The software development life cycle is split into 7 distinct stages. In this article, we are going to cover what is the first step of system software development (SDLC) and the importance of this step for the successful completion of your software project.
Planning Planning Planning
Planning is the first step of the system development life cycle. A lot of individuals involved in software development think that the development phase is the most important. However, no other step is as crucial as the planning phase.
The planning phase is split into the following components
1.Scope
In this phase, we uncover the scope of the problem we are trying to solve so all the parties involved in the project have a clear understanding of the goal the organization is trying to achieve.
2.Identification of Resource Requirements
Once the scope of the problem has been outlined we need to identify how many resources are required to implement the project. Resource requirements have to cover both human resources (ie. no of developers, project managers) as well as infrastructure requirements like hardware, cloud resources, and additional software licenses.
3.Timelines
Based on the high level of the scope we need to identify the timeline that the project needs to be implemented.
4.Costs
Based on the resource requirements and timelines we can identify the costs related to the project. If internal resources are not available within the organization we might look into the costs of getting contract workers for the duration of the project or employ additional resources.
5.Creation of a High-Level Plan
The result of the planning phase is a high-level plan covering the scope, timeline, resources, and costs. The creation of this plan is based on feedback from marketing, management, and development teams.
