Development Lifecycle: from Pain Point Investigation to Headache Relief

Software requirements determination

The analysis stage gives a clear vision of the project. Here project managers define the idea and assign tasks to team members. The team defines the system requirements and the implementation procedure.

All requirements are divided into three groups: business requirements (client's tasks and goals), user requirements (actions carried out by the users, goals they achieve when using a product), and functional requirements (software capabilities including tools and functions by which the program performs key tasks and solve particular issues).

The following steps are:

• The analysis of key business areas the product is created for;
• Establishment of the goal and tasks the product carries out;
• Assigning tasks to the team at each development stage;
• Systematization of tasks and choosing tools/resources for development.

Design creation (Software design)

After defining requirements and developing the specification, the next step is design development. The design phase defines user scenarios (how users interact with the system), user flows (a path taken by users from page to page), and use cases (list of actions users perform on your website/web application).

The prototype indicates how the user interacts with the product and how the current design solves key tasks.

A well-designed prototype promotes the best structure and simplifies the actions needed to reach the aim (daily business processes).

Here it is necessary to take care of two things:

• Simplify the user path from the initial stages to the final result. It means that it is necessary to think over the logic, navigation, and elements structure. It is vital to combine all these aspects so users do not get lost among pages but achieve the desired aims with your product faster.
• Uniform website/application style. All system components must include consistency of style, color palette, fonts, etc. Such visual unity attracts users and forces them to carry on using your product.

The following steps are:

• Description of the project structure;
• Development of information and visual architecture;
• Prototypes creation;
• Design creation.

Development stage (Implementation)

The development stage is a key phase intended to provide interaction between people and the project. Based on chosen development tools, separate modules are created and combined to get a holistic product.

According to the system specification, developers create the user interface, work with databases, create algorithms, etc.

The following steps are:

• Algorithm development;
• Tools choosing;
• System implementation.

Testing

After the project is implemented, QA engineers compare the received result with the initial system requirements. They perform various quality control techniques to reveal and drop bugs.

The priority is to do a complex functionality assessment, explore each area, and find out whether the project complies with specification requirements. It is important to check not only product functionality but also usability, interface, and compatibility with other systems or elements.

The following steps are:

• Test method/plan development;
• Test scenario description;
• Bugs analysis;
• Test documentation creation.

Deploying and maintaining

Having convinced the product has no defects and works smoothly, it goes to the customer. This stage includes software installation and working capacity monitoring. The process is directed at product improvement and metrics systematization. During checking the system can be complemented with new functions or modifications.

Deploying and maintaining stand out for continuous communication between the client and the service provider.

Thus, the client can test how the system solves certain business challenges and what is the product behavior in different situations. It helps the clients to study the web resource details and suggest valuable modifications.

The following steps are:

• System analysis (system/technical issues);
• Modification introducing;
• Functionality extension;
• Adding new system opportunities.

Conclusion

Following the main points of our article, you will be aware of which parts and tasks each stage of SDLC includes. If you want to plunge into this more deeply, but, don't know whom to entrust to the development process, the Wetelo team is ready to help.