What is SDLC and why does it matter?

‘Information provided courtesy of Cortech Developments Ltd’

Most people understand that software development is not a quick and simple function. There is a specific methodology with clearly defined processes that should be followed to ensure high quality software is developed and implemented.

SDLC or the Software Development Life Cycle is a process that produces software with the highest quality and lowest cost in the shortest achievable time. At Cortech Developments we have embraced the SDLC structure and adhere to it meticulously because it allows us to deliver a cost-effective solution to our customers, avoiding typical pitfalls in our project developments. SDLC provides a well-structured flow of phases that helps us as a business to quickly produce high-quality software which is well-tested and ready for production use.

The process works by lowering the cost of software development while simultaneously improving quality and shortening production time, whilst accurately defining the requirements of the new piece of software. SDLC provides a visible way of measuring and improving the development process, helping to maximise efficiency at each stage.

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) consists of six steps:

Planning

This is where the end user, sales department and software developers collaborate to decide key information about the product, its purposes and how it is supposed to work. At Cortech this is an internal process with all teams invested in a positive solution and constant improvements to our systems.

Requirement Analysis

After a thorough analysis of the requirements and planning steps to reach the target, the concept of the product or integration is put into practice by our group of software engineers. A “Software Requirement Specification” (SRS) document is compiled to include everything that must be developed to complete the project.

Software Design

During this phase, the overall system architecture is designed by defining the functionality of each module as well as their interaction with third-party modules.

Software Development

The product is built and coded following a set of best practices and guidelines and utilising the programming tools best suited to the development of the product.

Testing or Quality Assurance

The code is tested to make sure it is free of bugs, adheres to the end users’ requirements and correctly interfaces with other software products together with the underlying hardware.

At Cortech we firmly agree that quality assurance testing is about more than fixing any bugs with software; it is about establishing quality standards and implementing the checks and balances needed to ensure the product or integration meets said standards.

Deployment

This step is where the final version of the product is released to our customers and the wider market. Maintenance is then performed over time to change the system architecture in line with developing needs.

Within the SDLC there are a variety of different models a business could implement. At Cortech we choose those most relevant to the size of our team, the size of the project, and the complexity of the project, the tools we are using, and the preferences of our senior developers.

The Software Development Life Cycle shows you what is happening, and exactly where your development process can improve. It ensures that high-quality software is produced which meets or exceeds customer expectations while reaching completion in agreed times and cost estimates. In short SDLC helps Cortech Developments deliver new innovative developments on time and within a budget matrix which makes it cost-effective for our customers to adopt Cortech’s systems and have them maintained.

If you would like to learn more about Cortech’s services and how our advanced software solutions can support and protect your site and would like to discuss the possibilities and value of implementing one of our site management platforms, then contact us today and find out more about Cortech and our advanced software solutions, telephone +44(0)1925 750600 or email info@cortech.co.uk.