The Seven Phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle
The seven phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle are: Planning; Systems Analysis; Systems Design; Development; Testing; Implementation; and Maintenance.
Planning involves determining what the goal is and how best to accomplish that goal. Several factors must be considered including equipment types, costs, employee willingness to learn, and employee knowledge. While the text becomes quite involved it has been my experience that this section, while time consuming, is not nearly as difficult as the text appears to make it.
Systems Analysis follows Planning: After the scope of the project has been determined in planning it is necessary to determine the exact source of the problem that is being solved. In this step flow diagrams are created to pinpoint where an information systems can be used to solve any problems that may exist.
Next is Systems Design: Once any problems have been identified it is possible to design a system to solve those problems. This step is broken into two sections; the creation of a logical design which explains what the new system will do; the creation of a physical systems design that lists the equipment needed to perform the logical design.
System Design leads to Development where the information system is built and programmed.
Testing can be performed after the system is built. In this step the functionality of the individual sub systems are tested to ensure proper operation; this process is called stub testing. After successful testing of each subsystem the entire system is tested to ensure all subsystems work together properly; this is called unit testing.
Upon successful completion of Testing the project can move on to Implementation. During Implementation several approaches can be taken to begin actual use of the new system; these range from direct cutover where the company using the system immediately stops using the old system in favor of the new one, to staged conversion where
Planning involves determining what the goal is and how best to accomplish that goal. Several factors must be considered including equipment types, costs, employee willingness to learn, and employee knowledge. While the text becomes quite involved it has been my experience that this section, while time consuming, is not nearly as difficult as the text appears to make it.
Systems Analysis follows Planning: After the scope of the project has been determined in planning it is necessary to determine the exact source of the problem that is being solved. In this step flow diagrams are created to pinpoint where an information systems can be used to solve any problems that may exist.
Next is Systems Design: Once any problems have been identified it is possible to design a system to solve those problems. This step is broken into two sections; the creation of a logical design which explains what the new system will do; the creation of a physical systems design that lists the equipment needed to perform the logical design.
System Design leads to Development where the information system is built and programmed.
Testing can be performed after the system is built. In this step the functionality of the individual sub systems are tested to ensure proper operation; this process is called stub testing. After successful testing of each subsystem the entire system is tested to ensure all subsystems work together properly; this is called unit testing.
Upon successful completion of Testing the project can move on to Implementation. During Implementation several approaches can be taken to begin actual use of the new system; these range from direct cutover where the company using the system immediately stops using the old system in favor of the new one, to staged conversion where