Sdlc on a Diet

DISS 725 - System Development: Research Paper 1

SDLC on a Diet

by

Ronald G. Wolak

April 2001

The paper that follows was submitted to satisfy the requirements of DISS 725 Spring 2001 - System Development: Research Paper 1. System Development Life Cycle methodologies are mechanisms to assure that software systems meet established requirements. Traditional methodologies sometimes fall short in the new e-business environment. They are often to "heavy" to keep up with the pace of e-business software development projects. In response to this problem, so called "light" SDLC methodologies have recently been developed and put to use. In the following pages, the paper began with a brief overview of traditional SDLC processes. This was followed by an in-depth look at new lightweight methodologies. In this discussion, methods such as Adaptive Software Development (ASD), Agile Software Process (ASP), Crystal, Dynamic System Development Method (DSDM), Extreme Programming (XP), Feature Driven Development (FDD), Rational Unified Process (RUP), SCRUM, and Whitewater Interactive System Development with Object Models (Wisdom) were explored. The paper concluded with a summary of lightweight SDLC methods along with recommendations for their use.

Chapter 1

Introduction

System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) methodologies are mechanisms to assure that software systems meet established requirements (DOJ, 2000). These methodologies impose various degrees of discipline to the software development process with the goal of making the process more efficient and predictable. For the purpose of discussion in this paper, SDLC methodologies are divided into two groups (traditional and lightweight). The following introductory sections describe the problem to be investigated and the goal to be achieved. In addition, the introduction provides an analysis of the relevance of the research and discusses the paper's five-chapter format.

Problem Statement and Goal

Traditional SDLC methodologies sometimes fall short in the new e-business software environment (Yourdon, 2000). They are often to "heavy" to keep up with the pace of e-business software development projects. In response to this problem, so called "light" SDLC methodologies have recently been developed and put to use. They are considered light because of the reduced documentation and managerial effort required. The goal of this paper is identify the strengths and weaknesses of these new lightweight methodologies and to make recommendations for their effective use.

Relevance

This research paper is relevant to the topic of SDLC. The paper begins with an overview of traditional SDLC processes. This is followed by an in‑depth look at new lightweight methodologies and an analysis of their appropriateness to different types of software development efforts.

Format

This research paper is a descriptive study formatted in five chapters. The first chapter covers the paper's problem statement and goal, relevance, and format. This is followed in the second chapter by a review of the literature relevant to the problem. In the third chapter, the research methods and online tools and resources employed during the completion of the paper are described. The fourth chapter presents the results of the research and provides an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of lightweight methodologies. The fifth chapter begins with a summary of traditional and lightweight SDLC methodologies. This is followed by recommendations for the effective use of the new techniques. Finally, the paper concludes with an overall summary.

Summary

SDLC methodologies have recently gone on a diet in order to better meet the requirements of many software projects. In the following pages, this paper provides a review of literature relevant to this trend, a description of research methods employed, results of the research, recommendations for effective use, and an overall summary.

Chapter 2

Review of Literature

The literature review that follows is organized by subject heading. Those subjects include traditional SDLC and new lightweight SDLC methodologies. Included in the discussion of lightweight methods are nine currently used models.

Traditional SDLC Methodologies

Rothi and Yen (1989) provided a brief review of traditional SDLCs. In their journal article, they related how the use of traditional software development models is numerous and often regarded as the proper and disciplined approach to the analysis and design of software applications. Examples of such models included the code and fix, waterfall, staged and phased development, transformational, spiral, and iterative models. The authors also described how traditional SDLCs have the same goal and are similar in the approach they use to achieve it.

A related article by the U.S. Department of Justice described how the primary goal of any SDLC is to deliver quality software systems (DOJ, 2000). It further defined a quality system as one that: 1) meets or exceeds customer expectations, 2) works well with current and planned infrastructure, and 3) is inexpensive to maintain and enhance. SDLC is traditionally made up of several phases, each comprised of multiple steps. These steps typically include software concept, requirements analysis, architectural design, coding and debug, and system testing.

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