The key concept in software development technology is the concept of the software product lifecycle.
Let us list the main stages of the software life cycle and give a brief description of each stage. All development includes:
The acquisition process. This process represents the customer’s actions in software development and usually includes such activities as: the formation of requirements and restrictions to the software product (the restrictions may be related to the choice of software architecture, as well as an acceptable system performance, etc.); conclusion of the development contract; analysis and audit of the contractor’s work. At the end of this process, the customer accepts the finished software product.
The delivery process includes activities performed by the contractor to deliver the software. The Executor analyzes the customer’s requirements, carries out the design and analysis of the work, decides how the design process (programming) will be carried out: by himself or using third-party development teams (contractor), also evaluates and monitors the quality of the finished software product and performs the direct delivery of the product and the accompanying final activities.
The development process. We will consider it in detail in the section “Software Product Creation Stages”.
The operation process. Once the software is ready, the process of its use by the customer organization and its operators begins.
The maintenance process. The developer supports the users of the software product in case they have any questions or problems. If an error in the software will be found during operation, the developers should fix it. The operation process and the maintenance process go in parallel.