Software Development Life Cycle

• Identify current problems in collaboration with stakeholders.
• Planning: create «Software Requirement Specification» documents. Planning is more than just setting milestones.
• Definition
• Design: turn requirements into «Design Specification» documents.
• Build
• Test: determine gap between requirements and what was built.
• Deploy
• Maintain

The SDLC is a cycle because after deployment or while mainting the software, the iteration starts again with identifying current problems.

A phase is group of activities.

An activity is a group of tasks.

A task is the smallest piece of work.

After each phase, a gate needs to be passed in order to proceed to the next phase. (Waterfall model)

The outcome of a gate is one of

• go
• conditional go
• hold
• recycle
• kill

This decision is typically reached by a manager, the steering comittee or a board.

• Quality gates
• controls
• metrics
• standards

• Waterfall Model: end of phase starts new phase (The original SDLC model).
• V-Shaped: an extension of the waterafll model
• Agile Modell: cycles
• Iterative: iteration (rather than cycles)
• Spiral Mode: similar to iterative model, but repetition rather than iterations
• Big Bang Model: start with almost no requirements
• Rapid Application Development (RAD)

An artifact is a tangible by-product needed for and produced by the SDLC.

Artifacts that help describe the function, architecture and design of software:

• Use cases
• class diagrams
• UML models
• ERD

Artifacts that are used for the the process itself:

• Project request form
• Project evaluation form
• Project charter
• Project plan
• Functional requirement document (FRD)
• System Design document (SSD)
• Master plan for testing and evaluation
• Training plan
• Maintenance manual
• User/operator manual
• Traning manual
• Test analysis report
• Implementation plan
• Implementation report
• Maintenance agreement

There might also be

• Glossary

• Directors/Management
• Project Manager
• Customers
• Sponsors
• Salespeople
• Business analyst: works closely with the subject matter expert.
• Domain experts
• Subject matter expert: understands the current business processes and any new requirements that are to be satisfied by the project. Works closely with the BA.
• Designers
• Solution architect: translates requirements into architecture.
• Technical Architect
• Programmers
• DBA
• Tester
• Trainer
• Security
• Infrastructre

Managing the requirements of a project is one of the hardest challenges.

• Users have no idea what they want.
• Communication of ideas among stakeholders is difficult (they tend to not understand each other)
• Proposed changes are a constant source of frustration

Thus, the requirement management deserves a special focus in SDLC.

First and foremost, requirement management must be thoroghly planned (as should be every other task in software development).

According to Germán Arias, et al, 7 factors are key for a successful project:

• Senior management support
• Qualified project managers
• Adequate planning
• Involvment of key users
• Requirement's management
• Monitoring and controlling the execution of the project
• Development team management

• Object oriented programming (OOP)
• Aspect oriented programming (AOP)
• Component oriented programming (CBP)
• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)
• Feature driven development (FDD)
• Test driven development (TDD)
• Kanban
• Lean software development

• …
• UAT User acceptance testing
• …

• Sharing information: Confluence
• Bug and tasks tracking, such as JIRA
• Version control systems, such as git, subversion etc.
• Continuous integration/release management, such as Bamboo.

Rational: easier to fix problems.

• Naming conventions

Any solution design has two aspects:

• Data
• Technology (Components: Service container, broker and process coordinator)

• User involvation and participation.
• Establishment of phases and activities. (Needs discipline)
• Establishment of standards for development and documentation (Needs discipline)
• Divide and conquer
• Planning
• Management
• Have a problem solving mind.

SDLC is concerned with the creation and writing of software.

DevOps focuses on using the software.

Buzzwords for DevOps are:

• Continuous integration
• Continuous deployment
• Release management

ALM covers everything from birth to death of a product:

• SLDC (Thus, ALM is broader than the SDLC)
• DevOps
• Portfolio management
• Service desk

Project integration is a process to make sure that all elements of a project work well together: tools, stakeholders, organizational units etc.

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