|sorTware DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE (SDLC) a —— The software development life cycle can be divided into5-9 phases ie. it must have mini OF Five phases and maximum of nine phases it may have. On an average ithas seven or eight phases. These are : }- @ Project identification and selection 2-(}) Project initiation and planning 3 (© Project analysis 4-(d) System design $-(@ Coding 6) Testing 7- &) Implementation 3. (h) Maintenance. Project identification & selection System design Project analysis Fig. 1.8. Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).Project Identification and Selection » — This is the first phase of SDLC. This phase identifies. need, for anew syst item or erhanced system. Information needs of the organization as a whole are examined and project to meet f These needs are proactively identified, The ‘organization's information system needs may result from requests to deal with problems in current procedures, from the desire to perform additional tasks or from the realization that information technology could be used to capitalize on an existing opportunity. When the request is made, the first step that take place is being divided into three different pans There are: (© ( Request Clarification : Many requests from employees and users in the organization are not clear! defined trevefore it becomes Recessa that project request must be examined and clarified properly before considering systems investigation, Gi) Feasibility Study : An important outcome of preliminary investigation is the determination that system request is feasible. There are four aspects in this portion: (@ Technical feasibility @) Economical feasibility (© Operational feasibility @ Political feasibility @echnical Feasibility : It involves determining whether or nota system can actually be constructed to solve the problem athand Some users expect t00 much of computers, assumin; it computers can accurately predict the future, immediately reflect all information in an organisation, easily understand speech, or figure out how to handle difficult problems. Such systems, even if they exist, are not yet available for widespread use. The technical issues raised during the feasibility stage of the investigation are (© — Does the necessary technology exist (can it be acquired) to do what is suggested ? © Does the proposed equipment have the technical capacity to hold the data required to use the new system ? : ®-— Will the proposed system and components provide adequate responses to inquiries, regardless of the number or location of users ? ‘(®— Can the system be expanded, if developed ? Are thére technical guarantees of accuracy, reliability, ease of access and data security ? For ec: if the proposal includes a Printer that prints at the rate of 2,006 Tines oe minute, a brief search shows that this is technically feasible, Whether it should be included in the configuration because of its cost is an economic decision. On the other hand, if a user is requesting audio input to write, read and change stored data, the proposal may not be technically feasibie. C(}Economical Feasibility : It involves estimating benefits and costs, These. benefits and costs may be tangible or intangible. Because of them confusionbetween type of cost, it is sometimes very difficult t. ide if the benefits fi 1 e ‘ 10 decide if the i A system that can be developed technically and will be used if installed, must still be a good investment. That is, financial benefits must equal or exceed the financial costs. The economic and financial questions raised by analysis during the preliminary investigation seek estimates of : @— The cost to conduct a full systems investigation. @ — The cost of hardware and software for the class of application being considered. ‘®@ — The benefits in the form of reduced costs or fewer costly errors. @ — The cost if nothing changes (the system is not developed). Cost and benefit estimates on each project provide a basis for determining which proj How most worthy of consideration. Each estimate can be analysed ow rapidly costs are recovered by fi Staleulate both the to determi absolute and interest-adjusted amounts of excess benefits and fe/establish the raliosTenellite costs. All of these factors are considered when develoy when developing an gverall sense of the project's economic feasibility. v7 To be judged feasible, a project proposal must pass all these tests. Otherwise, it is not a feasible project. For example, a personnel record system that is financially feasible and operationally attractive, is not feasible if the necessary_ technology does not exist. Or a medical system which can be developed at reasonable Cost but which nurses will avoid using, cannot be judged operationally feasible. perational Feasibility : Proposed projects are of course beneficial only if they-can be turned into information systems that will meet the organisation’s operating requirements. Simply stated, this test of feasibility asks if the system. will work when developed and installed. Are there major barriers to implementation ? Here are questions that will help test the operational Feasibility Of a project: O- Is there sufficient support for the project from the management ? From users ? If the current system is well liked and used to the extent that persons will not see reasons for a change, there may be resistance. (®— Atecurrent business methods acceptable to the users ? If they are not, users may welcome a change that will bring about a more operational and useful system. (@ — Have the users been involved in the planning and development of the project ? Early involvement reduces the chances of resistance to the system — Will the proposed system cause harm ? The following questions are related to this issue: D Will the system produce poorer results in any respect or area ? 4) Will loss of control result in any area ? ty Will accessibility of information be lost ? ‘iy Will individual performance be poorer after implementation than - before ?