There are various software development approaches ,these approaches are also referred as “Software Development Process Models” (e.g. Waterfall model, incremental model, V-model, iterative model, etc.).
Each phase produces deliverables required by the next phase in the life cycle. Requirements are translated into design. Code is produced according to the design which is called development phase. After coding and development the testing verifies the deliverable of the implementation phase against requirements.
There are following six phases in every Software development life cycle model:
- Requirement gathering and analysis
- Design
- Implementation or coding
- Testing
- Deployment
- Maintenance
1) Requirement gathering and analysis:
Business requirements are gathered in this phase. This phase is the main focus of the project managers and stake holders. Meetings with managers, stake holders and users are held in order to determine the requirements.These are general questions that get answered during a requirements gathering phase. After requirement gathering these requirements are analyzed for their validity and the possibility of incorporating the requirements in the system to be development is also studied.
2) Design:
In this phase the system and software design is prepared from the requirement specifications which were studied in the first phase. System Design helps in specifying hardware and system requirements and also helps in defining overall system architecture. The system design specifications serve as input for the next phase of the model.
3) Implementation / Coding:
The work is divided in modules/units and actual coding is started. Since, in this phase the code is produced so it is the main focus for the developer. This is the longest phase of the software development life cycle.
4) Testing:
After the code is developed it is tested against the requirements to make sure that the product is actually solving the needs addressed and gathered during the requirements phase. During this phase unit testing, integration testing, system testing, acceptance testing are done.
5) Deployment:
After successful testing the product is delivered / deployed to the customer for their use.
6) Maintenance:
Once when the customers starts using the developed system then the actual problems comes up and needs to be solved from time to time. This process where the care is taken for the developed product is known as maintenance.
