The technological era has created a demanding customer who brings in a number of challenges for today's enterprise. Since aggressively competitive world today depends on information technology, to encounter the challenges on a winning note, the enterprises further bank on technological innovations to deploy world-class infrastructure and customize the software applications.

1. Essentials of the Software Development Life Cycle
The technological era has created a demanding customer who brings in a number of challenges for
today's enterprise. Since aggressively competitive world today depends on information technology, to
encounter the challenges on a winning note, the enterprises further bank on technological innovations
to deploy world-class infrastructure and customize the software applications.
Designing and developing software application requires a high level of understanding of the
development process. Essentially made of a series of steps or phases the Software Development
Life Cycle (SDLC) describes the tasks that are performed during the software development process.
Based on a format followed by the development team it comprises of a detailed plan for developing
and retaining the software. The life cycle is about the entire development process and the
methodology applied for improving the software quality.
The software development life cycle starts with the initiation, analysis and definition phases,
wherein the purpose of the software or system is determined, the goals established, to the design,
development phase followed by testing and implementation till disposal. This manual penetration
tests conducted during the testing phase ensure that the software developed cannot be exploited in
case of a security breach. The SDLC solution from the leaders in the industry segment helps the
software development teams overcome the complexities involved in the process. Further, the
structured and standardized process for all the phases ensures that the strategic goals are achieved.
However, with several models available to streamline the software development process, enterprises
tend to choose any one or a combination of models. The models available include:
• The waterfall model: a process, where developers are to follow these phases in order and proceed
to next only after finishing the previous one.
• Spiral Model: This model emphasis on the conditions of options and constraints to support software
reuse and quality and involves in regular risk management during the development process.
• Iterative and incremental development: involve in development of portions of software irrespective
of the order to help uncover important issues early.
• Agile methodology: With iterative development as the basis, this uses the feedback from regular
tests and releases of the software as the control mechanism rather than planning.
However, developing best-of-the-breed software applications requires number of tools. To achieve
higher productivity and quality it is necessary to go in for integration of the development tools. The
software development life cycle makes use of a number of tools for its various functions. These
include the requirements management tools, test management, issue management, risk
management, release management and project management tool. Further for functions such as
configuration and build management it makes use of third-party tools. Such solutions assure the
enterprises of high-end software with management reporting and controls that will increase the
productivity levels.
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