_Y) will customers be affected in an undesirable way ? _¥)) Will it slow performance in any areas ? Operational feasibility is a measure of how people are able to work with the. system, For example, a system may require managers to write BASIC, COI or “FORTRAN programs to access data. However, managers probably receive the greatest help from a system when they can concentrate on the problems tosolve | ‘tTather than on how programs should be constructed to solve them. Issues that are relatively small and seem just minor irritants in the beginning have ways of growing into major problems after implementation. Therefore, all operational aspects must be considered carefully. @Political Feasibility : It is perhaps the most powerful type of feasibility, but it is never formally included in a system study document. This involves th ‘extent of managerial support for changes to the present system. If the Boss wants ‘a new computer system, you can bet that it will be installed even if it is not technically, operationally, or economically. feasible. Conversely, if the top ‘executive does not want to install a new system, the most convincing reasons to have ill be ignored. @ (ii) Request Approval : It is not necessary that all requested project are desirable or feasible. Those projects that are feasible and desirable should be pu into a schedule. After a project request is approved completion time, priority, ‘cost and personal requirements are estimated which is used for initiation of development. : pal si 2 Project Initiation and Planning ~~~ Project initiation and planning is the second phase of SDLC. In this phase there are Fwo major acuivities which are formal investigation of the system problem and the presentation of reasons why the system should or should not be developed, By the organization a critical step at this point is determi ing the scope of the proposed system the project leader and initial team of system analysis also produce a specific plan, which the team will follow along with the SPLC Step. This baseline project plan customizes the standardize the SDLC_and ‘Specifies the time and resources needed for its execu The project leader and the other with the job of deciding which projects the organization will undertake usually make the final presentation of the business case for proceeding with the subsequent project phases. __, Finally, we can say that this phase of SDLC recognize potential of information system project and gives a detailed plan for conducting the remaining phase of the system development life cycle, for the proposed system. Potential of information system gives a detailei§ for conducting the remaining phases of the stem development life cycle for the proposed system. ig Analysis Anal is is a detailed study of the various operations performed bya system, ind their relationships within and outside of the system. The tasks to be carried out should be clearly defined like: @ # examine and document the relevant aspects of the existing system, its ~ sort comings and problems. see eee@ # analyze the findings and record the results. @® # define and document in outline a proposal system. @ # test the Proposed design against the known facts. © # produce a detailed report to support the proposals. @ # estimate the resources required to design and implement the system. The objective at this stage are to provide solutions to stated problems, usually in form of specifications to meet the users’ requirements and to make and summary of findings and recommendations for a new computer based system. Analysis is an iterative and progressive process, examining information flows and evaluating various alternative design solutions until a preferred _ solution is available, This is document as system proposal. \4 System Design <—— Elements of a System @ © Outputs and inputs. (@ © Processor(s). D © Control. @ © Feedback. © © Environment. @ © Boundaries and interface. Outputs and Inputs : A major objective of a system is to produce an output that has value to its user. Whatever the nafure of output (goods, services or” information), it mustbe in line with the expectations of the intended user. Inputs are the elements (materials, hr, information) that enter the system for processing. Determining output is a first step in specifying the nature, amount and regularity of the input needed to operate a system. For example, in systems analysis, the first concern is to determine the user's requirements of a proposed computer system. Processor(s) : Element of a system involving the actual transformation of input into output. It is the operational component of a systems. Processor may modify the input fotally or partially, depending on specifications of output. Control : The control element guides the system. Itis the decision-makin, subsystem that controls the pattern of activities Poverning input processing and output. Ina computer system, the O.S. and accompanying software influences the behaviour of systems. i . Feedback : Control in a dynamic system is achieved by feedback. Feedback _measures output against a std. in some form of cybernetic procedure. 7 Feedback may be +ve/-ve, routine/informational. Positive feedback reinforces the performance of systems, Environment is the “suprasystem” within which an organisation operates. It is the source of external elements that imy ‘on the systems. It often determines ~ how a system must function. alBoundaries and Interface : A system should be defined by its boundaries— the limits that identify its components, Processes, and inter-relationships when it interfaces with another system. Types of Systems - © — Physical or abstract @ — Openor closed © — “Man-Made” information systems. Physical systems are tangible entities that may be static or dynamic in_ operation. Forex, physical parts of component centre are the offices, desks, and chairs that facilitate operation of component. Abstract system are conceptual or non-physical entities. They may be straight forward as fgzmulas of relationships among sets of variables or models. The of the desi specified by the requirements document. This pI is the first step in moving from the ‘problem domain to the solution domain. In other words, starting with what is needed, design takes us toward how to satisfy the needs. The design of a system is perhaps the most critical factor affecting the quality of the software; it has a major impact on the later phases, particularly testing and maintenance. The output of this phase is the design document. This document is similar toa blueprint or plan for the solution and is, used later during implementation, testing and maintenance. The design activity is often divided into {wo separate phase— system design and detailed design. System design, which is sometimes also called top-level design, aims to ident the modules that should be in the system, the specification of these modules and how they interact with each other to produce the desired results/At the end of ‘system design all the major data structures, file formats, output formats, and the major modules in the system and their specifications are decided. During detailed design, the internal logic of each of the modules specified in_ system design is decided. During this phase further details of the data structures and aigoritienie design of each of the modules is specified. The logic of a module is usually specified in a high-level desige derciption language, which is independent of the target language in which the software will eventually be implemented. In system design the focus is on identifying the modules, whereas during detailed design the focus is on designing the logic for each of the modules. In other words, in systemdesion the attention is on what components are needed while in detailed design how the components can be implemented insoftwareis * the issue. A design methodology is a systematic approach to creating a design by _ application of a set of techniques and guidelines. Most methodologies focus on” system