INTRODUCTION
The Software Development Life Cycle as a collection of rules and practices helps to connect tech, non-tech team members and project stakeholders to transform your exceptional idea into a unique software product or solution.
Software product development is a highly organized process with precise procedures and strictly defined steps known as Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Whenever you need a sophisticated system, software suite, or end-user web or mobile app; your project delivery largely depends on a set of processes practiced by the development team.
This process is normally called the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and typically involves distinct stages which we will discuss in this article.
WHAT IS SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE?
The Software Development Life Cycle refers to the phases of work involved in producing software applications. Each phase corresponds to a role or responsibility that contributors make to the project. Contributors must understand, manage, and optimize to deliver their services with speed and performance.
These 5 stages of work include:
- Requirements gathering
- Design
- Coding
- Testing
- Implementation and maintenance
Each phase will produce deliverables required to execute the upcoming steps in this software life cycle. The requirements are eventually translated into perfected designs. The code is delivered in accordance with plans which are termed as the development phase. All these stages are executed with the help of a team of software development professionals who are crucial for each step. No stage is accomplished without another.
REQUIREMENTS GATHERING
Before the team of software developers can conjure the general idea for any software project it is essential for the team to gather the requirements. At this point the prime focus of the stakeholders and project managers is to define what the end product will be.
The requirements of the software are determined at this stage. Discussions are held between the various stake holders, managers, and users to find out what the particular software will be used for. Who will use it and how will they be using it? Information regarding what kind of input is required and what output is expected is collected during this stage. Once the information is collected, it is analyzed to see if the requirements can be incorporated into the software that is to be developed. After which, a Scope of Work document is developed to be used as a guide for the next stage.
This system development life cycle stage helps meet the client’s requirements by collecting the information in a single document to create a plan to develop the solution.
During this crucial software development stage, we spend time learning your business processes, pain points, challenges, technical ecosystem and goals. Once that information is gathered, we define goals and present you with a Scope of Work.
DESIGN
Once you validate your need for custom software, set your goals and outcomes, and agreed upon the scope of work with your development team, it’s time to get into the design.
Developers will first outline the details for the overall application, alongside specific aspects, such as:
- User interfaces
- System interfaces
- Network and network requirements
- Databases
CODING/DEVELOPMENMT
After receiving the design guidelines for the software to be created, the tasks in the design stage are divided equally into various units and modules. This is the stage where actual coding begins.
The development stage is the part where developers actually write code and build the application according to the earlier design documents and outlined specifications. Furthermore, it is the longest stage as it’s the backbone of the whole process and there are a number of vital things to pay attention to.
In the development and coding stage, remember:
- With the wireframes of the software laid out the coders are free to dive into the nitty-gritty. This is the bulk of the project where the heart of the software is built! In other words: this is where the ideas laid out in the first 3 steps become reality as a team of programmers bring them to life.
- Coding tasks are allocated as delegated by the scope of work created during steps 1 & 2 in a process called “task allocation”. This subdivision of labor ensures all programmers know what areas of code they are responsible for which will maximize efficiency.
Developers will obey specific predefined coding guidelines during this process. They will also use programming tools such as compilers, interpreters, debuggers to build and execute the code.
TESTING
After the development of the code it is tested to see if it meets all the requirements that were determined in the first stage. Various testing such as system testing, unit testing, acceptance testing, and integration testing are carried out. During the testing stage, developers will analyze their code with a fine-tooth comb; noting any bugs or defects that need to be tracked, fixed, and later re-tested.
Quality assurance teams test the software against the requirements to make sure that the software is solving the needs addressed and outlined during the planning phase.
It is important to remember:
- After programmers have dotted their i’s and crossed their t’s the software is sent to the quality control department of the team to test the product thoroughly for errors. In successful tests, a certain number of glitches are bound to be uncovered. They are fixed before any user ever experiences the would-be error message.
- Once every test can be passed without error the software is sent to be implemented.
Towards the end of the project, user acceptance testing should be performed to make sure the system has met the goals that were expected. If something unexpected were to occur the team can go back and redesign and rework their coding and perform additional analysis.
IMPLEMENTATION AND MAINTENANCE
After testing, this is the stage when the actual installation of the crafted solution takes place. It’s done step-by-step according to the implementation plan. The newly built and tested application is moved to production including data and components transfer while during the next releases only the specific changes will be deployed.
