You are all set to hand over your project to the best custom software development company from the ones you shortlisted. But are you sure your requirements will be perfectly met, you’ll get regular updates on the work done, and the software development project will wind up on time? Is there a way you can ascertain if the development team you chose has all the tasks streamlined and the process under control? Well, that’s where the software development lifecycle (SDLC) plays its role.
In this blog, we’ll tell you the importance of the software development lifecycle, its phases, and why it’s essential to choose the right methodology.
Importance of Software Development Life Cycle
The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a series of processes that a development team should follow in order to construct and maintain a software product. These steps are defined by the acronym SDLC. It begins with the decision to develop software and ends when the software is secure against all threats and exploitations. In between, there are a lot of steps in between. There are many stages in the SDLC process. It is in fact a road map of the software development process that details everything in minute detail.
But why exactly is it vital for you to understand the software development life cycle?
The procedures for developing software are rather complicated. Even when project managers put in their absolute best effort to meet deadlines, there is still a chance that deadlines will not be met due to inadequate planning, hurried decision-making, or both. You, on the other hand, do not desire any of these. The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a diagram that details all of the stages and activities that occur during the software development process. The next steps that stakeholders, particularly developers, should take are clear in everyone’s mind at this point. Hence, a software development life cycle (SDLC) makes it possible for enterprises to enjoy the benefits of predictable software development.
An SDLC is one of the only ways to ensure that all demands and necessities of business owners and end users are fulfilled. It’s the outline of how the desired software product will be achieved.
But, how does a software development life cycle work?
This is a frequently asked question to us as a custom software development company. SDLC improves the quality of development and focuses on reducing the time it will take. This ultimately helps in lowering the overall cost. Since it requires following a specific plan, removing the typical pitfalls of the software project becomes easier while achieving divergent goals.
To get into the depth of how Software Development Life Cycle works, you must understand its different phases.
Phases of Software Development Life Cycle
You may realize that the phases of Software Development Life Cycle are similar to the software development process. The former is an outline of the latter and states the goals to achieve, while the software development process is all about implementing the SDLC in 3D.
Phase 1- Ideation and Requirements Gathering
During this phase, the primary focus is on the conceptualization of the software product, as well as the gathering of business needs with the purpose of documenting everything. Also included in this phase is the collection of business requirements. In addition, there is a focus throughout this phase on the collection of business needs, which plays an important role. This stage in the process focuses on generating ideas, coming to terms with the realities of the situation, and making a list of the needs that must be met by and from the software from the perspective of industry professionals, key stakeholders, and possible customers. The list is used to determine whether or not the software will be successful in meeting those needs. This list is used as a reference for directing the continued development of the software.
The owners of the project will, once this stage has been completed, detail the scope of the project, including the resources that will be necessary, the budget, the deadlines, the potential threats, and the quality assurance processes. Each and every one of these particulars are kept under the utmost discretion within the official documents that make up the Software Requirement Specification, which is a collection of official documents. As a direct result of this, the project managers, business analysts, development teams, and quality assurance teams should use this document as an essential reference source and pay close attention to it at all times.
Phase 2- Designing
At this phase, the requirements for the software development project are transformed into a robust design. It is now time to put the finishing touches on the high-level and below-level design aspects of the software. During this phase, all of the decisions that are to be made pertaining to the software architecture, as well as its appearance and feel, are to be made. During the designing phase, there may be multiple design documents, coding rules, tools, frameworks, runtime, best practices, and other elements involved. Everything needs to be in line with the objectives that are outlined in the software requirements specification.
Phase 3- Software Development
At this stage in the development process, the actual software is being constructed with the assistance of its relevant program codes. Such codes can be found in various folders. The phase of the SDLC(software development life cycle) that deals with testing the product is far more predictable than the phase that deals with the design of the product, despite the fact that it is one of the stages that takes the most time.
Design Papers and Coding
Software engineers are responsible for taking the design papers and writing the codes for the various components of your software using the design documents as a guide. Each individual member of the team is responsible for a unique set of responsibilities that are assigned to them in accordance with the fields of expertise that they bring to the table. These responsibilities are delegated to them in accordance with the areas of knowledge that they bring to the table.
Front-end developers are responsible for constructing the user interface as well as establishing a connection between the user interface and the server. They are also responsible for maintaining the connection between the user interface and the server. In addition to this, the personnel who are in charge of the database provide a great deal of other pertinent information.
