Lecture 3

System Development Life Cycle

 INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
• ISD is the process (activity) whereby a work activity or a larger
organizational setting is facilitated by introducing a new socio-
technical information system or modifying or expanding an
existing one.
• ISD includes sub-activities of analysis, design, development,
implementation, and evaluation. Depending on the viewpoint, it
can be seen as a software engineering process of a software
producer, an application acquisition process of a software user,
or a works development process.
• Systems development is a process used in systems engineering,
information systems, and software engineering for planning,
creating, testing, and deploying an information system
 System Development Life Cycle
• The systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as
the application development life-cycle, is a process for
planning, creating, testing, and deploying an information
system.
• The systems development lifecycle concept applies to a range
of hardware and software configurations, as a system can be
composed of hardware only, software only, or a
• combination of both.
• The term System Development Life Cycle is used to describe
the sequence of steps that are followed when building a new
ICT system. Each step or phase in the development cycle
consists of a series of activities.
 Waterfall Model
• The Waterfall Model is used to describe how system
development flows downwards through the phases.
• There are usually six stages in this cycle: analysis, design,
development and testing, implementation, documentation,
and evaluation.
 Requirement Gathering and analysis 
• All possible requirements of the system to be developed are
captured in this phase and documented in a requirement
specification document.
 System Design 
• The requirement specifications from first phase are studied in
this phase and the system design is prepared.
• This system design helps in specifying hardware and system
requirements and helps in defining the overall system
architecture.
 Implementation 
• With inputs from the system design, the system is first
developed in small programs called units, which are
integrated in the next phase.
• Each unit is developed and tested for its functionality, which is
referred to as Unit Testing.
 Integration and Testing
•  All the units developed in the implementation phase are
integrated into a system after testing of each unit.
• Post integration the entire system is tested for any faults and
failures.
 Types of Testing
• When an ICT system has been implemented the project team
will move into the test phase.
• Module testing is the term that is used for testing a section of
program code that performs a specific task.
• Functional testing involves testing an ICT system to check that
it is able to perform a particular task (or function) for example
the operation of a user interface to add, amend and delete
data.
• Application testing (or system testing) is checking to ensure
that the different parts of the system work correctly by
inputting valid and invalid data. The project team will devise a
test plan that identifies for each test:
 Deployment of system 
• Once the functional and non-functional testing is done; the
product is deployed in the customer environment or released
into the market
 Maintenance
• There are some issues which come up in the client
environment.
• To fix those issues, patches are released. Also to enhance the
product some better versions are released.
• Maintenance is done to deliver these changes in the customer
environment.
 ....
This phase of the system development life cycle will include:
• Providing support to help solve day to day problems by
operating a help desk, telephone hotline or online support
system.
• Providing support to help with changes in the business
environment, for example, changes to the VAT rate or the
rates and thresholds for the payment of tax and national
insurance contributions.
• Fixing security problems.
• Producing updates that improve the functionality of the
system or allow the system to run on a new operating system.
• Making improvements to parts of the system that users are
unhappy with.
• Producing minor changes or modifications, known as patches,
to correct faults in the system.
 .....
Maintenance tasks are divided into different categories:
• Perfective Maintenance: Making changes to improve the
performance of the system.
• Adaptive Maintenance: Making evolutionary changes
because of advances in information and communication
technologies or changes in the business environment.
• Corrective Maintenance: Rectifying faults that have been
found in the system.
 System Documentation
During this phase of developing an ICT system the project team
will be producing:
• User documentation to help others to use the ICT system.
• Technical documentation to support those who will need to
install, support and maintain the ICT system.
• User documentation should be easy to understand and
illustrated with screen shots.
• It should avoid the use of technical jargon that may confuse
the reader.
 User documentation
User documentation might include:
• Information on how to use the menus.
• Examples of screen and data entry forms.
• Instructions for data entry.
• Advice on how to respond to error messages.
• Examples of data output screens.
• Examples of printouts.
• Information on how to troubleshoot the system if things go
wrong.
 Technical documentation
• Technical documentation is for ICT specialists.
• It should include enough detail to allow a competent ICT
professional to fully understand how the system works so that
they can maintain the system and make enhancements based
on user experience.
 .....
It could include:
• The agreed design specification.
• Data flow diagrams.
• Entity relationship models.
• Details of how the system handles data.
• Details of all the calculations that are carried out and the
formulae and functions used.
• Details of the data validation and verification procedures
used.
 Waterfall Model - Application
• Requirements are very well documented, clear and fixed.
• Product definition is stable.
• Technology is understood and is not dynamic.
• There are no ambiguous requirements.
• Ample resources with required expertise are available to
support the product.
• The project is short.
 Waterfall Model - Advantages
• Simple and easy to understand and use
• Easy to manage due to the rigidity of the model. Each phase
has specific deliverables and a review process.
• Phases are processed and completed one at a time.
• Works well for smaller projects where requirements are very
well understood.
• Clearly defined stages.
• Well understood milestones.
• Easy to arrange tasks.
• Process and results are well documented.
 Waterfall Model - Disadvantages
• No working software is produced until late during the life
cycle.
• High amounts of risk and uncertainty.
• Not a good model for complex and object-oriented projects.
• Poor model for long and ongoing projects.
• Not suitable for the projects where requirements are at a
moderate to high risk of changing. So, risk and uncertainty is
high with this process model.
• It is difficult to measure progress within stages.
 Waterfall Model - Disadvantages
• Cannot accommodate changing requirements.
• Adjusting scope during the life cycle can end a project.
• Integration is done as a "big-bang. at the very end, which
doesn't allow identifying any technological or business
bottleneck or challenges early.