Developing a product requires a strong technical background, people skills, and

Question

Developing a product requires a strong technical background, people skills, and being able to manage your own time. With most software or system projects, a project goes through several phases from beginning to end. Having a strong understanding of theses phases is critical so you are able to work within each phase and complete the tasks that are assigned to you. Describe the most common project software development life cycle phases and give an example how each phase would apply to a software development project.

First Post

Describe the most common project software development life cycle phases and give an example how each phase would apply to a software development project. Do you feel that one of the phases is more critical to accomplish than the others? Explain you reasoning.

Explanation / Answer

Common software development life cycle phases

Gathering requirements: The first step is always to gather requirements from the client before developing a software. Sufficient time must be given to this phase so taht problems do not arise in the future.Various functionality required in a software like login, storing data, functionality in various screens, memory, performance etc come under requirements.

Designing : Once the requirements are gathered, the next step is to construct screens and UML diagrams related to the functionality of the product. This ensures that the client and the software developers are on the same page and that the developers clearly understand the requirements of the client. Further, screens and diagrams enable the developers in easily coding the project.

Execution: This is the actual coding phase of the project. As long as the team are effective and experienced , this phase should not pose much problem. However, this is also a very time taking phase as the actual work is being done in this phase.

Testing: Once the coding of a module is done, the testing team tests the workiing of the code. Then testing is also done on combined working of more than one module or the whole project. In case any bugs are detected, the developers are informed to clear them. Then testing is again performed on the software. This phase ensures that there are no bugs in the software and that it reaches an efficient working condition.

Releasing: Once developing and testing the project is done, it is time to deploy the software at the client location. This phase usually does not take much time. In addition, the end users are trained on how to use the software and are also provided manuals on using it.

Operations & Maintenance: This phase involves ensuring that the daily operations of the software are gong on smoothly. A maintenance and support team helps the client from time to time in case they face any issues with the software.

I think all the phases are quite important in successfully delivering a software product. However, in my opinion, the requirements gathering stage is of utmost importance. Understanding the clients requirements and making sure that there are minimal or no changes in them at a later stage is crucial. Any change or increase in requirements will lead to an increase in costs, effort and time taken. So, enough time must be given to make sure that the functional and performance requirements of the client are well understood and that the team has the ability to deliver these requirements.

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