysis is done, coding and testing are done.
(iv) Evaluation:
The customer evaluates the developed system and plans for the next iteration.
Advantages of Spiral Model:
Disadvantages of Spiral Model:
The iterative incremental model divides the product into small chunks.
For Example, Feature to be developed in the iteration is decided and implemented. Each iteration goes through the phases namely Requirement Analysis, Designing, Coding, and Testing. Detailed planning is not required in iterations.
Once the iteration is completed, a product is verified and is delivered to the customer for their evaluation and feedback. Customer feedback is implemented in the next iteration along with the newly added feature.
Hence, the product increments in terms of features, and once the iterations are completed the final build holds all the features of the product.
Phases of Iterative & Incremental Development Model:
(i) Inception Phase:
The inception phase includes the requirement and scope of the Project.
(ii) Elaboration Phase:
In the elaboration phase, the working architecture of a product is delivered which covers the risk identified in the inception phase and also fulfills the non-functional requirements.
(iii) Construction Phase:
In the Construction phase, the architecture is filled in with the code which is ready to be deployed and is created through analysis, designing, implementation, and testing of the functional requirement.
(iv) Transition Phase:
In the Transition Phase, the product is deployed in the Production environment.
Advantages of Iterative & Incremental Model:
Disadvantages of Iterative & Incremental Model:
Big Bang Model does not have any defined process. Money and efforts are put together as the input and output come as a developed product which might be or might not be the same as what the customer needs.
Big Bang Model does not require much planning and scheduling. The developer does the requirement analysis & coding and develops the product as per his understanding. This model is used for small projects only. There is no testing team and no formal testing is done, and this could be a cause for the failure of the project.
Advantages of the Big Bang Model:
Disadvantages of the Big Bang Model:
The agile Model is a combination of Iterative and incremental models. This model focuses more on flexibility while developing a product rather than on the requirement.
In Agile, a product is broken into small incremental builds. It is not developed as a complete product in one go. Each build increments in terms of features. The next build is built on previous functionality.
In agile iterations are termed sprints. Each sprint lasts for2-4 weeks. At the end of each sprint, the product owner verifies the product and after his approval, it is delivered to the customer.
Customer feedback is taken for improvement and his suggestions and enhancement are worked on in the next sprint. Testing is done in each sprint to minimize the risk of any failures.
Advantages of Agile Model:
Disadvantages:
Adherence to a suitable life cycle is very important, for the successful completion of the Project. This, in turn, makes the management easier.
Different Software Development Life Cycle models have their own Pros and Cons. The best model for any Project can be determined by the factors like Requirement (whether it is clear or unclear), System Complexity, Size of the Project, Cost, Skill limitation, etc.
For example, in case of an unclear requirement, Spiral and Agile models are best to be used as the required change can be accommodated easily at any stage.
The waterfall model is a basic model and all the other SDLC models are based on that only.
Hope you would have gained immense knowledge of SDLC.