As we move into the 21st century, it’s more valuable than ever to ensure that our software development life cycle (SDLC) is as efficient and up-to-date as possible. To help you stay ahead of the curve, here are five SDLC best practices that you should implement in 2022.
As the world is moving faster, the need to be agile has also increased manifolds. The traditional SDLC models are no longer feasible as they used to be a decade ago. Now, we need faster software development models that can address the rapidly changing business requirements.
What is SDLC?
The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a process that provides a framework for the planning, execution, and assessment of a software project. The main aim of the SDLC is to produce high-quality software that meets the customer’s needs within time and budget constraints.
The SDLC best practices defines a software project’s phases from inception to delivery. It also sets out the activities that need to be carried out in each stage and the deliverables that need to be produced.
Models & Frameworks for the SDLC
There are many models and frameworks for SDLC best practices, but they all follow the same basic structure. The most popular models include the waterfall, agile, and DevOps models.
The waterfall model is probably the best-known of all the SDLC models. It is a linear, sequential approach that flows smoothly from one phase to the next in a strictly defined order. The main advantage of this model is that it is very simple and easy to understand and follow.
The agile model is more iterative and incremental, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. The focus is on delivering working software quickly and efficiently, with regular feedback from customers or end users.
The DevOps model is an approach that emphasizes communication, collaboration, and integration between software developers and IT operations professionals. The aim is to shorten the software development life cycle and increase the speed of delivery while still maintaining high levels of quality.
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5 SDLC Best Practices To Implement
Let’s take a look at some of the SDLC best practices you should implement in to stay ahead of the curve.
Adopt an Agile Approach
If you haven’t already done so, now is the time to switch to an agile model, one of the best SDLC best practices. Agile methods are well suited to today’s fast-paced, ever-changing business environment. They allow you to be more flexible and adaptable and respond quickly to requirements changes.
Automate Your SDLC Processes
Automation is another one of the key SDLC best practices that can help you increase efficiency and speed up the delivery of software products. Automating repetitive tasks such as code testing and deployments can free up time for your team to focus on more strategic tasks.
Implement Continuous Integration and Delivery
Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) are two closely related SDLC practices that can help you increase the speed and quality of your software releases. CI involves frequently merging all code changes into a central repository, typically daily. CD then takes this one step further by automating software releases’ building, testing, and deploying.
Use DevOps Tools and Techniques
To be successful with agile and DevOps, you need to use the right tools and techniques. Many different DevOps tools are available, such as Puppet, Chef, Ansible, and Jenkins. These tools can help you automate tasks, improve communication and collaboration between teams, and increase software delivery speed.
Test-Driven Development
Test-driven development (TDD) is a software development technique that involves writing tests first and then coding to make those tests pass. TDD is an important part of CI/CD as it helps ensure that code changes do not break existing functionality and that new features work as expected.
Focus on Quality
Finally, remember that quality should always be a key focus in your SDLC process. This means ensuring that code changes are thoroughly tested before they are deployed to production and that any issues that arise are quickly resolved.
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The Bottom Line
In this article, we’ve looked at some of the top SDLC best practices you should implement to stay ahead of the competition.
By adopting an agile approach, automating your SDLC processes, using DevOps tools and techniques, and focusing on quality, you can release high-quality software products quickly and efficiently.
So what are you waiting for? Start putting SDLC these practices into place in your software today.