Software Development Life Cycle Should be Client Oriented

As Like other engineering discipline of Science,  Software engineering additionally has some structured models for software development. This document can give you with a generic overview concerning completely different client oriented software development methodologies that should be adopted by smart software corporations.

Now the Situation has been Changed
Like any different set of engineering product, software product also are oriented towards the client. it’s either market driven or it drives the market. client Satisfaction was the buzzword of the 80’s. Client Delight is today’s buzzword and client Ecstasy is that the buzzword of the new millennium. Products that don’t seem to be client or user friendly do not have any place within the market though they’re designed using the most effective technology. The interface of the merchandise is as crucial because the internal technology of the merchandise.
Why Market analysis ?
A market study is formed to spot a possible customer’s would like. This method is additionally called market analysis. Here, the already existing would like and also the potential and potential desires that are obtainable in an exceedingly section of the society are studied fastidiously. The market study is completed based mostly on lots of assumptions. Assumptions are the crucial factors within the development or inception of a product’s development. Unrealistic assumptions will cause a nosedive within the entire venture. Though assumptions are abstract, there ought to be a move to develop tangible assumptions to come back up with a successful product.
Why Research & Development
Once the Market analysis is applied, the customer’s would like is given to the analysis & Development division (R&D) to conceptualize an economical system that would doubtless solve the customer’s desires in an exceedingly manner that’s higher than the one adopted by the competitors nowadays. Once the conceptual system is developed and tested in an exceedingly hypothetical atmosphere, the event team takes management of it. the event team adopts one in all the software development methodologies that’s given below, develops the proposed system, and provides it to the client.
The Sales and promoting division starts selling the software to the obtainable customers and simultaneously works to develop a niche segment that would doubtless purchase the software. additionally, the division additionally passes the feedback from the purchasers to the developers and also the R&D division to create potential worth additions to the merchandise.
While developing a software, the corporate outsources the non-core activities to different firms who concentrate on those activities. This accelerates the software development method largely. Some firms work on “tie-ups” to bring out a highly matured product in an exceedingly short amount.
Popular Software Development Models
The following are some basic widespread models that are adopted by several software development corporations:

A. System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Model

B. Prototyping Model

C. Fast Application Development Model

D. Element Assembly Model

A. System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Model
This is additionally called Classic Life Cycle Model or Linear Sequential Model or Waterfall methodology.

This model has the subsequent activities.

A-1. System/Information Engineering and Modeling
As software is often of an outsized system (or business), work begins by establishing needs for all system components and then allocating some subset of those requirements to software. this method read is crucial when the software should interface with different components like hardware, folks and different resources. System is that the basic and extremely vital demand for the existence of software in any entity. thus if the system isn’t in place, the system ought to be designed and place in place. In some cases, to extract the most output, the system ought to be re-engineered and spruced up. Once the perfect system is designed or tuned, the event team studies the software demand for the system.

A-2. Software demand Analysis
This method is additionally called feasibility study. during this part, the event team visits the client and studies their system. They investigate the requirement for doable software automation within the given system. By the tip of the feasibility study, the team furnishes a document that holds the various specific recommendations for the candidate system. It additionally includes the personnel assignments, costs, project schedule, target dates etc […] the need gathering method is intensified and focussed specially on software. to know the character of the program/s to be engineered, the system engineer or “Analyst” should perceive the knowledge domain for the software, further as needed operate, behaviour, performance and interfacing. The essential purpose of this part is to seek out the requirement and to outline the matter that must be solved.
A-3. System Analysis and style
In this part, the software development method, the software’s overall structure and its nuances are outlined. In terms of the client/server technology, the quantity of tiers required for the package design, the database style, the info structure style etc… are all outlined during this part. A software development model is therefore created. Analysis and style are terribly crucial within the whole development cycle. Any glitch within the style part may be terribly expensive to resolve within the later stage of the software development. a lot of care is taken throughout this part. The logical system of the merchandise is developed during this part.
A-4. Code Generation
The design should be translated into a machine-readable type. The code generation step performs this task. If the look is performed during a detailed manner, code generation are often accomplished while not a lot of complication. Programming tools like compilers, interpreters, debuggers etc… are used to get the code. completely different high level programming languages like C, C++, Pascal, Java are used for coding. With respect to the sort of application, the proper programming language is chosen.
A-5. Testing
Once the code is generated, the software program testing begins. completely different testing methodologies are offered to unravel the bugs that were committed throughout the previous phases. completely different testing tools and methodologies are already offered. Some corporations build their own testing tools that are tailor created for his or her own development operations.
A-6. Maintenance
The software will certainly endure modification once it’s delivered to the client. There are often several reasons for this variation to occur. modification might happen as a result of some surprising input values into the system. additionally, the changes within the system might directly have an effect on the software operations. The software ought to be developed to accommodate changes that would happen throughout the post implementation amount.