One of the most effective ways to ensure that the software product you build is of good quality is to make use of a diverse range of tools, frameworks, and coding standards. After the completion of this stage, everyone who has a vested interest in the project will have access, not only to the program itself but also to the document that stores the source code. When you hire a custom software developer, you can look for specializations based on the tools, frameworks, or languages that you want to use for your software.
Phase 4- Testing
Once the software is ready, it’s time for a quality check. Just imagine you’ve got a new pair of pants stitched but the zipper doesn’t work or it doesn’t fit you well. In the same way, if the software fails to do what you expect from it, all efforts would be in vain. Thus quality assurance is an important aspect. When the developers complete their tasks, the Quality Assurance (QA) team measures the quality of the software by conducting various tests. A brief about them is given below:
- Functional Testing: It ensures that the software follows all the requirements mentioned in Software Requirement Specification.
- Performance Testing: This checks whether the software can work well even under a workload. It focuses on the responsiveness, speed, and stability of the application in different situations.
- Unit Testing: It involves individual testing for each component. If there’s an error or flaw in any of them, the software developers would fix it.
- Security Testing: It aims to verify the software system’s security from all perspectives.
- Usability Testing: This test involves checking the user-facing components to ensure that the software is intuitive and easy to use for the users.
If any bugs are reported at this stage, the software developers would fix them, and the component will be tested again. Quality assurance is an ongoing process that continues till the software is completely free from bugs.
Phase 5- Deployment and Maintenance
At this phase of development, beta consumers in the market can access the software so that they can test it. The support personnel is responsible for collecting user feedback and implementing any modifications that are deemed necessary as a reaction to that feedback. The program that has been implemented requires continual maintenance and reinforcement, which might take the shape of additional feature sets, increased functionality, and so on and so forth.
Although it is relatively simple to outsource app development to organizations that specialize in information technology, not all of those companies give assistance once the deployment has been finished. You may have designed a terrific app, but what good would it do if it suddenly started having widespread technical troubles that made it difficult for your users to make use of it? A predicament such as this one may damage your reputation, which can then result in financial losses for you.
To understand why support & maintenance are crucial for your software.
Most Popular SDLC Methodology
SDLC methodologies are basically, structured approaches to software development. It is a combination of production and design philosophies along with human activities to get better software outcomes. The most common Software Development Life Cycle methodologies are:
- Agile
- Waterfall
In today’s time, Agile is the most popular SDLC(Software Development Life Cycle) methodology consisting of the best development and managerial practices. Its major focus remains on project teams and how they collaborate with each other. We won’t go too deep into this sea of concepts, but let’s touch the shores so that you can make better initial decisions for your project.
What is Agile Development?
One of the most common software development life (SDLC) cycle approaches employed by software development teams is agile. Even university courses and intensive programming courses incorporate it into their curricula. The Agile Manifesto is the source of this methodology, which is based on its 12 core principles. Its primary concentration is on:
- Providing timely and consistent service to the customers in order to gain their satisfaction
- Improved communication and cooperation between the technical and business teams
- Developing an atmosphere conducive to the expansion of skilled individuals’ potential
- Communication that is unobstructed and uncluttered
- Taking a look at how the team has been performing and making any required adjustments
Agile development provides teams with the opportunity to expand their capacity for both technical effectiveness and their ability to effectively collaborate with one another. It improves cross-functionality and enhances flexibility in terms of problem-solving. It allows teams the autonomy to decide on the resources and skill sets that are required to finish a project. Further, it provides support to the teams as they make these decisions.
Custom Software Development With Narola Infotech
At Narola Infotech, we understand the perks and follow agile development ourselves. We are thriving as a custom software development company New York, India, and on the East Coast of the USA over the last 17+ years. We are a team of 350+ skilled and motivated developers, designers, and quality analysts, who leave no stone unturned when it comes to satisfying clients with a reliable software product.
Our software development methodology seeks to deliver the proper product by releasing small chunks of functionality incrementally and often through small cross-functional self-organizing teams. Thus we get frequent input from customers to help with course correction whenever required. Because of the continual evaluation of requirements, plans, and results, the agile teams that we utilize have a natural mechanism that enables them to adjust swiftly to change.
If you have any queries or software projects to discuss that you want to build/upgrade with us, feel free to connect.