System Development life cycle

The system development life cycle (SDLC) entails the development process that used in the development of information system projects, applications, and software. SDLC ensures that all functional and end-user requirements and the intentional goals and objectives of the organization (Mishra & Dubey, 2013). SDLC plays a fundamental role in providing a logical and standardized process for phases of development of system development.

 Bender (2003) noted that SDLC has three basic objectives that include that entails ensuring the delivery of high-quality applications, provides a strong management control over the software project and maximize the productivity of the system employees. The essay describes the classic software development life cycle and RAD prototyping model.

A standard SDLC has seven phases. These phases include the planning phase, analysis, design, testing, implementation, and maintenance. 

The planning face involves the fundamental strategic approach to the development and implementation of a project. The planning phase involves evaluating the effectiveness of the existing systems and their ability to meet organization needs (Shih, & Tseng, 2014). It is during the planning phase that the team defines the policies and procedures of developing the software. Feasibility studies including technical, economical, time feasibility inform the implementing team about the way forward. Requirements include functionalities and constraints that end-users expects from the system. One of the main deliverables is the requirement specification that serves as a guideline for the next phase (Purcell, 2010).
The analysis phase

The analysis phase involves the need and problem analysis, gathering data and creating a logical model. The aim of the analysis phase is to ensure the final system is efficient and satisfies all the needs of the firm.
System design phase

The system design phase involves the formulation of the required design including the basic design and detailed design phase. It is in this phase that the team specifies the features of the new system conduct a cost-benefit analysis and establish the blueprint of the entire project.
The testing phase

The testing phase follows the design phase. The project at this stage is ready for implementation. However, the testing phase ensures that the design is ready and suits the company’s need. The testing phase involves analyzing a software project to identify the distinction between the current features and the required features. The testing phase ensures the product is verified and validated through a number of testing techniques. The testing phase gives an organization to correct defects and errors in the system (Mishra & Dubey, 2013).
Implementing phase

The implementation phase involves all the activities linked to the deployment of the application. Some of the critical activities include the installation of the project, end-user training and the transfer of the product to the end-user (Seymour & Kabay, 2009). The stage involves the installation of all the necessary hardware and other support infrastructure.
The maintenance phase

The maintenance phase is a progressive process that involves regular identification of flaws, breakdowns, and variances. The maintenance phase is an ongoing process and takes place after the system implementation. Singleton (2014), noted that 80% of the total costs and time spent in the system development involves the maintenance process. As such, an organization can leverage on the implementation and overall project cost through effective maintenance strategies. Regular monitoring and testing should be used to identify vulnerability of the system as it continues to run and recommend timely correction action
RAD Prototyping model

The conventional waterfall method has numerous well-documented failures that led to the introduction of the Rapid Application Development (RAD). The core difference between the traditional method and RAD is that RAD uses prototyping. The approach proceeds faster from the gathering phase and then a prototype application is built and presented to the application users. The approach encourages the use of feedback from the user to provide a loop to improve the functionality to the application.

The key advantage of the RAD prototyping is that time-to-market reduce significantly. The approach skips numerous stages in traditional SDLC model and favors a faster and low-cost software development. The concept is that, it is developed from scratch using the latest RAD implementation strategies (Dora & Dubey, 2013). RAD is applicable for graphical user interface applications such as web-based applications. The fundamental principles of the model include the inherent efforts to reduce project risks by breaking down the entire project system into smaller parts and providing ease-of-change during the development process.

The requirement planning phase consists of a review of the areas instantly associated with the new system. The aim of the review is to produce a wide definition of the system needs in terms of the functions of the system will support. The requirement planning phase results into various deliverables including a delineate system area model of the area, description of the system’s scope and justification of the costs (Dora & Dubey, 2013).

The User Design stage involves a comprehensive analysis of the firm activities related activities to the new system. The key users, conference in workshops, define business systems and define unit types allied to the system. An action diagram is created to define the interactions between procedures and data. The analysis enables the outline of the system. The system procedure is designed, and preface layouts are developed.
The construction phase involves a small team of developers working together with the users to finalize the design and build the entire system. The software development process consists of a sequence of “design-and-build” procedures in which the users have an opportunity  to fine-tune the requirements and review the resulting software implementation. The stage includes preparing for the cutover to the product. In addition, the constructions phase deliverables include the documentation and instructions vital to operating the new software application, and routines and procedures needed to put the systems into operation (Dora & Dubey, 2013).

The implementation phase involves integrating the new applications and managing the modifications from the old system environment to the new system. The implementation phase may include implementing bridges between the existing and new system, converting data, and training end-users. In addition, the implementation phase needs to ensure end-user acceptable.
RAD has numerous advantages because it is designed to help deliver faster with minimize cost and ensure quality. RAD reduces significantly tends to shorten the development cycles and reduce defects. However, the RAD approach may cause some problems. The cost integrated toolset and hardware covers a sufficient amount of money. It may be challenging to gauge the progress of the project, and there are no classic milestones, or could less efficient because the code is not handcraft (Dora & Dubey, 2013).
Comparison

As there are numerous models of software development life cycle, each of the models has its disadvantages and disadvantages. RAD prototyping is supple and adjustable to changes as it incorporates short development (Bender, 2003). It also involves user participation thus increasing opportunities of early users acceptance and realizes an largely reduction in project risks (Mishra A & Dubey, 2013). 

References

Software Tech News Web Site On Line By Morton A. Hirschberg-U.S Army Research Laboratory.

Purcell J (2010). Comparison of software development lifecycle methodologies. 

Shih, Y., & Tseng, C. (2014). Cost-benefit analysis of sustainable energy development using life-cycle co-benefits assessment and the system dynamics approach. Applied Energy, 11957-66. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.12.031

 Seymour B & Kabay W (2009). Computer security handbook, set. John Wiley & Son publishers, USA.

Singleton T (2014). Systems development life cycle and IT audits. 

Mishra A & Dubey D (2013). A comparative study of different software development life cycle models in different scenarios. International journal of advanced research in computer science and management studies. Vol. 1 (5); 2321-7782.

Bender (2003). Systems development life cycle: Objectives and requirements. 

Dora K & Dubey P (2013). Software Development Life Cycle (Sdlc) Analytical Comparison And Survey On Traditional And Agile Methodology.  National Monthly Refereed Journal Of Research In Science & Technology.

Massey V & Satao K (2012). Comparing Various Sdlc Models And The New Proposed Model On The Basis Of Available Methodology. International Journal Of Advanced Research In Computer Science And Software Engineering. Vol. 2 (4); 2277.

 Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in college research paper services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from best medical essay service.