Systems development life cycle

A systems development life cycle, with the main stages shown

The systems development life cycle (SDLC) describes the typical phases and progression between phases during the development of a computer-based system. These phases progress from inception to retirement. At base, there is just one life cycle, but the taxonomy used to describe it may vary; the cycle may be classified into different numbers of phases and various names may be used for those phases. The SDLC is analogous to the life cycle of a living organism from its birth to its death. In particular, the SDLC varies by system in much the same way that each living organism has a unique path through its life.

The SDLC does not prescribe how engineers should go about their work to move the system through its life cycle. Prescriptive techniques are referred to using various terms such as methodology, model, framework, and formal process.

Other terms are used for the same concept as SDLC, including software development life cycle (also SDLC), application development life cycle (ADLC), and system design life cycle (also SDLC). These other terms focus on a different scope of development and are associated with different prescriptive techniques, but are about the same essential life cycle.

The term "life cycle" is often written without a space, as "lifecycle", with the former more popular in the past and in non-engineering contexts. The acronym SDLC was coined when the longer form was more popular and has remained associated with the expansion, even though the shorter form is popular in engineering. Also, SDLC is relatively unique as opposed to the TLA SDL, which is highly overloaded.

are established after four of the five phases of the SDLC, and are critical to the iterative nature of the model. Baselines become milestones.

• functional baseline: established after the conceptual design phase.
• allocated baseline: established after the preliminary design phase.
• product baseline: established after the detailed design and development phase.
• updated product baseline: established after the production construction phase.

In the following diagram, these stages are divided into ten steps, from definition to creation and modification of IT work products:

A ten-phase version of the systems development life cycle

• Application lifecycle management – Product management of computer programs throughout their development lifecycles
• Decision cycle – Sequence of steps for decision-making
• IPO model – Input-process-output approach
• Object-oriented analysis and design – Software development methodology
• Program lifecycle phase
• Software development process – Process by which software is developed
• Software release life cycle – Stages in development and support of computer software
• Systems analysis and design (disambiguation)

• The Agile System Development Lifecycle
• Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation – Information Technology Solutions Lifecycle Methodology
• DoD Integrated Framework Chart IFC (front, back)
• FSA Life Cycle Framework
• HHS Enterprise Performance Life Cycle Framework
• The Open Systems Development Life Cycle
• System Development Life Cycle Evolution Modeling
• Zero Deviation Life Cycle
• Integrated Defense AT&L Life Cycle Management Chart, the U.S. DoD form of this concept.

FieldsConceptsOrientationsModels

Developmental	Agile EUP Executable UML Incremental model Iterative model Prototype model RAD Scrum Spiral model UP V-model Waterfall model XP Model-driven engineering Round-trip engineering
Other	CMMI Data model ER model Function model Information model Metamodeling Object model SPICE Systems model View model
Languages	IDEF SysML UML USL

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