SDLC Concept — Manual Testing Tutorial
4 min readMay 17, 2023
Welcome to the Manual Testing Tutorial. In this tutorial, we are going to discuss the SDLC in detail.
Let’s move ahead and discuss this in detail.
What is SDLC?
- SDLC stands for Software Development life cycle. The software development lifecycle is a systematic approach employed by the industry to ensure the development, quality, and reliability of high-quality software products. The SDLC goal is to make software that meets client expectations, is done on time, and is cost-effective.
- The Software development life cycle (SDLC) is a set of activities and deliverables that are used to build software. It serves as a mechanism for project tracking and control.
- SDLC is an organized process for building software that ensures the quality and correctness of the built software.
- The software development process is characterized by a detailed plan that outlines the methods for developing, maintaining, replacing, and enhancing specific software.
- The life cycle is a way of improving software quality and the development process.
SDLC consists of several phases. Let’s discuss in detail:
SDLC Phases
Stage 1: Planning And Requirement Analysis
- The requirement analysis is the fundamental stage of the SDLC.
- The task is undertaken by senior team members with input from clients and industry experts.
- It is used to plan the project’s approach and to do product feasibility studies in the economic, operational, and technical areas.
- At this stage, planning for the quality assurance requirements and figuring out the risks of the project are also considered.
- The objective of the technical feasibility study is to identify the most appropriate technical approach for achieving project success with minimal risk.
- The scope of the project is outlined in this phase, which provides a comprehensive understanding of the underlying issues, opportunities, and directives.
Stage 2: Defining Requirements
- The next step after the requirement analysis is to define and document the product requirements and get them approved by the client or market analysts.
- We need to create an SRS (Software Requirement Specification) document in order to define and document requirements.
- The SRS is the product requirements that need to be designed and developed during the projects’ life cycle.
Stage 3: Designing The Product Architecture
- In this phase, SRS will be the reference for preparing the system and software design documents. This is helpful in defining the complete system architecture.
- The requirements defined in SRS usually dictate that multiple design approaches are typically suggested and documented in a DDS — Design Document Specification for Product Architecture.
- The key players are looking at this DDS and looking at things like risk assessment, product durability, design flexibility, financial allocation, and time constraints. This helps choose the best design approach for the product.
- An approach to design clearly defines all the proposed modules in the products’ architecture, along with their data flow representation, E-R diagrams, etc., with external and third-party modules. The internal design of the proposed architecture should contain the smallest possible details in DDS.
Stage 4: Building Or Developing The Product
- In this stage of SDLC, the coding starts.
- If the design is done in a detailed and organized way, code can be made easily.
- Developers are required to adhere to the coding standard defined by their organization and programming languages and tools.
- During the development phase, tasks are divided into units or modules and assigned to the appropriate developers.
Stage 5: Testing The Product
- Once the development phase is finished. It is deployed into a testing environment.
- The testing team initiates a comprehensive evaluation of the pieces of software capabilities. This is done to make sure the whole application works according to the clients’ requirements.
- In this phase, the QA and testing team may find some errors or defects that they tell developers about. The software development group resolves the issue and acknowledges the testers for a fresh test run. Until the software is defect-free, stable, and works according to the business requirements of that system, this process continues.
Stage 6: Deployment And Maintenance
- Upon completion of the testing phase and the absence of any defects or errors in the system or software, the deployment process will commence.
- Depending on the business strategy of the organization, the product deployment phase may take place in various stages. The first step involves releasing the product in a restricted area and testing it in the real commercial setting (UAT — user acceptance testing or pre-production). The product may be released to the production phase or with suggested enhancements in the targeting market segment, depending on the end result.
- After the product’s are released and clients start using it, maintenance is needed for the existing customer base. This includes bug fixing, upgrading, and adding new features.
- Maintenance is the primary objective of maintenance to ensure that requirements continue to be met and that the system continues to perform as per the specification.