A Free Guide to Software Development Life Cycle

And it's not only for developers or project managers.

The SDLC is crucial for everyone who creates, manages, and maintains software systems, especially:

Developers: SDLC phases give a structured approach to building software according to the specifications mentioned in the project scope. They give a big picture of where you are heading without losing sight of the goals. Each phase is an extension of the previous one, ensuring fewer surprises or setbacks in the later phases of development.

Project Managers: It is a blueprint for planning, assigning resources, managing risks, and assuring quality development. Each phase helps keep your team and the project on track, ensuring that all the deliverables are met on time and ready for the next phase.

Business Analysts: SDLC helps business analysts properly analyze the project's requirements and convert those needs into technical specifications. Everyone involved in the development phase is aware of those needs and can address them.

Quality Assurance (QA) Teams: The software you build should meet the highest quality standards. QA teams ensure that by testing the software at each stage of the development. They develop the best software test strategies and use the best testing tools.

IT and Operations Teams: This part of the development team also needs to understand the phases in the system development life cycle. With this knowledge and understanding, they can easily deploy and maintain the software.

Let's Move to the Stages of SDLC Phases

There are seven stages in total in the system development. Do not miss any stage. In the later section of our guide, we will tell you what would happen if you skip even a single step.

Stage 1. Planning Phase

It is the foundation phase for a successful project, during which the development team conducts a comprehensive analysis of project requirements, clients' goals, and any possible challenges along the route.

Key activities:

• Defining the scope to understand what the system should achieve.
• Doing a feasibility study to understand the system's technical, economic, legal, and operational aspects. It helps in assessing whether the project can be done within the specified budget, time, and resources.
• Identifying how many software developers would be required, the types of tools and technologies, and financial resources for the software.
• Identify potential risks during the later phases of the system development and develop strategies to avoid those pitfalls.

Stage 2. Requirement Analysis Phase

The next step is to gather and document the needs for your software. This is a very important stage, as even a small oversight or incorrect analysis can impact the software's performance.

Key activities:

• Ask your clients, do market analysis, and take other stakeholders' requirements.
• Document every need, functional or non-functional, in a clear format and easy-to-understand language, so everyone on the technical and non-technical team can understand.
• Rank the requirements according to their urgency and priorities. Prioritization will help in deciding which component needs to be developed first.

Stage 3. Design Phase

The project starts taking shape at this stage. All the 'what' will transform into 'how', helping the team understand the system's architecture and technical design. Everything at this phase is the result of the previous phase.

Key activities:

• Outlining components, their interactions, and data flow through high-level designs.
• Detailing the designs focusing on each component, module, interface, and data structure.
• Planning on the data storage. This includes creating data models, defining schemas, and relationships between different data entities.
• Designing the user interface through UI mockups, wireframes, and prototypes.

Stage 4. Development Phase

Here comes the most important stage of the system's life cycle: development. The design documents and wireframes guide the code for each module and feature.

Key activities:

• Writing quality codes for each module.
• Testing each piece of code separately to identify errors or bugs.
• Regularly reviewing and fixing code errors.

Development does not happen in one go. Multiple reworks, iterations, and refinements occur before the code finally moves to the next phase.

Stage 5. Testing Phase

At this stage, the quality and efficiency of the code are checked to ensure it works in real-world conditions. The efforts of both developers and the QA team are required for the success of this phase. The testers may perform a variety of tests to ensure this.

Types of testing:

• Functional testing is used to check the exact functionality of each module.
• Performance testing checks whether the software is working under different load conditions.
• Security testing is used to identify how to secure the code.
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is used to verify whether the system is finally working according to the end-users' expectations.

Testing is a continuous phase of SDLC. It ends once the system ticks all the checkboxes that confirm it is ready for deployment and launch in the market. Documentation is again important to 

verify that all the fixes are done and for future reference.

Stage 6. Deployment Phase

It's time to make the system live. This requires careful planning and execution to smoothly launch the system or software into the client's or target market's existing infrastructure.

Key activities:

• Setting up and configuring the system to ensure everything is installed in the production environment.
• Migrating any existing data from the old system into the new one with proper backups.
• Training the end users through documentation.
• Monitoring the performance of the system once it goes live.

Stage 7. Maintenance Phase

The system development life cycle continues once it goes live. What you do after that determines how long the system will work and how effectively it meets the defined needs.

There are four types of maintenance that your system requires post-deployment:

• Corrective maintenance to fix any issues users report after the system goes live.
• Adaptive maintenance is used to update the system with new regulations and technologies or according to changes in business processes.
• Preventive maintenance to prevent future problems, boost the system's performance, and make it more reliable.
• User Support to troubleshoot the issues and gather user feedback for potential improvements.

Maintenance is an ongoing phase. It may require more effort than the initial development, depending on whether you have properly followed the previous phases or your system is complex. Changes in user base and needs also determine how long you are required to maintain the system.

Why Every Step Matters?

The above mentioned steps in the system development have a purpose and address the critical needs of your client and their customers. Ignorance or skipping even a single step can cause your project to fail. 

The software might face quality or performance issues later. Fixing the errors will not only take more time but also be challenging, as you may have to rework some parts of the software.Here's more of what could go wrong if you miss any phase.

Planning Phase: System development can lead to scope creep without proper planning. Project managers may need to align the resources or set realistic timelines, which would cause problems for the developers. Skipping this phase will impact the development team, stakeholders, and the software development company's reputation.

Requirement Analysis: Would you rather start developing software without knowing your client's expectations or technical requirements? Missing this phase is like trying to hit the target in the dark. You may miss crucial functionality or overlook non-functional requirements (like security and scalability). Such a system is a waste of time, effort, and money.

Design: A solid design helps you visualize how the software would look. Skipping this phase means poor interaction between different parts of the software, inadequate data management, and issues that will continue throughout every phase of the entire project.

Development: Although you will not miss this stage, skipping a few development parts 

accidentally can lead to faulty software. The major success of your software depends on this stage.

Testing: A code can never be 100% bug-free. Even if you completely trust your coding skills, it is always good to test because enterprise systems are large and heavy. Skipping this phase will bring unexpected errors later in the system.

Deployment: Do not directly deploy the software. There is a structured approach for this, and missing it means putting your software at risk. Errors and integration issues can lead to poor user adoption and disrupt your client's business.

Maintenance: Skipping maintenance over time can leave the system vulnerable to bugs, security threats, and compatibility issues. Consistent maintenance ensures long-term performance, security, and user satisfaction.

Conclusion

The System Development Life Cycle is more than a technical checklist. It's a structured approach to developing high-quality systems that solve real-world problems. Understanding each phase is thus important for developers, project managers, business analysts, QA, and the IT Team.

Even stakeholders should know the SDLC phases properly to ensure the software development partner is aligned with the overall vision and requirements. It is like getting an overview of how things are going and getting clarity on resource and cost utilization.