The 5 Stages of Software Development Life Cycle
Therefore, a typical software development lifecycle goes through the following standard stages:
Requirement Analysis
In this phase the requirements for the project are defined by the Business Analysts. Therefore, the team identifies why the application needs to be built, who will be the system users, what are the gaps, how the new application can bridge the gaps, infrastructure requirements etc. At the end of this phase the functional specification documents, gap analysis document etc. are created.
Design and Development
During this stage database modeling, software structuring, interface design, prototype development etc. takes place. At the end of this phase design documents such as the General Design Document (GDD)/Detailed Design Document (DDD) and also the codes are developed.
Quality Assurance and Testing
This is the stage for installing build, system testing, bug fixing, User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and for preparing testing reports. At the end of this phase a stable application with minimized errors is ready for deployment.
Implementation and Deployment
During this stage trainings are conducted and the software application is deployed at pilot sites initially followed by complete roll out. At the end of this phase a fully functional, stable application is ready for use.
Maintenance and Support
During this period knowledge transfer, change requests, if any, impact analysis and all pending documentation is completed. At the end of this phase, the vendor team hands over all the elements of the project including codes, documents and software licenses to the client.
