What happens to the system development life cycle (SDLC) when everyone works from home? The COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc on businesses everywhere. Software developers need to adjust to the new normal.
With everyone required to observe physical distancing, many companies have to adopt telecommuting. Developer teams need to work remotely if they want to continue doing their projects. This can create complexities in the software development process.
The next stage is design and development. This is when the developers turn the plan into workable system outlines. They also have to take the requirements into account. They reconcile plans with the features or components sought by the client. At this stage, they also need to ensure the viability of the planned system.
After the design phase comes the implementation phase. For this, the project output takes form. The developers will have produced a working software or application, ready for testing. The resulting app undergoes repeated evaluation and testing for flaws. If defects are found, the developers work on the needed fixes. The testing process repeats until the output satisfies the expectations of the development team and client.
The next phase is the maintenance of the software. This includes routine checks to make sure that there are no malfunctions or bugs. The developers may come up with updates to address problems spotted by users. Likewise, patches may be introduced in response to emerging cyber threats.
The SDLC phases remain the same with or without remote developers involved. The same cycle is also observed when doing Agile software development. If there are differences, they're usually about the attention spent on certain phases.
Under a telework setup, it's a must to use efficient collaboration tools. It's important to have a unified platform to manage the software development project. This platform should come with reliable communication and tracking functions. Moreover, the developers must organize and coordinate their actions through this collaboration platform. And, it's necessary to have a dependable project manager to oversee everything.
From the planning phase, consultations with key team members are vital. It's not a must to involve everyone in the planning, but all members must be updated with the tasks. They also need to be aware of changes if there are any. It's advisable to get inputs from developers during the analysis and design phases. Transparency is essential to avoid conflicts and inefficiencies.
Again, a well-designed collaboration platform is necessary to make system development life cycle easy to follow. Even when team members are not physically present in the same office, an excellent collaboration platform bridges the gap. It allows everyone to keep in touch and keep track of tasks as if they are in the same space.