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System Development Lifecycle

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17 views4 pages

System Development Lifecycle

Uploaded by

lejcp76
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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System Development Lifecycle

Purpose
The purpose of an SDLC methodology is to provide IT Project Managers with the tools to
help ensure successful implementation of systems that satisfy University strategic and
business objectives. The documentation provides a mechanism to ensure that executive
leadership, functional managers and users sign-off on the requirements and
implementation of the system. The process provides University Project Managers with the
visibility of design, development, and implementation status needed to ensure delivery on
time and within budget.

Scope
This Guideline applies to all major application projects, both new applications and
upgrades of existing applications.

Goals
The goals of this SDLC approach are to:

• Deliver quality systems which meet or exceed customer expectations when


promised and within cost estimates.
• Provide a framework for developing quality systems using an identifiable,
measurable, and repeatable process.
• Establish a project management structure to ensure that each system development
project is effectively managed throughout its life cycle.
• Identify and assign the roles and responsibilities of all involved parties, including
functional and technical managers, throughout the system development life cycle.
• Ensure that system development requirements are well defined and subsequently
satisfied.

Objectives
The SDLC methodology will help to achieve these goals by:

• Establishing appropriate levels of management authority to provide timely


direction, coordination, control, review, and approval of the system development
project.
• Ensuring project management accountability.
• Documenting requirements and maintaining trace ability of those requirements
throughout the development and implementation process.

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System Development Lifecycle Page 2

• Ensuring that projects are developed within the current and planned information
technology infrastructure.
• Identifying project risks early

Guidelines & Procedures


A software application typically undergoes several development lifecycles, corresponding
to its creation and subsequent upgrades. Each such development lifecycle constitutes a
project. Such projects continue until the underlying technology ages to the point where it is
no longer economical to invest in upgrades and the application is considered for either
continued as-is operation or retirement.

The SDLC Phases


Michigan Tech’s SDLC includes six phases, during which defined work products and
documents are created, reviewed, refined, and approved. Not every project will require
that the phases be subsequently executed and may be tailored to accommodate the unique
aspects of a projects. These phases are described in more detail in the following
paragraphs.

Initiation Phase
The Initiation Phase begins when management determines that it is necessary to enhance a
business process through the application of information technology. The purposes of the
Initiation Phase are to:

• Identify and validate an opportunity to improve business accomplishments of the


University or a deficiency related to a business need
• Identify significant assumptions and constraints on solutions to that need
• Recommend the exploration of alternative concepts and methods to satisfy the need.

Feasibility Phase
The Feasibility Phase is the initial investigation, or brief study of the problem to determine
whether the systems project should be pursued. A feasibility study established the context
through which the project addresses the requirements expressed in Business Case and
investigates the practicality of a proposed solution. The feasibility study is used to
determine if the project should get the go-ahead. If the project is to proceed, the feasibility
study will produce a project plan and budget estimates for the future stages of
development.

Requirements Analysis Phase


This phase formally defines the detailed functional user requirements using high-level
requirements identified in the Initiation and Feasibility Phases. The requirements are
defined in this phase to a level of detail sufficient for systems design to proceed. They need

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System Development Lifecycle Page 3

to be measurable, testable, and relate to the business need or opportunity identified in the
Initiation Phase.

The purposes of this phase are to:

• Complete business process reengineering of the functions to be supported, e.g., verify what
information drives the business process, what information is generated, who generates it,
where does the information go, and who processes it.
• Develop detailed data and process models including system inputs and outputs.
• Develop the test and evaluation requirements that will be used to determine acceptable
system performance.

Design Phase
During this phase, the system is designed to satisfy the functional requirements identified
in the previous phase. Since problems in the design phase can be very expensive to solve in
later stages of the software development, a variety of elements are considered in the design
to mitigate risk. These include:

• Identifying potential risks and defining mitigating design features


• Performing a security risk assessment
• Developing a conversion plan to migrate current data to the new system
• Determining the operating environment
• Defining major subsystems and their inputs and outputs
• Allocating processes to resources

Development Phase
Effective completion of the previous stages is a key factor in the success of the
Development phase. The Development phase consists of:

• Translating the detailed requirements and design into system components


• Testing individual elements (units) for usability
• Preparing for integration and testing of the IT system.

Integration, system, security, and user acceptance testing is conducted during this phase as
well. The user, with those responsible for quality assurance, validates that the functional
requirements are met by the newly developed or modified system.

Implementation Phase
This phase is initiated after the system has been tested and accepted by the user. In this
phase, the system is installed to support the intended business functions. System
performance is compared to performance objectives established during the planning phase.
Implementation includes user notification, user training, installation of hardware,

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installation of software onto production computers, and integration of the system into daily
work processes. This phase continues until the system is operating in production in
accordance with the defined user requirements.

Operations and Maintenance


The system operation is ongoing. The system is monitored for continued performance in
accordance with user requirements and needed system modifications are incorporated.
Operations continue as long as the system responds to the organization’s needs. When
modifications are identified, the system may reenter the planning phase.

END OF DOCUMENT

Michigan Tech Information Technology Services Rev: 11/04/10

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