From the course: Introduction to Career Skills in Software Development

The software development process - Python Tutorial

From the course: Introduction to Career Skills in Software Development

The software development process

“

- Did you know, the Microsoft Windows operating system has roughly 50 million lines of code. Now that's a lot of software. 50 million lines of code? There's no way they wrote all of that at one time. So how did they do it? Well, software is developed in various phases known as the software development life cycle or SDLC. known as the software development life cycle or SDLC. This process allows companies to produce software of high quality in a timely efficient manner. There are seven phases of the SDLC. Let's walk through them together. The first is requirements gathering. This is where certain members of the software team work to understand what is needed by users and the business. They may conduct interviews, hold workshops, or research competitors to provide the direction for the project. The second phase is analysis. This is where team members begin to focus on the portion of the requirements that they plan on implementing. Identify any risk to the project's success and document the high level goals. Third, design. This is much more than what a user might see on the screen. This is the system's design of how the various components will fit together. You can think of it as a blueprint for the programmers to use during the next phase, which is coding. In this phase, programmers start to build the software by writing code using the chosen programming language. It is typically the longest phase of the software development life cycle. Next up is testing. We don't build cars and just put them on the road. That would be disastrous. Once we build software, we don't just give it to users. Instead, we make sure it's tested. During this phase, bugs or defects are found During this phase, bugs or defects are found and communicated to the programmers. They then work to fix the bugs and have them retested. This process continues until the software is bug free. Which brings us to the next phase, deployment. The software is now available to users. They might download it in a mobile app or access it online via website. This is when programmers start to do their happy dance. And finally, we have maintenance. Now that the software is in user's hands, additional bugs may need to be fixed or minor adjustments made. Bugs, you say? Yes. The way customers use the software is not always the same as how the team envisioned it. Therefore, it's normal to make updates from time to time after software has been deployed. And that's it. The entire software development life cycle. Did you realize how much was involved in developing software? I hope you've gained a new appreciation for the behind the scenes work that goes into the software you use every day.

Contents