News 13 - Systems Development Life Cycle

1. System Development Life Cycle Approach was introduced in class this week. The original SDLC is a waterfall model approach. System developers follow the steps in sequence to create the system. The steps are in the following order: Planning, Analysis, Design, Development & Implement, Testing, Acceptance and Maintenance. This is the way many older systems were developed. However, this model is not sufficient as it used to be.

2. I found an interesting article on this topic. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=71151&pageNumber=1

3. The author believes that the problem with the waterfall model is that the waterfall model assumes that the only role for users is in specifying requirements, and that all requirements can be specified in advance. He explains that the requirements always grows, and change on design and development must be made. Feedback and interactive consultation will be very helpful. Therefore, many other SDLC models have been developed, such as, the fountain model which considers overlap of activities throughout the development cycle, and the spiral model which emphasizes the need to go back and reiterate earlier stages a number of times as the project progresses.

I agree with the author’s point of view. A single waterfall cycle is not enough to create a sufficient system because in a complex system, the developers can’t do all the analysis and get everything right without doing any design or implementation. The developer needs to do some analysis, then some design, then some implementation, and then go back to the cycle to do more analysis. In this way, the developer can refine the system, and eliminate constructive errors.