CS Thinking / core

Software Development Life Cycle

Also known as: SDLC, development process

process

The structured process of planning, creating, testing, deploying, and maintaining software, typically following phases like requirements, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. Without a structured process, software projects frequently fail — they're late, over budget, or don't meet user needs.

💡 Intuition

Building software is like building a house — you plan, design, build, inspect, and maintain. Skipping steps leads to problems.

Core Idea

The SDLC provides structure so that complex software can be built reliably. Different models (waterfall, agile, spiral) emphasize different approaches.

🔬 Example

Requirements (what does the user need?) → Design (how will we build it?) → Code (build it) → Test (does it work?) → Deploy (release it) → Maintain (fix bugs, add features).

🎯 Why It Matters

Without a structured process, software projects frequently fail — they're late, over budget, or don't meet user needs.

⚠️ Common Confusion

Agile doesn't mean 'no planning.' It means shorter cycles with frequent feedback, not chaos.

Related Concepts

Prerequisites

design specification

How Software Development Life Cycle Connects to Other Ideas

To understand software development life cycle, you should first be comfortable with design specification. Once you have a solid grasp of software development life cycle, you can move on to documentation, code maintenance and version control.

Go Deeper

Worked Examples

Step-by-step solved problems

Practice Problems

Test your understanding

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Software Development Life Cycle in CS Thinking?

The structured process of planning, creating, testing, deploying, and maintaining software, typically following phases like requirements, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance.

Why is Software Development Life Cycle important?

Without a structured process, software projects frequently fail — they're late, over budget, or don't meet user needs.

What do students usually get wrong about Software Development Life Cycle?

Agile doesn't mean 'no planning.' It means shorter cycles with frequent feedback, not chaos.

What should I learn before Software Development Life Cycle?

Before studying Software Development Life Cycle, you should understand: design specification.