It is important to remember:
- The software is opened up a beta phase which involves real use by the clients and companies which will be adapting it upon launch.
- If any error is experienced, it is reported to the quality assurance team members who work with the programmers to patch a repair. After a prearranged amount of time during which the software can be operated error free, it is ready to officially launch to all users.
When the software passes through all the stages without any complications, a maintenance cycle is to be performed in which it is updated and modified from time to time to adapt to changes. Many models of system development life cycle came from the idea of saving effort, money and time.
CONCLUSION
SDLC can be a great tool that can help us with the highest level of documentation and management control. Failure to consider customer’s requirements, users or stakeholders can lead to project failure. The goal of software development is to locate predictable and repeatable methodologies which helps improve overall productivity as well as quality.
About 5280 Software LLC:
5280 Software LLC, located in Denver, Colorado is a premier software development firm. We have worked with a variety of clients over the years. Our expert team of developers have helped small to medium sized businesses, startups, as well as enterprise level clients such as RingCentral. Our custom software development services are tailored to solve whatever challenges your business is facing. If you are looking to build a mobile app, we can deliver flawless apple ios mobile apps as well as android mobile apps. These apps can be designed for smartphones, ipad and android tablets, wearable such as smart watches, and even smart TVs. The power of a well designed app to gain new customers is key in today’s market. We help execute your app development to perfection. A website is powerful tool for branding and showcasing the products or services you offer. We can build you a WordPress, E-Commerce, or custom coded website at competitive prices.
Once the site is launched, or if you already have a website, we offer Search Engine Optimization Services to achieve higher search engine rankings. Contact us today with your website’s URL and we will put together a free SEO analysis of your site with pricing and timeline to get your site ranked on the first page of Google and other search engines. Our experienced and dedicated team has a proven track record and provide regular reporting on tasks completed and keyword movements during your SEO project. We help businesses and companies gain rankings on all the major search engines. If you need the best mobile app development companies, you have found them!
Many businesses use multiple software packages and services to run their business. We offer custom software development services to streamline your business process. We have developed custom dashboards that can pull data from multiple points and display all this information in one place. Do you use an off the shelf CRM? 5280 Software LLC can customize this CRM or even build a custom CRM from the ground up based on your requirements. If you need a custom Windows desktop or Mac desktop application, feel free to reach out to us. 5280 Software LLC is your trusted custom software development company. We are also expert mobile app developers!
We can improve the understanding of your business and marketing outreach through the use of analytics. We offer a complete solution with the latest technologies to solve your obstacles and scale your customer base. From the start of any project (and at every stage, step, phase, and release) we focus on the client and always ask for feedback while we develop the project. Creating a quality solution for a business or startup is our end goal. Our strategy and processes are based on solid communication with our clients. 5280 Software LLC is one of the top mobile app development companies in the USA. We are far better than other mobile app development companies that charge more money for lower quality.
All projects are built according to a clearly defined scope of work. If you need assistance with scope creation, we offer this as a service. This scope of work will be used in the provided development contract. Make sure whomever you hire for your project provides you a development contract with clearly defined pricing, development timeline, payment schedule, and deliverables. We would like to learn about your project and help refine your scope of work. Our custom website, software, and mobile app development agency is here for you every step of the way.
If you have an idea for a mobile app, please emails us your full name or company name and we will send you a signed NDA. We send NDAs to all potential clients to guarantee your ideas and documents will be kept in confidence. Once an NDA is in place, feel free to book a free discovery call. You can also fill out our app development questionnaire to share the details of your project before your call. We are the leading firm specializing in building solutions for the web, iphones and other smart devices including IOT. Our company can create a custom solution on a variety of platforms using the most current popular programming languages. Weather it is a cross platform hybrid app or a natively programmed solution, we have you covered! Find out why we are one of the top software development companies in the U.S.A.
We look forward to speaking with you about your project. Learn why clients around the world trust working with 5280 Software LLC. We support our clients from mockups, sketch, wireframes, and graphic design, development, product launch and ASO when we publish your app, and even code updates at a competitive price point. Feel free to visit us on our social sites Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or send us a LinkedIn connection request to learn about our offers to get answers to your questions.
Let us turn your idea into reality!
