Systems Development Life Cycle

Systems Development Life Cycle has historically been a very useful tool in the development of software and operating systems in Computer Information Technology. Through the Systems Development Life Cycle there are at least five distinct phases that are delineated and performed within a linear patter. Meaning, that each step must be complete or at least very close in order for the next set of experts to begin the next phase of work on a project. It has been historically thought that each stage's crucial addition to the whole project is a building block necessary for the next phase of project development, therefore circular or spiral models, where all or some phases occur simultaneously was thought difficult to impossible for application within the information technology application. (Kliem & Ludin, 1994, p. 12)

The five required stages of SDLS are Planning, Analysis, Design, Implementation and Maintenance. This work will give a detailed analysis of each of these five phases and demonstrates ways in which the linear system is effective and how it has been used to develop new systems and subsystems that have greatly influenced the world of technology and business.

Lastly, it will briefly discuss possible alterations to the system and some shortcoming seen in the implementation of its use over the years.

Planning

During the planning phase there a several crucial steps to eventual development. Most importantly the planning phase allows the experts to identify the need for the system. In other words, what tasks need to be completed by the proposed system? The planning phase allows experts to poll users and developers about the tasks wished to be automated, be they new tasks or old tasks currently performed manually. The phase allows the developers to determine the feasibility of the project asking questions like: Does the organization have the current technology available to build and support such a system and if not how can we get it? How long might it take to develop and implement the system? What is the scope of the system and can it be expanded later?

It is also during the planning stage that developers propose the exiting possible ways in which the new system could impact the organization as a whole and the users in particular, it is the phase where an idea is pitched, as they would say in marketing, to the investors and the potential users, if the ideal seems valuable and feasible, through this phase then the lifecycle will move on to analysis.

Analysis

The analysis phase offers an opportunity to refine goals into very clear and defined functions that will fit into a clearer timeline. The phase takes the planning works and expands them into very clear functions and operations. What is the system going to do, exactly? How will users interact with it to better serve the needs of the organization? What is the scope of the system and can it be expanded later?

The most crucial aspect of the analysis phase is a discernable and concrete set of goals that details for investors and implementation professionals just what the system will do, how it will change the current functioning of the larger system or company, how long it will take to build and implement and some would say most importantly how much will it cost to build and implement. Within the analysis phase many of the early models of action, such as manuals and policies and procedures should be developed. Analysis is a concrete on paper demonstration of the system proposed.

Design

Many designers would consider the most crucial and exciting phase of the lifecycle to be the design phase. This is where the on-paper theories are put into proposed code. The design team takes the planning and analysis, goals and guidelines for purpose and use and begins the development stage. During this phase the design team describes features to be performed in greater detail, they describe scream composition, apply rules of business write countless diagrams describing functions and processes and begin documenting the first phase of code, called pseudocode, or theoretical code.

It is from this paper trail that the development of the next phase begins.

Implementation

During the implementation phase, quite simply the real code is written and early stage testing of functionality is done. Depending on the complexity of the system each subset of functions, or functions themselves are isolated and tested, as the development progresses the code is merged to create a multi-causal system of functions. This phase offers coders and developers the opportunity to test the functions they have created through code, to compare them to the functions the users, involved in the planning phase have deemed important and to check the overall functionality of the theory of the designs. The designers and creators of the project have the opportunity at this point to write code and rewrite code to better fit their idea of the needs of the system or workforce or both, ideally. Then in the old models near the end of this phase the designers implement the old system by allowing users to apply it for the first time. Remember after describing to the designer the needs of the system this is one of the first places where actual users come into contact with the system and its set of tasks. Some newer Lifecycle models separate the designer testing phase with the user implementation phase and attempt to allow users more access to other parts of the process through consultative work and input on updates of the phase, sort of a potential debugging of the system before it is implemented. (Kliem & Ludin, 1994, p. 12)

Maintenance

Thought by many to be the most important but least desired stage of growth for the developers, the maintenance stage is where the system is in full functionality and the debugging that was not alleviated during implementation begins. It is also during this phase that the system can be expanded upon as more features create a better sense of completed task ability. Security features that may not have been foreseen are added as users begin to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the system. Also during this phase the ease of use issue is brought up as real users begin to interact with the system to perform the functions for which it was intended, and fine tuning occurs.

Conclusion

In conclusion Systems Development Life Cycle is a multi-phase linear system for the development and implementation of new programs and processes in information technology. Within the system the work of each completed phase becomes the crucial needed information for the beginning and completion of the next phase.