2.3.2

Waterfall Lifecycle

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The Waterfall Lifecycle

When working in software development organisations follow software development systems to ensure the project is a success. The waterfall lifecycle is one such system.

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Waterfall lifecycle

  • The waterfall lifecycle has a series of stages that each have to be completed before moving to the next one.
  • Each stage is large and thorough and produces a large amount of documentation.
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Stage 1: Requirements

  • To define requirements, the project team will work with the client to set out the requirements for the whole project.
  • These will be very difficult to change after this stage is completed.
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Stage 2: Analysis

  • Analysis is where the project team analyses:
    • What solutions they have ready to implement.
    • What they can use or adapt to help produce a solution.
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Stage 3: Design

  • The design stage is where the project team produce a solution design to meet all of the users requirements.
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Stage 4: Implementation

  • Implementation takes place once the design is completed and signed off by the user and the project team.
  • This is when the developers write the code and build the designed solution.
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Stage 5: Testing

  • Testing happens after implementation.
  • Testing involves checking that:
    • The system itself works.
    • The system meets the user requirements.
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Stage 6: Deployment

  • Installation or deployment is when the system is put into place within the client's organisation.
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Stage 7: Maintenance

  • The system then moves into maintenance where they fix any bugs to the system and ensure it works as intended.

Jump to other topics

1Components of a Computer

2Software & Software Development

3Exchanging Data

4Data Types, Data Structures & Algorithms

5Legal, Moral, Cultural & Ethical Issues

6Elements of Computational Thinking

6.1Thinking Abstractly

6.2Thinking Ahead

6.3Thinking Procedurally

6.4Thinking Logically

6.5Thinking Concurrently

7Problem Solving & Programming

8Algorithms

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