System Development Life Cycle Pros And Cons

1387 Words6 Pages
“Although the SDLC (System Development Life Cycle) has many strengths and is still used today, it also has many potential weaknesses which have led to alternative methodologies, techniques, and tools being available.” (Avison & Fitzgerald, 2003). The System Development Life Cycle is outlined as a method of logical processes that a team of professionals may use to approach a project to develop a computer system for a customer (Dennis et al, 2006. P.4.). It was designed to improve on the stepwise very basic method which in turn had replaced the two-phase method which involved going straight to the coding stage and from then on merely patching the code as they went along (Leffingwell and Widrig, 2003. p.24.). However, according to Hoffer et al, the number of identified phases in this method varies from between 3 and 20 (depending on the textbook authors and individual organisations (Hoffer et al, 2009. P.5.)). The common phases appear to be Planning, Investigation, Analysis, Design, Implementation and Maintenance. SDLC is also known as the ‘Waterfall model’. Later there also came the ‘Agile model’, ‘Spiral model’, ‘DSDM model’ and many more. According to Leffingwell and Widrig (2003, p.24.) the waterfall method was first created by Winston W. Royce in 1970 (Royce, 1970). The SDLC method gives developers some guidance on what should and shouldn’t be developed. Through this method the developers are able to construct detailed plans on how and then actually build the system. This is achieved by breaking the project down into more manageable pieces. Also, this system promotes the heavy documentation of all events in the process, which means the system is easier later on to understand. This documentation is crucial in not only maintaining the system, but also in future improvements. Leffingwell and Widrig(2003. p.24.) state that each step in the Waterfall
Open Document