Master Class: Systems Development Life Cycle Overview

Outlines the systems development lifecycle (sdl) from planning to termination and highlights its phases, core project roles, and the triple constraints in project management.

Define the planning phase of the systems development lifecycle, assess feasibility, set project objectives and scope, decide procure options (build, buy, or cloud), and plan budgets, teams, and risk.

Enter the analysis phase by assessing the current state, identifying business technology gaps with SWOT, and gathering future requirements from stakeholders. Baseline, evaluate alternatives, and document in a requirements repository.

During the design phase, teams develop detailed logical and physical designs, including user interface layouts and database schemas, then baseline and document the solution.

Translate documented requirements into working code during the development phase, whether in-house or via vendors or cloud services, while updating the requirements repository and maintaining stakeholder sign-offs.

Verify and validate the application through systems and integration testing, plus unit, regression, and user acceptance testing, using analysts' documentation and developer environments to create and execute test cases.

Migrate the source code to production, then prepare user guides, standard operating procedures, training materials, and final documentation to support the deployed system.

During the maintenance phase, monitor the production system for bugs and performance, collect daily metrics, and report to the product owner while gathering stakeholder feedback for remediation and enhancements.

Learn the termination phase of the SDLC, including shutdown planning, infrastructure impact assessment, data migration or archiving, communications with stakeholders, and adherence to destruction and retention policies.

Explore waterfall and agile—the two dominant frameworks of the systems development lifecycle—and contrast their sequential versus incremental delivery, team collaboration, and product demonstrations.

Close out the masterclass on the systems development lifecycle, thanking participants and highlighting upcoming modules on the business systems analyst, agile, and requirements engineering.