design. Coding Once the design is complete, most of the major decisions about the system have been made. However, many of the details about coding the designs, whichoften depend on the programming language chosen, are not specified during design. The goal of the coding phase is to translate the design of the system into code in given programming language. Fora given design, the aim in this phase isto implement the design in the best p je manner. The coding phase affects both testing and maintenai written code can reduce the testing and maintenance effo ‘and maintenance costs of software are much highe: e profoundly. Well- “during coding the focus should be on developing programs that are easy to read and understand and not simply on developing programs that are easy to write. Simplicity and clarity should be strived for during the coding phase. An important concept that helps the understandability of programs is structured programming. The goal of structured programming is to linearize the control flow in the program. That is, the program text should be organized as a sequence of statements and during execution the statements are executed in the sequence given in the program. For structured programming, a few single-entry- single-exit constructs should be used. These constructs include selection (if- then-else) and iteration (while-do, repeat-until, etc.). With these constructs it is possible to construct a program as a sequence of single-entry-single-exit constructs. goal of coding should be to reduce the testing and maintenance effort. Hence, 6 Testing Testing is the major quality control measure used during software development. Its basic function is to detect errors in the software. During requirements analysis and design, the output is a document that is usually textual and nonexecutable. After the coding phase, computer programs are available that can be executed for testing purposes. This implies that testing not only has to uncover errors introduced during coding, but also errors introduced during the previous phases. Thus, the goal of testing is to uncover requirement, design and coding errors in the programs. Consequently, different levels of testing are used. Testing is an extremely critical and time-consuming activity. It requires proper planning of the overall testing process. Frequently the testing process starts with a test plan that identifies all the testing-related activities that must be ‘performed and specifies the schedule, allocates the resources and specifies guidelines for testing. The, Jan specifies conditions that should be tested, different units to be Fase and the manner in which the modules will be_ ‘integrated together, Then for different test units, a test/case specification document is produced, which lists all the different test cases, together with the expecte: jecause the testing an the coding cost, the outputs. During the testing of the unit, the specified test cases are executed and fe actual result compared with the expected output, The final output of the testing phase is the test report and the error report, or a set of such reports (one for each unit tested). Each test report contains the set of test cases and the result of executing the code with these test cases. The error report describes the errors encountered and the action taken ve the errors. cLTesting can not show the absence of defects it can show only software errors are present. During testing phase emphasis on following: @ — Test should be planned long before testing begins. @ — All tests should be traceable to customer requirements. @) — Tracing should began “in the small” and the progress towards testing “in the large”. 4) — For most effective, testing should be conducted by independent third party. |7 Implementation Implementation phase is less creative than system design. It is mainly concerned with user training, site selection and preparation and file conversion. “Implementation is concerned with those task leading immediately to a fully operational system. It-includes the final testing of complete system to user satisfaction and supe! of initial operation of system. Implementation of _ ludes providing security to the system, also so that it may not be by some person. ‘Type of Implementation : There are three types of implementation : @ — Implementation of a computer system to replace a manual system. @ — Implementation of anew computer system to replace an existing one. (> — Implementation of a modified application (software) to replace an existing one using the same computer. In brief, we can say implementation is the process of converting a new _system design into operation. Conversion include several steps : © — Review of the project plan and implementation plan. @ — Convert the files. @ — Conduct the parallel processing. (@ — Discontinue the old system. © — User training. @© — Plan for post-implementation review. \8 Maintenance After implementation is complete and user staff is adjusted to the system this phase of life cycle begins. Like any other systems there also is an a process which requires periodic maintenance. This phase is known as post- ‘implementation phase also. This is the phase with longest duration. Infact, this phase of life cycle never ends. Once the system has settled down and been running for sometime, the system analyst may be involved in amendment procedures to adapt the system to changing conditions, in auditing the system to check that the stated objectives have been met properly by the new system. . Maintenance is not as rewarding or exciting as developing the systems. It may have problems like, = © availability of only few tools of maintenance ; © user may not accept the cost of maintenance ;© standards and guidelines of project are poorly defined system documentation * minimal standards for maintenance. Maintenance may be classified as corrective, adaptive or perfective. Ata maintenance means repairing processing or performance failures or making changes because of previously uncorrected problems. Adaptive maintenance means changing the program features. Perfective maintenance means enhancing the performance or modifying the programs to respond to the user’s additional or changing needs. This needs more time and money than corrective and aday laptive maintenance. As maintenance is very costly and very essential, efforts have been done to reduce its costs. One way to reduce the costs is through maintenance management and software modification audit. Software modification consists of programs rewriting, system level upgradation. When we decide to do maintenance the following problems may occur : ~— Maintenance is not as rewarding as developing systems. — There are minimal standards for maintenance. — Few techniques and tools are available for maintenance. — A good test plan is lacking. — Procedures and guidelines are poorly defined. — Maintenance is viewed as a necessary evil often delegated to junior programmer. — Most programmers view maintenance as low level drudgery.