System development life cycle(SDLC) and Comparison of Waterfall, Spiral, prototype and Iterative model

By: Prof. Dr. Fazal Rehman | Last updated: December 30, 2023

System development life cycle(SDLC) and Comparison of Waterfall, Spiral, prototype and Iterative model

The system development life cycle is a process that is used in an information system, software engineering, and system engineering. The system development life cycle consists of six main phases to build a hardware system, or software system or combination of both to meet user expectations.

Why we used the system development life cycle  

The system development life cycle provides a guideline or serves as a conceptual model in a software development project. SDLC stages contain complete guideline from an “initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application. We used this guideline to accomplish our project effectively and efficiently.

Comparative Analysis of software engineering Models

The system development life cycle is a structured plan for developing software projects. It is the methodology of the framework used to develop the plan, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance. Choosing the best (SDLC) method for your project is essential to the success of your project. In this comparative analysis, we discuss benefits and problem in different (SDLC) methodology, Likewise waterfall, spiral, prototype, and iterative models.

Planning

It is the essential phase of IT/Software development industry, a project and it’s level of success are only as good as its planning. In this phase desired feature and operation discuss in detail, including screen layout, business rules, process diagram, and other documentation. The feasibility criteria of the proposed system were also checked in this phase. All the necessary borrowed from customers at this stage.   

System Analysis:

The objective of this phase is to conduct analysis like finding the problem in the company and propose solutions, after this evaluate the solution on the bases of cost and other sources that will be used to accomplish the task and submit a suitable solution. Tools that are used in this phase include requirements gathering structure analysis and (CAS) A computer-aided system software engineering.

Systems Design:

In this phase, engineer constructs paperwork or diagram on the bases of information which collected from the customer in previous stages like the planning stage and analysis phase. System design is the third stage of (SDLC) system design contains two main areas, logical system design, and physical system design, logical system design looks like a (blueprint) of the system and physical which shows in detail cost and materials of a system. The diagram contains all the essential aspect which provides the guideline for the consultant when they develop your project.

Implementation:

Now the project is ready for implementation, in implementation phase real code is written here.in the actual working environment (training is most important in this phase). A direct cutover usually takes place during off-peak hours but it could be risky and difficult. The old data is moved into the new system and installation of the system component.

Maintenance:

In this phase, we made changes, corrections, additions, and moves. This, the least and perhaps most important phase of all, may go on forever.