Software development firms in India utilize the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), a standardized procedure, to plan, create, and test high-quality software. The primary goal of the SDLC is to develop high-quality software that satisfies customer expectations and business needs and is delivered on schedule and within budget. The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a structure for clearly specified tasks carried through at each stage.
Importance of SDLC
- It serves as a manual for managing projects.
- It aids in identifying the precise end objectives.
- It aids in fulfilling customer needs.
- It aids in scheduling, analyzing, and getting rid of deliverables.
- It serves as a platform for a collection of similar activities.
- It guarantees delivery in a timely and accurate manner.
- It makes sure the project has been thoroughly tested.
- It offers ideal control and reduces project risks.
- It offers the project adaptability.
- It accurately monitors the project in all instances.
Software Development Methodologies:
There are numerous approaches to developing software, including multiple variations on both standard waterfall development and agile development.
Until recently, the most popular development approach was the waterfall approach, also referred to as V model development. The seven stages of this software development process are executed in the following order:
- Conduct research and analysis
- Design a solution
- Development of software
- Check for bugs
- Implementation
Today’s leading development techniques are all focused on agile concepts and practices. Every agile software development technique adheres to lean development principles, intended to increase productivity, minimize cost, and enhance efficiency. An agile software development company that utilizes agile development methodologies that offer more flexibility and allow code to be delivered at any time, rather than simply in regular increments, are currently taking the place of the once-dominant agile development with Scrum methodology.
Software Development Testing:
Software testing aims to assess the product’s quality and make it better by finding errors. It accomplishes this by applying a series of checks on the new product code. A range of testing methods is used in software testing techniques for software development, including:
The software that offers the functionality that is presumed is often referred to as “Utility” testing, this is the most basic testing type.
Non-functional testing is a crucial but frequently neglected phase of the development lifecycle that evaluates every aspect not directly related to the expected functionality.
Software Development Life Cycle Phases
Planning
The most crucial and fundamental phase of the SDLC is planning. With assistance from consumers, the sales and marketing department, and technical experts in the business, the most senior team members carry out everything. Using this data the software development firms in India conduct analyses of economic, legal, operational, technological, and scheduling viability.
This phase also includes project risk identification and planning for quality assurance (QA). The goal of this phase is to choose the strategy that will be used to carry out the project with the least possible risks.
The latest and most efficient planning tools are both essential components of effective planning. Let’s look at the software development project planning process to better understand the planning stage.
Process for Project Planning
There are 8 basic steps in the project planning process. One may define their needs, determine their approach, and create an action plan to move forward by using the project planning phases.
They are as follows:
- Description of the Strategic Plan
- Define the project’s scope
- Determine objectives and goals.
- Define the deliverables
- Make a project schedule.
- Provide your team with the task to complete.
- Analyze Risk
- Evaluate your development
Project Management Tools
Project planning software is a tool for project management plans like schedule planning, team management, resource allocation, budget estimates, and risk control.
The following are some of the top software and tools for project planning:
- Jira
- Mavenlink
- Kissflow Project
- Monday.com
Analysis and Gathering of Requirements
In the software development life cycle, this is the second stage (SDLC). The scope of the overall project is depicted in this phase, along with any associated problems, drawbacks, and opportunities.
Obtaining requirements
Analyzing and collecting the project requirements is the process of requirement gathering. The success of the project as an entire is highly reliant on the requirement-gathering process.
Process for Collecting Requirements
There are four main steps in the requirement gathering process. They are as follows:
- Assigning roles
- Conducting stakeholder interviews
- Compiling and documenting requirements
- Process monitoring and feedback
Requirements Analysis
User expectations are determined by requirement analysis or requirement engineering before new software is created or old software is modified.
Activities of Requirement Analysis
There are four different kinds of activities in requirement analysis.
- Contacting customers and users to ascertain their exact requirements is the process of requirement elicitation.
- Evaluating the requirements that are Uncertain, Conflicting, or incomplete, and then fixing the problems discovered.
- Using case models, user stories, natural language files, and process specifications are mostly a few types of documentation requirements.
- Review And Retrospective include the team members examining iterations and making final changes to move ahead.
Requirement Analysis Methods and techniques
There are two groups into which requirement analysis techniques can be divided. These groups include:
REQUIREMENTS FOR BUSINESS:
A company’s purpose, goals, and strategy are related to business requirements. They explain the wide range of company concerns that need to be resolved.
Methods for determining relevant business requirements
- Gap Analysis – BPMN
- Gap Analysis – ArchiMate
- As-is and To-be Analysis – BPMN
- Mapping the Customer Journey
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS:
The processes required to fulfill business requirements are divided into smaller parts by software requirements. Software requirements are more concerned with “What” than “Why,” as business requirements do.
Methods for determining relevant software requirements
- Use case diagrams
- Data Flow Diagrams (DFD)
- User Narratives
The SRS document, which includes the overall project requirements, is created after this phase.
Designing and Prototyping
The Software Requirement Specifications (SRS) document is transformed into a design specification at the beginning of this SDLC phase.
