Stages of software development process

  1. Analysis

Analysis is the first phase of software development. in this stage you need to determine the purpose of the software and the functional requirements of the software

  1. Design

This is the stage where the problem is actually solved. The functional requirements will be used to create a series of steps that can be converted to code during implementation.

  1. Implementation

Once the program has been designed, the programmers will start to create the program in a particular programming language.

The boundaries of the problem are formally agreed by the client and the analyst and a rough idea is turned into an exact specification.

There are various ways of designing a problem including pseudocode, flowcharts, structure diagrams and wireframes.

The programmer also needs to make sure the code is readable. This is in case another programmer needs to do something with the code at a later date.

  1. Testing

It needs to be tested with a range of inputs to make sure it does what it is supposed to do and that it does not crash all of the time.

Code should be tested using normal, extreme and exceptional data.

  1. Documentation

Two of the documents created are the user guide and the technical guide.

The technical guide has the system requirements data and instructions on how to install the software.

The user guide contains instructions for someone using the software, such as how to run the software and tips on how to use it.

  1. Evaluation

This is the last stage before the software is handed over to the client. Questions are asked such as: Does the program do the job it is supposed to? is the programme easy to understand and use? is the programme easy to read?

Robustness
The program should be able to run, even when the input entered is not valid. It should not regularly crash and should be reliable.

Readability
We need to ensure that the program is readable for other programmers. This is in case someone different needs to make changes to it at a later date. We will look at how to make a program readable when we start programming soon.

Fitness for purpose
Does the software actually do the things that were asked for during the analysis stage? This must be backed up by evidence from testing.

The software development process is said to be iterative because we often need to revisit earlier stages in the process.