COMPLETING THE

PROJECT
SDLC

 SDLC stands for

– Systems
– Development
– Life
– Cycle
 What does it mean?
SDLC
 SDLC stands for
– Systems Development Life Cycle
– First, SDLC is a Life Cycle.
– All systems have a life cycle or a series of stages they
naturally undergo. 
 The number and name of the stages varies, but the primary
stages are conception, development, maturity and decline.
 The systems development life cycle (SDLC) therefore,
refers to the development stage of the system’s life cycle.

Why are we so interested in the development stage?

What about conception, maturity and decline?
 Systems Development
Life Cycle
 Every textbook has different names for
the stages of the SDLC
– Usually they stages are
 Planning (just after Conception)
 Analysis

 Design

 Implementation

 Maintenance (starting Maturity)

1.4
1.4
Systems Development
Life Cycle
 This text highlights 6 distinct phases:
– Project Identification and Selection
– Project Initiation and Planning
– Analysis
– Design
– Implementation
– Maintenance
Stages of the SDLC

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Phases of the Systems
Development Life Cycle
1. Project Identification and Selection
– Two Main Activities
 Identification of need
 Prioritization and translation of need into a development
schedule
– Helps organization to determine whether or not
resources should be dedicated to a project.
2. Project Initiation and Planning
– Two Activities
 Formal preliminary investigation of the problem at hand
 Presentation of reasons why system should or should not
be developed by the organization
Systems Development
Life Cycle
 Analysis
– Study of current procedures and
information systems
 Determine requirements
– Study current system
– Structure requirements and eliminate redundancies
 Generate alternative designs
 Compare alternatives

 Recommend best alternative

Systems Development
Life Cycle
 Design
– Logical Design
 Concentrates on business aspects of the system
– Physical Design
 Technical specifications
 Implementation
– Implementation
 Hardware and software installation
 Programming
 User Training
 Documentation
Systems Development
Life Cycle
 Maintenance
 System changed to reflect changing
conditions
 System obsolescence

A good way to learn the stages of the

SDLC is to create deliverables (output)
of each stage in the process.
TESTING
A Necessary Evil
 All project managers know that they must do
some testing
 The basic questions are;
– How much?
– What sort?
– By whom?
– When and by when?

 All difficult questions.

Why do we test?
 Provide confidence in the system
 Identify areas of weakness
 Establish the degree of quality
 Establish the extent that the requirements have
been met, i.e. what the users asked for is what they
got not what someone else though they wanted
 To provide an understanding of the overall system
 To prove it is both usable and operable
 To provide sufficient information to allow an
objective decision on applicability to deploy
Another view – cynical?
 To use up spare budget
 To provide a good excuse why the project
is late
 To provide jobs for people who can’t code
 To make the developers look good
 To provide the project manager with some
contingency in the plan and can be cut if
if push come to shove!
First up – How much?
 How good does the product need to be?
– How do we measure it?
– How do we make a decision?
 Are there any legal or compliance issues?
– What industry are you in?
 What will it cost?
– Time and resource [human and machine]
 Are we capable?
– We know what we need to do but can we do it?
How do we decide?
 What matters to our users?
– What does the system do?
– Risk
– Requirements
– Money

 Test Techniques - Coverage

– Static
– Dynamic
 Secondly – What sort?
 Unit
 Interface
 Functionality
 Performance
 Usability ………plus about another
 Security 20 ‘abilities’ 
 Availability
 Operability
Do we need tools to help?
 Automated test tools are often seen as a silver
bullet

 Some tests cannot be successfully executed or

analysed without them

 80% of test tools end up as shelfware through:

– Abandonment
– Neglect
– Banishment
Thirdly – By whom?
 Users: those who will ultimately use the
system
 Customers: those who define the system –
are they the same as the users?

 Testers
 Analysts
 Developers
Are we capable of
testing?
 Is an experienced tester better than an
experienced user at finding faults?

 How can testers help themselves and users?

– Working with the users to understand their
systems
– Providing testing skills transfer
– Attending testing industry conferences
– Attaining industry recognised software testing
qualifications
Lastly – When?
 Once the code is complete?
 As soon as the architecture is defined?
 Once the system delivery is complete?
 During development?
 Once the business requirements have
been defined?
 As soon as the project is given the go-
ahead?
Test then Code

Then test some more……………………

By when?
 Project deadline driven by:
– Legislation
– Arbitrary date
– Financial year
– Calendar date
– Seasonal
– Marketing window
– Safety Criticality
– Money
Summary
 Testing is an integral part of the system development
function, not an afterthought:
– Testing starts with the requirements not the code
– Testing is a static and dynamic activity
– Prevention is better than cure
– The sooner you find the fault the cheaper it is to fix
– Create re-usable ‘testware’
– Process first then tools
– Not everyone can test well, use professional testers
– Planned testing in a controlled environment provides objective
metrics

– To gain a Return on Investment you must first Invest