Final answer:
The five phases of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) are Planning, Analysis, Design, Implementation (or Coding), and Testing and Integration, followed by Maintenance. The SDLC is iterative and cyclical, incorporating prototyping, testing, and refinement.
Step-by-step explanation:
The System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a structure followed by development teams within the field of software engineering to design, develop and test high-quality software. The SDLC aims to produce a high-quality software that meets or exceeds customer expectations, reaches completion within times and cost estimates. The five basic phases of the SDLC include:
- Planning - Defining the system to be developed, setting the scope, allocating resources, and understanding the initial requirements.
- Analysis - Gathering detailed requirements and understanding the needed system features and functions.
- Design - Envisioning the system's desired features and operations in detail, including screen layouts, business rules, process diagrams, and other documentation.
- Implementation (or coding) - Turning design into the actual system through coding.
- Testing and Integration - Ensuring that the system meets the original requirements and works as intended in the target environment.
- Maintenance - Addressing problems that were not discovered during earlier stages and improving the system as new requirements surface over time.
The SDLC emphasizes iterative and cyclical processes, making improvements as needed at each stage based on realtime feedback and testing results. This leads to the development process often being more similar to a spiral design process rather than a purely sequential chain of events. Such an approach helps in refining the product through prototyping, testing, and refinement.