Brief the different stages of SDLC

Stages Of SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)

Project Planning
Gathering Requirements & Analysis
Design
Coding or Implementation
Testing
Deployment
Maintenance

Stage 1: Project Planning

The first stage of SDLC is all about “What do we want?” Project planning is a vital role in the software delivery lifecycle since this is the part where the team estimates the cost and defines the requirements of the new software.

Stage 2: Gathering Requirements & Analysis

The second step of SDLC is gathering maximum information from the client requirements for the product. Discuss each detail and specification of the product with the customer. The development team will then analyze the requirements keeping the design and code of the software in mind. Further, investigating the validity and possibility of incorporating these requirements into the software system. The main goal of this stage is that everyone understands even the minute detail of the requirement. Hardware, operating systems, programming, and security are to name the few requirements.

Stage 3: Design

In the design phase (3rd step of SDLC), the program developer scrutinizes whether the prepared software suffices all the requirements of the end-user. Additionally, if the project is feasible for the customer technologically, practically, and financially. Once the developer decides on the best design approach, he then selects the program languages like Oracle, Java, etc., that will suit the software.
Once the design specification is prepared, all the stakeholders will review this plan and provide their feedback and suggestions. It is absolutely mandatory to collect and incorporate stakeholder’s input in the document, as a small mistake can lead to cost overrun.

Stage 4: Coding or Implementation

Time to code! It means translating the design to a computer-legible language. In this fourth stage of SDLC, the tasks are divided into modules or units and assigned to various developers. The developers will then start building the entire system by writing code using the programming languages they chose. This stage is considered to be one of the longest in SDLC. The developers need certain predefined coding guidelines, and programming tools like interpreters, compilers, debugger to implement the code.
The developers can show the work done to the business analysts in case if any modifications or enhancements required.

Stage 5: Testing

Once the developers build the software, then it is deployed in the testing environment. Then the testing team tests the functionality of the entire system. In this fifth phase of SDLC, the testing is done to ensure that the entire application works according to the customer requirements.
After testing, the QA and testing team might find some bugs or defects and communicate the same with the developers. The development team then fixes the bugs and send it to QA for a re-test. This process goes on until the software is stable, bug-free and working according to the business requirements of that system.

Stage 6: Deployment

The sixth phase of SDLC: Once the testing is done, and the product is ready for deployment, it is released for customers to use. The size of the project determines the complexity of the deployment. The users are then provided with the training or documentation that will help them to operate the software. Again, a small round of testing is performed on production to ensure environmental issues or any impact of the new release.

Stage 7: Maintenance

The actual problem starts when the customer actually starts using the developed system and those needs to be solved from time to time. Maintenance is the seventh phase of SDLC where the developed product is taken care of. According to the changing user end environment or technology, the software is updated timely.