Systems development life cycle

System Development Life Cycle, or SDLC, is a software development process defined by the United States Department of Justice. It is used by a systems analyst to develop an information system, including requirements, validation, training, and user ownership through investigation, analysis, design, implementation and maintenance. SDLC is also known as information systems development or application development. An SDLC should result in a high quality system that meets or exceeds customer expectations, within time and cost estimates, works effectively and efficiently in the current and planned Information Technology infrastructure, and is cheap to maintain and cost-effective to enhance. SDLC is a systems approach to problem solving and is made up of several phases, each comprised of multiple steps:

• The software concept - identifies and defines a need for the new system
• A requirements analysis - analyzes the information needs of the end users
• The architectural design - creates a blueprint for the design with the necessary specifications for the hardware, software, people and data resources
• Coding and debugging - creates and programs the final system
• System testing - evaluates the system's actual functionality in relation to expected or intended functionality.

The six official phases are:

1. Preliminary Investigation
2. Systems Analysis
3. Systems Design
4. Systems Development
5. Systems Implementation
6. Systems Maintenance

The general phases are:

1. Feasibility Study
2. Analysis
3. Design
4. Implementation
5. Testing
6. Evaluation

Or:

1. Feasibility Study
2. Analysis
3. Design
4. Development
5. Implementation
6. Maintenance

Or:

1. Feasibility Study
2. Analysis
3. Design
4. Implementation
5. Maintenance

External link

• US DOJ Guidance Document

This article is based on material taken from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008 and incorporated under the "relicensing" terms of the GFDL, version 1.3 or later.