SDLC - Explained

If you're a software developer in a specific field, you'll need to know how to conduct the development process, right? Software development relies on several stages during the construction of systems or software being worked on. In this article, we'll explain what the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is, its importance, and many related topics.

Leading companies in modern system development fields are concerned with the process of building software projects or others. You need to know the basics that go into these processes. It divides the work into parts for each person involved in building and developing these systems, each with a specific role, passing through several stages, and each of the workers taking the part in which they excel in working on developing this software within the SDLC. But we need to know what the Software Development Life Cycle is.

It is a set of processes divided into several stages according to the project's needs, through which the organization and arrangement of building and development processes for modern software projects are organized. These processes contribute to working on the development of complete projects efficiently and effectively, saving time and effort.

It enhances the project development process to a greater extent and at a lower cost, requiring precise analytical skills to determine the stages through which the specific project will pass according to its needs. This reduces financial costs on companies and enhances the efficiency of the systems and software developed based on that life cycle equivalently to the required standards and performance.

Systems and software go through seven basic stages during their development process, which are divided and arranged accurately according to the project and its needs, and fewer stages may be sufficient. It all lies in the goal of creating the software initially, and then some procedures after testing the completion of building that software, whether it is suitable or needs modifications, we add more procedures and stages. The stages are:

1- Planning: In this initial stage, several measures are taken before starting to develop the software project or system by identifying the purpose of building this project (feasibility of the project). Also, determining the costs and wages for the labor and participants in developing this project or those benefiting from it. Also, a time frame or schedule specific to the project is determined, showing the stages it will go through and how much time it will take to accomplish it. In short, it is the map specific to the project.

2- Analysis: One of the most important stages after the planning process is to conduct an analysis of the system, its requirements, and the needs of the target customers for whom the system will be developed. Here we analyze the system's requirements by determining the systems, tools, and software that will be used before creating this project, to the possibility of finding some alternatives that may save us from paying additional costs, or there might be something identified from the requirements or plan that doesn't benefit us in this project. Also, regarding customers, the customers' desires are analyzed, and what they do not want to exist within the project, which may require making some modifications to the plan drawn up in the planning stage.

3- Software Design: Here, I don't mean designing the front-end graphical interfaces of the software! But I mean designing the complete project layout in terms of several categories, including architectural engineering of the software in terms of programming languages, required tools, templates, program shape, and so on. It also includes specifying the systems that will have this software and that are compatible with it, such as Windows, Linux, or others. Also, security operations and the required level of security for this program that will suit its need. And other matters that can be taken as fundamental points in designing the software model and its plan.

4- Development Start: Here we come to the stage of writing the code and performing programming operations and development on it by developers and programmers. Here, we focus on designing the front-end interface of the program and the codes that will work in the back-end responsible for the operations and processes carried out away from the users' eyes behind the front-end interface. All of this is in accordance with the plans and models taken in the previous three points.

5- Testing: In this stage, tests are conducted on the software's performance efficiency, whether it works as required or needs modifications. The tests vary, including security testing of the project, or testing that there is no error in the performance of a specific function, or examining the vulnerabilities that may exist in it, or whether the design is suitable or not, and many other different tests on it. If software errors are found here, they must be corrected before starting the next process.

6- Deployment and Installation: We transfer the software from the development environment used by developers to carry out the development and construction process and fix errors in the project, to the operational stage specific to the targeted users, where they can now install the software and work on it normally.

7- Maintenance: Of course, after deploying and installing the software, we will receive feedback from users, and feedback can be classified as the seventh point and maintenance as the eighth point, as I said that the software development life cycle varies from one project to another, and you can modify it as you like. Problems usually arise at the beginning of projects, and this is normal, so maintenance operations and fixing problems encountered by users based on what they have obtained from criticisms and proposed solutions about the software by users are carried out here. I can add an eighth point after maintenance called updates if you want, updates that will be added to the software after a certain period of its release or over the coming years, it is natural that updates and improvements to systems are made in stages and different versions, so we must keep up with modern technologies and the needs of customers and get the best quality.

Due to the great importance now for companies in taking appropriate measures and planning that may provide many benefits and solve many problems that we want to overlook in software development, the Software Development Life Cycle has become extremely important and urgently needed, for several reasons: