Life Cycle Management

Just as products go through a development process form birth to death, so to do software programs. This process is known as the application development life cycle. Software programmers and companies that create software for practical and business purposes are familiar with the application development life cycle and the stages of evolution a project goes through. The formal document scope, know as the project plan, scopes and bounds the initiatives that correspond to systematic integration of the application development life cycle. The various stages of the project development and rollout are discussed below.

The first stage of the application development life cycle is characterized by defining the project objectives from market research, feasibility studies and refining the application objectives as delineated by the sponsoring stakeholders. Participating parties liaise extensively during this stage to setup the framework for the application development and to make sure the objectives are properly identified.

The design phase of the application development life cycle concentrates on the design of system and functional requirements. This includes refining the processes and articulating project guidelines. Project documentation is produced and the project plan is formalized. This document is then passed on to the programmers who can interpret and commence the first build of the application.

During the development phase of the application development life cycle, programmers interpret the project plan, commence the interface design and start coding the project requirements. This incorporates the functional and system aspects of the project. Iterative refinement takes place to incorporate all the project plan objectives and to ensure that the working version meets the project guidelines. Developer level testing takes place at this stage to ensure the application is robust and ready for testing deployment.

The testing phase of the application development lifecycle includes usability testing and functional testing. Real life user feedback is sourced on the interface design and to benchmark the application against the project objectives. Modifications are made to improve the application and to accommodate end user requests. The testing can also incorporate stress testing and platform testing. If a beta version of the product is released, this is the stage where suggestions and improvements contribute to producing an application ready for deployment.

The implementation stage of the application development life cycle is characterized by company deployment or release of the product to the commercial market. This can include company wide training. If this stage is the first commercial build release then appropriate provision is made for any ongoing maintenance or bug fixes that may be required.

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