A system, as we know, is developed and maintained to meet the requirements of an organization. The needs or requirements of the organization changes. So the system must be modified to meed continuous requirements of the organization.
The systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life-cycle, is a term used in systems engineering, information systems and software engineering to describe a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an information system.
When the modifications are minor, they are regarded as maintenance. But when a proposed modification to the system requires the larger expenditure of time, effort and money, they are regarded as a project. There are different eight steps in the development of the system. Which are explained below…,
- Requirement determination
- Requirement specification
- Feasibility study
- Final specifications
- System design
- System implementation
- System Evaluation
- System maintenance
Requirement determination
This is the first stage of the system development life cycle. In this stage design, needs or requirements of the organization are specified or determined. The requirements are arrived at by a consensus reached among managers in the organization.
Requirement specifications
After determination of requirements with managers and users, the system analyst draws up the specifications of the user’s requirements by consensus in understandable language showing what will be the system output. The next step is to check whether it is feasible to implement the system.
A feasibility study takes into account various constraints. The resources needed for implementation such as computing equipment, manpower and cost are estimated based on the specifications of user’s requirements. The feasibility report is also given to the management of the organization.
Final specifications
The management of the organization studies this feasibility report and suggests modifications in the requirement it any. According to the suggestion system analyst draws up final specifications of the system. These specifications should be in a form which can be easily understood by the users.
System design
The next step is to develop the logical design of the system. In this the logic of the program is designed, the datasheet is designed and program test plans and an implementation plan are drawn up.
System implementation
In this phase, programs are written, the database is set and uses are trained. The system is installed and tested with operational data.
System evaluation
It is evaluated from users if the system meets their requirements or not. If the system meets all the requirements of the organization and user than the system will be directly delivered to the user or organization for use. Evaluation report with a suggestion for improvement is prepared.
System maintenance
After improvement plans, all the previous steps will be followed again to change the system. Changes may be adding or deleting features to satisfy users needs. Maintenance is necessary to eliminate errors in the system.
