4/27/23, 12:27 PM What is SDLC?

- Software Development Lifecycle Explained - AWS

What is SDLC?
The software development lifecycle (SDLC) is the cost-effective
and time-efficient process that development teams use to
design and build high-quality software. The goal of SDLC is to
minimize project risks through forward planning so that
software meets customer expectations during production and
beyond. This methodology outlines a series of steps that divide
the software development process into tasks you can assign,
complete, and measure.

Why is SDLC important?

Software development can be challenging to manage due to
changing requirements, technology upgrades, and cross-
functional collaboration. The software development lifecycle
(SDLC) methodology provides a systematic management
framework with specific deliverables at every stage of the
software development process. As a result, all stakeholders
agree on software development goals and requirements
upfront and also have a plan to achieve those goals.

Here are some benefits of SDLC:

Increased visibility of the development process for all

stakeholders involved

Efficient estimation, planning, and scheduling

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Improved risk management and cost estimation

Systematic software delivery and better customer satisfaction

How does SDLC work?

The software development lifecycle (SDLC) outlines several
tasks required to build a software application. The development
process goes through several stages as developers add new
features and fix bugs in the software.

The details of the SDLC process vary for different teams.

However, we outline some common SDLC phases below.

Plan

The planning phase typically includes tasks like cost-benefit

analysis, scheduling, resource estimation, and allocation. The
development team collects requirements from several
stakeholders such as customers, internal and external experts,
and managers to create a software requirement specification
document.

The document sets expectations and defines common goals

that aid in project planning. The team estimates costs, creates
a schedule, and has a detailed plan to achieve their goals.

Design

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In the design phase, software engineers analyze requirements

and identify the best solutions to create the software. For
example, they may consider integrating pre-existing modules,
make technology choices, and identify development tools. They
will look at how to best integrate the new software into any
existing IT infrastructure the organization may have.

Implement

In the implementation phase, the development team codes the

product. They analyze the requirements to identify smaller
coding tasks they can do daily to achieve the final result.

Test

The development team combines automation and manual

testing to check the software for bugs. Quality analysis includes
testing the software for errors and checking if it meets customer
requirements. Because many teams immediately test the code
they write, the testing phase often runs parallel to the
development phase.

Deploy

When teams develop software, they code and test on a

different copy of the software than the one that the users have
access to. The software that customers use is

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called production, while other copies are said to be in the build

environment, or testing environment.

Having separate build and production environments ensures

that customers can continue to use the software even while it is
being changed or upgraded. The deployment phase includes
several tasks to move the latest build copy to the production
environment, such as packaging, environment configuration,
and installation.

Maintain

In the maintenance phase, among other tasks, the team fixes

bugs, resolves customer issues, and manages software
changes. In addition, the team monitors overall system
performance, security, and user experience to identify new
ways to improve the existing software.

What are SDLC models?

A software development lifecycle (SDLC) model conceptually
presents SDLC in an organized fashion to help organizations
implement it. Different models arrange the SDLC phases in
varying chronological order to optimize the development cycle.
We look at some popular SDLC models below.

Waterfall

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The waterfall model arranges all the phases sequentially so

that each new phase depends on the outcome of the previous
phase. Conceptually, the design flows from one phase down to
the next, like that of a waterfall.

Pros and cons

The waterfall model provides discipline to project management

and gives a tangible output at the end of each phase. However,
there is little room for change once a phase is considered
complete, as changes can affect the software's delivery time,
cost, and quality. Therefore, the model is most suitable for
small software development projects, where tasks are easy to
arrange and manage and requirements can be pre-defined
accurately.

Iterative

The iterative process suggests that teams begin software

development with a small subset of requirements. Then, they
iteratively enhance versions over time until the complete
software is ready for production. The team produces a new
software version at the end of each iteration.

Pros and cons

It’s easy to identify and manage risks, as requirements can

change between iterations. However, repeated cycles could
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lead to scope change and underestimation of resources.

Spiral

The spiral model combines the iterative model's small repeated

cycles with the waterfall model's linear sequential flow to
prioritize risk analysis. You can use the spiral model to ensure
software's gradual release and improvement by building
prototypes at each phase.

