Model:- A model is a representational abstraction containing a set of logical and quantitative relationships between the members of a set of variables or primitives. An important reason behind constructing a model is that it helps to manage the complexity in a problem and facilitates arriving at good solutions and at the same time helps to reduce the design costs. A model helps to understand the problem easily.
Life cycle process:- A life cycle model specifies the different activities that need to be performed to develop a software product and the sequencing of these activities. The software life cycle is also sometimes called as the systems development life cycle (SDLC). Basically, the classical waterfall model is the basic life cycle customer. This is called product conception. Starting with his stage it undergoes transformation through a series of identifiable stages until it is fully developed and released to the customer. After release, the product is used by the customer and is finally retired when it is no longer useful. This forms the essence of the life cycle of every software product. Life cycle is not strange to software development. In fact, each business organization conducts its business through a certain sequence of well-defined steps. Likewise, manufacturing industries use some steps to produce their product. The software life cycle can be viewed as the business process for software development, and therefore, a software life cycle is also often called as a software process.
Traditionally, the feasibility study is the first stage in the life cycle of any software product. The subsequent stages include - requirement analysis and specification, design, coding, testing and maintenance. Each of these stages is referred to as a life cycle phase. During each life cycle phase, usually several kinds of activities need to be performed and several documents produced before the end of the phase. A software life cycle model is a diagrammatic and descriptive representation of the software life cycle. A life cycle model maps the various activities conducted on a software product from its inception to retirement into a set of life cycle phases. Different life cycle models may map the fundamental development activities to phases in different ways. Thus, no matter which life cycle model is used, the basic activities are included in all life cycle models, though the activities may be performed in different order in various life cycle models.
Software development organizations have felt that adherence to an appropriate well-defined life cycle model helps to produce good quality products and that too without time and cost overruns. The main benefit of adhering to a life cycle model is that it enables development of software in a systematic and disciplined way.
What problem might a software development organization face if it does not follow any life cycle model during development of a large software product ?
Problem:- The main benefit of adhering to a life cycle model is that it encourages development of software in a systematic and disciplined manner. As we know that when a program is developed by a single programmer, he has the freedom to decide the exact steps through which he will develop the program. However, when a software product is developed by a team, it is necessary to have precise understanding among the team members as to - when to do what. Otherwise, if each member is allowed to do whatever activity he feels like doing, then we have the perfect recipe for chaos and project failure. let us try to illustrate this situation using an example. Suppose a software development problem is divided into several parts and the parts are assigned to the team members. From then on, suppose the team members are allowed the freedom to develop the parts assigned to then in whatever way they like. it is possible that one member might start writing the code for his part, another might decide to prepare the test documents first, and some other engineer might start doing the design for the parts assigned to him. This is one of the perfect recipes for project failure. Believe it or not, this is exactly what has caused many project failures in the part. it is not difficult to guess the reasons for the failure. Severe problems arise in interfacing the different parts and in managing the overall development. also, consider the situation in which an engineer first develops the code, while another develops the requirements specification and design, and writes the code later. Then, the first engineer has to wait (idle) until the second engineer completes his coding before the two prices of code can be integrated together. The use of a suitable life cycle model is crucial to the successful completion of a project.
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