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What are the phases of the systems development life cycle (SDLC)? How is SDLC
different from Scrum?
Systems Development Life Cycle, or SDLC, is the traditional process used to
develop information systems and applications. This life cycle consists of many steps.
The SDLC first starts with the Business planning process and defining the system. This
step involves where the business sets goals, estimates for costs and schedules, as well
as the overall project plan. The following phase is the analysis phase where the most
important phase takes place. Here, requirements are gathered from users, data models
are created, which then leads to approved requirements. The next phase is component
design where the hardware specifications are made, the programs, databases, and
procedures are set. From there, the implementation phase takes place after. During this
phase, information system and the business processes that use that system are
implemented. A test plan is developed and tested. Finally, the system is sent out for
users to install. If there are any errors, or updates needed, the following phase is the
maintenance phase where changes are made. The scrum approach uses an agile
technique that is very different from the SDLC. It is a very iterative process where you
work very closely with the user and make changes as you go and as the user requests.
User feature requirements are identified and placed as part of the release backlog
where the user stories are prioritized by estimating the amount of time it would take to
complete each feature. Then a total estimate is calculated to see how long the overall
project would take to complete the release. The release backlogs are then placed into
sprint backlogs. Sprints are short achievements where the team can work at an efficient
pace. Each sprint also ensures that all the features are tested and complete. Occasional
meetings take place to ensure the team is moving forwards, making progress until the
project is completed.
Comparing SDLC and the scrum model, it appears that the scrum model is more
appropriate for the modern day systems development as it involves an agile technique,
while the SDLC uses a traditional process that has little room for error. If an error is
discovered, in a SDLC, one would need to go through the entire process over again to
make changes since it is not practical to return to the phase where the error was made.
This is true because changing one thing in a phase will affect the following inputs and
outputs all together. Iteration is difficult when using the SDLC method. If an error is
made in the scrum method, it can be communicated through a team and solved. The
errors are often times changed through the process before tasks are fully complete,
which allows for efficient development. When using the SDLC, businesses are unable to
know whether or not their users will like the finished product or not. They will only know
once the system is finished being developed and in use. They can only make changes
once their users request to make changes due to bugs or better user experience. They
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will then have to go through the entire cycle once again to make changes their users
want. Businesses who utilize the scrum method work closely with their clients or users.
Since they work closely with them, changes can easily be made as systems are
developed. Testing is also done as systems are changed and updated. The scrum
method is more effienicent as a business would not need to go through an entire
process once more to make even subtle changes as they would if they used the SDLC.
Both SDLC and the scrum model has their benefits and drawbacks. It all
depends on the situation and user requirements. Advantages to the SDLC allows
businesses to foresee and plan for future tasks that need to be done. It lets businesses
pinpoint at which phase errors were made, allowing them to recognize errors and where
they need to make additional changes. Another pro for the SDLC is that you can cycle
through the cycle as many times as you want. Since system requirements are always
changing, it denies what every developer knows making SDLC obscure. This makes
SDLC very risky since the cycle assumes that requirements do not change. Hence, a
con to it is that cycling through countless times to make changes can increase costs. In
addition, once a phase is competed, you should not go back to that phase since every
phase has inputs and outputs. Changing inputs will in turn affect outputs, altering the
system since the outputs are fed into the next phase. Advantages to the scrum model is
the emphasis on team communication. Daily scrum is a communication tool used within
a team where members communicate their daily accomplishments. This ensures that
the team is on the right track to completing a project. This is also an effective way to
identify and solve problems right away. The scrum model also uses an important
technical tool that allows for a business to better visualize progress of a project. A
burndown chart allows businesses to monitor the progress of each sprint. It allows
businesses to take action when tasks in a sprint take too long to complete. It is the best
project visibility tools to see whether or not a project is advancing in a favorable
direction. It shows the amount of work remaining for each sprint which eventually
progresses to zero as tasks are completed. The burndown velocity can be calculated to
see the average rate of productivity. A burndown chart shows whether or not a project
on on track or late. With information from a burndown chart, decisions can be made
depending on the state of the project. Although it seems like the scrum process is more
efficient in the techniques used, the scrum model can be tiresome. The scrum period is
practically a never ending cycle where it ends until the customer is satisfied with the
final product. The period can also end when the project runs out of time or money.
When determining which development approach to use, businesses should
consider their user’s needs and wants. Depending on the importance of the project, a
business may choose one method over the other. For example, if their user is looking
for a more personalized system, the business may want to go with the scrum method.
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This way, the client can voice out any changes they may want as their system is
developed. If the business has a project that does not have a time frame in which it
needs to be completed, a business may choose to utilize the SDLC method since this
process is time consuming, and more detailed and tedious. However, if a business
needs to complete a project in a certain time frame, they may instead choose the scrum
model since this process uses techniques such as the burndown chart where it can
calculate estimated completion times and set schedules for each task to efficiently
allocate members on the team for certain tasks.
