For lightweight, small-scale programs, manual development is often sufficient to meet necessary deadlines. However, companies often struggle to release a high-quality, glitchless software that follows all the required guidelines, especially within a brief time frame. In these cases, even properly adhering to several SDLC phases might not be enough. But thankfully, some of them can be automated to save time on manual labor.
Here’s what your team should be automating.
Testing
While automated testing has become more popular recently, particularly with companies that implemented Agile, its benefits are starting to attract all types of developers. There's a good reason for that. Thinking of all the possible user inputs and manually experimenting with them takes up a lot of human and computer resources. Even so, a person will never be able to go through every imaginable action to pinpoint the exact place where a bug occurs. With a massive application, it would be a tedious process of analyzing its many aspects. Automated testing has several additional benefits:
- Reusability - tools designed for automated testing execute specific actions based on a trigger event. Their repetitive nature allows for immediate implementation in different areas of the program, which saves a lot of time.
- Accuracy - automated tests never change, and there's virtually no human interaction involved in them. With almost 80% of mishaps caused by human error, it's no wonder that reducing manual input increases the test’s efficiency and accuracy.
Related Content: The 5 Most Powerful Automated Software Development Testing Tools for 2019
Coding
Unlike testing, coding can't be automated to the absolute extremes because it requires so much manual input. However, the true advantages lie in automating the correction of errors that often occur during typing. These are commonly known as tools for static code analysis, and alongside real-time evaluation, they can be used after the entirety of the code has been written out. Accuracy and productivity go hand in hand. The fewer flaws there are, the quicker you'll move on to the other SDLC phases.
Coding automation plays a large role in boosting the scalability of the software. When there are thousands of lines of code, manually analyzing them for flaws is impossible. The software has to remain scalable at any point in time. Otherwise, it can become expensive and time-consuming to adapt to the possible influx of users later on.
Environment
Setting up all of the necessary development tools on a fresh OS installation can be daunting. Chances are that some important utility is going to be forgotten. Whether it's a Linux or a Windows system, creating a script that will do all the tedious work for you is not a demanding task. This is one of the most important processes to automate since it prevents you from doing any work until the installation and preparation are finalized. Fast environment set-ups are a must, even if it means making some manual additions later on.
Related Content: A Detailed List of the System Development Life Cycle Phases
Automating SDLC Phases
Do you want to learn more about how you can boost your productivity? Bydrec is a nearshore software development company that can help you jumpstart your project. Find out more about our services by contacting us today.