Pros and cons

The spiral model is suitable for large and complex projects that
require frequent changes. However, it can be expensive for
smaller projects with a limited scope.

Agile

The agile model arranges the SDLC phases into several

development cycles. The team iterates through the phases
rapidly, delivering only small, incremental software changes in
each cycle. They continuously evaluate requirements, plans,
and results so that they can respond quickly to change. The
agile model is both iterative and incremental, making it more
efficient than other process models.

Pros and cons

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Rapid development cycles help teams identify and address

issues in complex projects early on and before they become
significant problems. They can also engage customers and
stakeholders to obtain feedback throughout the project
lifecycle. However, overreliance on customer feedback could
lead to excessive scope changes or end the project midway.

How does SDLC address security?

In traditional software development, security testing was a
separate process from the software development lifecycle
(SDLC). The security team discovered security flaws only after
they had built the software. This led to a high number of bugs
that remained hidden as well as increased security risks.

Today, most teams recognize that security is an integral part of

the software development lifecycle. You can address security in
SDLC following DevSecOps practices and conducting security
assessments during the entire SDLC process.

DevSecOps

DevSecOps is the practice of integrating security testing at

every stage of the software development process. It includes
tools and processes that encourage collaboration between
developers, security specialists, and operation teams to build
software that can withstand modern threats. In addition, it
ensures that security assurance activities such as code review,
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architecture analysis, and penetration testing are integral to

development efforts.

Read about AWS DevOps Competency Partners »

How does SDLC compare with

other lifecycle management
methodologies?
The term software development lifecycle (SDLC) is frequently
used in technology to refer to the entire process of technology
innovation and support. We give other similar terms below.

Systems development lifecycle

The abbreviation SDLC can sometimes refer to the systems

development lifecycle, the process for planning and creating an
IT system. The system typically consists of several hardware
and software components that work together to perform
complex functions.

Software development lifecycle compared to systems

development lifecycle

The software development lifecycle addresses only the

development and testing of software components. On the other
hand, system development is a broader superset involving the

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setup and management of the software, hardware, people, and

processes that can make up a system. It can include tasks like
organizational training and change management policies that
don’t fall under the software development umbrella.

Application lifecycle management

Application lifecycle management (ALM) is the creation and

maintenance of software applications until they are no longer
required. It involves multiple processes, tools, and people
working together to manage every lifecycle aspect, such as
ideation, design and development, testing, production, support,
and eventual redundancy.

SDLC compared to ALM

SDLC describes the application development phase in greater

detail. It is a part of ALM. ALM includes the entire lifecycle of
the application and continues beyond SDLC. ALM can have
multiple SDLCs during an application's lifecycle.

How can AWS help you with your

SDLC requirements?
AWS developer tools have several services that bring efficiency
to your software development lifecycle (SDLC). Here are some
examples:

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Amazon CodeGuru is a developer tool that provides

intelligent recommendations to improve code quality and
identify an application's most expensive lines of code.
Integrate CodeGuru into your existing software development
workflow to automate code reviews and continuously monitor
the application's performance in the production environment.

AWS CodePipeline is a fully managed service that helps you

automate your release cycles for fast, reliable application and
infrastructure updates.

AWS CodeBuild is a fully managed service that compiles

source code, runs tests, and produces ready-to-deploy
software packages. CodeBuild scales continuously and
processes multiple builds concurrently, so your builds are not
left waiting in a queue.

Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) is a fully

managed service that makes it easy for you to deploy,
manage, and scale containerized applications.

In addition, Amazon Managed Grafana is a fully managed

service for open-source Grafana developed in collaboration
with Grafana Labs. Grafana is a popular open-source analytics
platform that enables you to query, visualize, alert, and
understand your metrics no matter where they are stored.

With an optional upgrade to Grafana Enterprise, you can

access more third-party plugins that provide SDLC monitoring
capabilities, such as ServiceNow and Atlassian Jira. Using
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these plugins, you can pull incident details and SDLC

deliverables into Amazon Managed Grafana. Then, you can
track incident statuses, pull requests and code commits, and
monitor software releases alongside their application health
and performance data, all in one place.

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