Introduction to the SDLC - Software Testing Lesson 1

As part of the manual testing course, we will start with SDLC in the next few posts . 

Application needs to be developed in an organized manner in order to give a quality product. Software Development Life Cycle provides a structured and process oriented approach towards software development. By applying SDLC we can produce quality products in a faster and efficient manner.

Software is a collection of program that does a particular task. Software development is a process of creating a software or an application. Generally we think coding as the most important part of software development, but there are other important activities like Design and Testing which are equally important. Typical SDLC consists of various phases like Planning, Analysis, Design, Development, testing and Maintenance. Specific tasks are performed at each phases of SDLC. Generally output of one Phase serves as input of the next phase. Some of the benefits of following the SDLC model are :-

-          One of the major advantage of SDLC model is that it gives clear and stable project activities.

-          The approach creates considerable system documentation.

-          Progress of the application is measurable.

-          Programs created through SDLC can be reused if there is a similar requirement for another application.

The downside of SDLC is that

-          Documentation is expensive and time-consuming to create

-          The project can take some time for completion by following the progress.

-          Another disadvantage of a program or software that follows the SDLC program is it encourages stiff implementation instead of creativity

The standard SDLC model is used for projects for which time is not a constraint. But certain projects needs to be completed faster and cannot undergo the same process in the standard SDLC model. Thus alternate SDLC models were created and implemented depending on requirement of the projects. These models include Waterfall Model, V model, Spiral Model, Prototype Model and more.

SDLC :

Introduction to Software Development Life Cycle :

Different SDLC Models :

i. Water Fall Model
ii. V Model
iii. Agile Model (Incremental Model, Iterative Model)

We will learn in details about about SDLC in the next post.