Most of the world’s businesses are dependent upon technological tools – and many rely upon custom software development. The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a set of standard procedures that promotes the development, testing, and maintenance of software applications. This ensures that dependencies and processes are sorted out, allowing for better quality control and fewer bugs during the product development phase.

When creating a software product, everything boils down to the process you follow from beginning to end. A Software Life Cycle is a set of procedures and protocols that sum up a set of specific activities that help you develop commercially viable and useful software for your business or clients.

 

All business owners know the importance of custom software development and that it can deliver high ROI (Return on Investment). Why is that? Because the process of developing the product, from step one to the final rollout, is a loop designed for customer satisfaction.

 

The importance of the software development life cycle (SDLC) process for custom software cannot be overemphasized. It is, however, imperative to note that each SLDC can vary depending on the project size and complexity. Larger projects will require a longer process.

 

Customized software development life cycles are a series of steps designed to achieve a particular goal. It is a systematic approach to the entire project lifecycle. There are various steps involved in this process and once a project team gets complete control over it, they can better manipulate their costs and time estimates as well.

 

There are a variety of product development models and not all of them cover the same steps. For example, the Waterfall model is one of the most popular models and it does not include Agile or Iterative methods while others do. The bottom line is that you should choose a process that best suits your company’s requirements and will help you complete the software project within your predefined budget and time frame. These steps follow a logical order and include:

Requirement Gathering and Analysis

Requirement gathering and analysis serve as a starting point for the successful development of the project. Collecting all the necessary requirements from clients helps stakeholders and the involved parties to come up with a well-defined software solution. It is crucial to ensure that the end product meets the company’s and most importantly, your client’s, expectations.

 

These two processes go hand-in-hand as the final stage is only achieved when the details have been analyzed thoroughly. Moreover, every organization, whether large or small, should have a Software Requirement Specification (SRS) document to streamline the project development and documentation process. This stage also ensures that the development of software starts on the right footing, and it helps in reducing the misunderstandings which lead to project delays and failures.

Design and Prototyping

Design is the most important phase of any software project. This is where ideas become reality (or at least a reality). It’s where stakeholders can give feedback on what they want, and developers can start building functionality. The design phase can go a long way toward ensuring that everyone in the project is on the same page.

 

Designers outline common user interface requirements, tasks, and interfaces for the system. These will be used by development teams throughout the project in order to ensure that both sides are working on the same specifications. This stage also relies upon prototypes and mock-ups to clarify proposed program components and outline potential problems that can surface in later stages.

 

Design and Prototyping set the initial tone for everything else that will happen in the project. If you get the design wrong, there is a good chance that other aspects of the project will go horribly wrong as well. The design does not just mean graphical design. Rather, it means user interface design, communication design, and even architecture design.

 

It is good practice to follow the design stage of your software with a prototype. The prototype offers an early representation of how the software may work. This helps to confirm the features that can be included and those which cannot. Making changes at this point will save time and money. A prototype should be built with the same technology as the final product so that it can run similar processes and make clear demonstrations attaching realistic expectations to users.

 

A fully functional software prototype can act as a visual aid during functional design meetings with clients and development teams. A prototype can also be the foundation for higher fidelity wireframes. The prototyping phase of the design process is often referred to as “low-fidelity prototypes” or even “paper prototypes.” This is mainly because designers use simple tools such as pencil and paper, sticky notes, or even PowerPoint instead of a dedicated prototyping tool.

Coding and Implementation Development

After the product has been designed, developers begin to work. When it comes to developing software, the development stage is the most important part of the software engineering process. All the design features and components decided earlier are implemented into code.

 

The development stage is often where the most critical flaws in software and application security develop, especially when not executed properly. In short, developing software is the process of writing code and testing it to find any problems.

 

Software development is an integral step in the creation of any software product. Without a development stage, unexpected bugs might occur after the launch of your business. The development stage is where the actual code is written, the application is built and tested, and most importantly – bugs are ironed out.

Software Testing

Software testing is a crucial part of software development, and the goal of each team is “zero defects.” Software is thoroughly tested before developing new features so that if any bugs are encountered during implementation, they can be corrected before the final design is fixed.

 

Testing software after it has been developed is essential if you want to ensure you have a quality product. The methods of testing software can range from small-scale usability tests to full-blown project testing. Each of these testing endeavors plays a vital role in making sure the right products are delivered on time and in a consistent manner.

 

Software testing can be done in several ways and depends on the complexity of the project. For example, checking if an app runs smoothly on different devices takes several platform tests. These tests help develop, modify and fix issues before the product is delivered to the client. In addition, these tests ensure that your software will function seamlessly in different systems to ensure there are no compatibility problems.

Deployment

After a software product is developed, it is deployed and allows an application or solution to be used by end-users or consumers. The software deployment process encompasses updating and improving source code, as well as bringing the product to users by writing installation packages and deploying the product on a company network or web server. While it may seem straightforward on paper, deploying software can be quite a challenging task. There are several things that should be taken into account when deploying a new application or upgrading an existing one. With a deployment solution, companies can easily move their products to cloud environments.

 

After the initial prototype has been tested and any issues have been resolved, the software is deployed to a production environment. Although additional testing is usually required in this environment, it is likely that this is the first chance an independent auditor has to review significant amounts of the design documentation that was prepared during the development phase. Various forms of software deployment exist, such as offline software distribution, file transfer protocol (FTP), web download, and automated update systems. The choice of type depends on what exactly is being deployed, the potential for failure, the number of users affected, and other variables.

Support and Maintenance

Software maintenance is the final stage of the software development life cycle in which you build and improve upon the product or service that has been created. Correctly implemented, this stage transforms all the planning and effort from prior phases into a tangible product, implemented in the production environment.

 

After the deployment of the product, it is maintained by the developers who monitor its performance and fix bugs if there are any. This stage also allows developers to obtain new requirements from their customers to improve consistency in software quality and functionality.

The Custom Software Development Life Cycle is an active process that involves all the people who are involved in software development. Starting with the meetings and discussions about the features that the software product must have and the intended audience the business will reach, to testing and deployment, every activity in this process is designed for a specific purpose. With highly regarded companies that provide software solutions, including small web application developers, following this life cycle will help produce a top-quality product.