This phase, which involves stakeholder input into the paper, is critical. The following SDLC phase uses the stated overall system architecture as its input.
Let’s examine software design in more detail within the SDLC life cycle.
Software Design Process
There are three levels of the designing process that comprise the software design process:
ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN:
The system’s most simplified form is architecture design. Additionally, it identifies the system as a network of interconnected parts. The designers now have a clearer understanding of the proposed solution domain.
HIGH-LEVEL OR Preliminary Design:
The issue is divided into a set of modules in this scenario. In this stage of the SDLC, the control relationship and connectivity between the various modules are determined. Diagrams and structure charts are utilized as representational methods.
DETAILED DESIGN:
After high-level design work is complete, detailed design is considered. Each module is checked in the detailed design process to create the algorithms and data structures. The module and its implementation are examined in more detail in this phase.
Definition of prototyping
An incomplete prototype of a software application or product under development is called a prototype. One can describe it as a functional working model of the software.
Software Prototyping Methods
Software development firms in India employ a variety of prototype techniques. The main categories of prototypes that software developers prefer in the software development process are listed below.
Throwaway / Rapid Prototyping:
Throwaway prototyping is also known as Rapid or Close Ended prototyping. This kind of prototyping requires less work and a minimum requirements analysis. When requirements are clear, this prototype is scrapped, and new software is created with a greater comprehension of user needs.
Evolutionary prototyping:
The foundation of evolutionary prototyping often referred to as breadboard prototyping, is the creation of a working prototype with the barest of features at the start of the software development process. When adopting evolutionary prototyping, the prototype is only improved upon to meet the known requirements.
Incremental prototyping:
Building numerous operational prototypes of multiple subsystems is known as incremental prototyping. Following that, a full system is created by integrating every accessible prototype. This technique helps the software development team and the user to communicate more quickly.
Extreme prototyping:
In web development, extreme prototyping is employed, and it has three successive phases. A primitive HTML prototype of all the current pages is shown in the first phase. Then, using a prototype service layer, data processing is simulated in the second phase. Third-phase implementation and integration of the services with the finalized prototype.
Coding and Software Development
Coding is the following stage in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) after design. The actual software development phase is at this phase. Implementation is another term for this SDLC step.
Software engineers at software development firms in India begin developing the code for the entire software program or product during this phase. The process of creating software involves the usage of numerous programming languages.
During the coding and implementation stage, tasks are divided into smaller parts or modules and provided to developers. Small projects might just require a few developers, whilst for a larger projects software company in India employs an entire team of software developers.
Testing
The software is deployed in the testing environment after it has been developed and coded. The software testing team thoroughly tests the developed code during this phase, and any flaws are then forwarded to the software developers to be corrected. This procedure is repeated until the software is safe, error-free, and performing to expectations. Different methods are used by software testing teams and individual software testers.
Testing Techniques
The test strategy to be used in a project is called a testing approach. The testing Approach describes the best practices for conducting tests. There are various testing strategies, however, the following are the most popular ones:
BLACK BOX TESTING
The software testing technique is known as “black box testing” which involves testing software applications’ functions without having access to the internal code structure, internal routes, or implementation specifics. Behavioral testing is another term for black box testing. In this case, the software testers are only aware of what the software is intended to do, not how it achieves it.
There are three different types of black box testing.
- Functional Testing
- Non-Functional Testing
- Regression Testing
WHITE BOX TESTING
The design, coding, and internal systems of software are tested using the software testing technique known as “white box testing.” White box testing is carried out to validate the functionality of the software and enhance its performance, security, and design. Testing with a white box is often referred to as transparent testing, clear testing, open testing, glass testing, and codebase testing.
White Box testing offers a wide range of forms and subforms. However, unit testing is the most typical and well-known type.
GREY BOX TESTING
Software testing methodology known as “Gray Box Testing” combines “Black Box Testing” and “White Box Testing.” In the Black Box Testing technique, the tester is unaware of the inside structure of the product being tested, whereas, in the White Box Testing technique, the tester is aware of the interior structure. In Gray Box Testing, the internal structure is only partially known. The purpose of creating the test cases also involves access to internal data structures and algorithms.
Deployment
Depending on the needs of the customer, the software application or product is either deployed in a production environment or undergoes UAT (User Acceptance Testing) after the testing phase is over. According to a software development company’s business plan, deployment may occasionally take place in phases.
Process of Software Deployment
Every software development company has a unique process for deploying its applications. Preparation, testing, and deployment are the three phases that constitute software deployment altogether.
Software developers compile all the code, functions, libraries, files, and resources necessary for the software application to operate during the preparation stage. These elements are combined into a single software release.
- Testing: Automated testing is used to thoroughly test the software before it is deployed to a live environment.
- Deployment: The program is deployed to a live environment after it has been thoroughly tested. Before releasing software, software developers might execute a set of scripts to update relevant databases. The last step is to examine the live server for problems and errors.
- Maintenance and Upgrading
Software upgrades and maintenance are carried out after it has been deployed into the production environment. The software developers at a software company in India take care of any problems that need to be fixed or any improvements that need to be made.