B. Prototyping Model
This is a cyclic version of the linear model. during this model, once the need analysis is completed and therefore the style for a prototype is created, the event method gets started. Once the prototype is made, it’s given to the client for analysis. The client tests the package and provides his/her feed back to the developer who refines the merchandise consistent with the customer’s precise expectation. once a finite range of iterations, the ultimate software package is given to the client. during this methodology, the software is evolved as a results of periodic shuttling of data between the client and developer. this can be the foremost well-liked development model within the modern IT business. Most of the successful software merchandise are developed using this model – because it is incredibly troublesome (even for a whiz kid!) to grasp all the wants of a client in one shot. There are several variations of this model skewed with respect to the project management varieties of the businesses. New versions of a software product evolve as a results of prototyping.

C. Speedy Application Development (RAD) Model
The RAD modelis a linear sequential software development method that emphasizes an especially short development cycle. The RAD model may be a “high speed” adaptation of the linear sequential model during which speedy development is achieved by employing a component-based construction approach. Used primarily for info systems applications, the RAD approach encompasses the subsequent phases:
C-1. Business modeling
The information flow among business functions is modeled during a method that answers the subsequent questions:
What info drives the business process?What info is generated?Who generates it?Where will the knowledge go?Who processes it?
C-2. Knowledge modeling
The information flow outlined as a part of the business modeling part is refined into a group of information objects that are required to support the business. The characteristic (called attributes) of every object is identified and therefore the relationships between these objects are outlined.
C-3. Method modeling
The data objects outlined within the data-modeling part are reworked to realize the knowledge flow necessary to implement a business operate. Processing the descriptions are created for adding, modifying, deleting, or retrieving a knowledge object.
4. Application generation
The RAD model assumes the utilization of the RAD tools like VB, VC++, Delphi etc [..] instead of making software using typical third generation programming languages. The RAD model works to reuse existing program elements (when possible) or produce reusable elements (when necessary). In all cases, automated tools are used to facilitate construction of the software.
5. Testing and turnover
Since the RAD method emphasizes reuse, several of the program elements have already been tested. This minimizes the testing and development time.

D. Part Assembly Model
Object technologies give the technical framework for a component-based method model for software engineering. the item oriented paradigm emphasizes the creation of categories that encapsulate each knowledge and therefore the algorithm that are used to control the info. If properly designed and implemented, object oriented categories are reusable across completely different applications and pc based mostly system architectures. part Assembly Model ends up in software reusability. The integration/assembly of the already existing software elements accelerate the event method. today several part libraries are offered on the web. If the proper elements are chosen, the mixing facet is created a lot of less complicated.

Lesson Learned:
All these completely different software development models have their own benefits and drawbacks. Nevertheless, within the modern industrial software evelopment world, the fusion of of these methodologies is incorporated. Timing is incredibly crucial in software development. If a delay happens within the development part, the market may be taken over by the competitor. additionally if a “bug” crammed product is launched during a short amount of your time (quicker than the competitors), it’s going to have an effect on the name of the corporate. So, there ought to be a tradeoff between the event time and therefore the quality of the merchandise. Customers do not expect a bug free product however they expect a user-friendly product. That ends up in client Ecstasy.

References:

http://www.hpl.hp.com/hpjournal/96aug/aug96a3.pdf

http://henriklarsson.wordpress.com/2011/09/07/lifecycle-of-user-stories/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User-centered_design

http://codebetter.com/raymondlewallen/2005/07/13/software-development-life-cycle-models/

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Posted by Paracha on September 20, 2011. Filed under Articles, IT, Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.