System Development Life Cycle

Waterfall Model

Waterfall model approach in systems development is a much better approach to larger projects

which are not expected to change much throughout the duration of the project. Using this approach on

a project that is better suited for the Agile method will more than likely result in high costs due to work

needing to be redone numerous times (Bhatnagar, 2013). Although the SDLC model is a much better fit

for safety-critical products, the ever-changing dynamics of a modern project will more-than-likely result

in chaos.

Waterfall model is easy to understand and has a linear sequential flow. In this model, phases

must be completed to go for the next phase and there should not be no overlapping of phases. The

waterfall model is a step-by-step process. To get success in the project, the waterfall model can be used

in software engineering. The model is divided into different steps and is a sequential process (Ozturk,

2013). “Different phases in waterfall model are requirement analysis. System design, implementation,

testing, deployment, and maintenance” (SDLC – Waterfall Model, n.d.). Each of these steps has its own

importance and also has equal importance within in the project life cycle.

In the first phase of the model i.e. requirement analysis the project requirements are gathered

which are needed for the project development and the documentation is to be specific. In the system

design phase, second phase, the requirements gathered form the phase one are considered and the

design of the system is prepared. This helps in requiring the software and hardware in the complete

system architecture (Bhatnagar, 2013). The third phase, implementation, the system is developed in

smaller units which are integrated in next phase. In integration and testing phase, the smaller units

established in implementation are combined to system after each unit testing is performed. The system

defaults and failures are tested once the integration is completed. The product developed will be

installed into the environment of the customer, if the functional and non-functional testing is achieved.

In the maintenance step, the patches are used to fix defects which are identified in the client environment.

Thus the maintenance helps to deliver a quality product to the customers (Anonymous, n.d.).

There are numerous SDLC approaches that can be used by the software developers to be used

depending on internal and external factors. This model is used in some situation where the

documentation is to be appropriate, technology is not dynamic, no unclear requirements and for short

term project and additionally, it can be used in larger projects (Ozturk, 2013, pg. no: 799).

Advantages of the Waterfall Model:

 Easy to understand

 All the stages are clearly defined

Tasks can be arranged easily

The process and results are well documented