Software lifecycle

What is software lifecycle?
The software life cycle refers to all phases of a software product during its entire planning, development and use up to its possible obsolescence or decommissioning. This process has many variable parts, but it can often be broken down into several main parts. This helps developers and others understand how a product is created, implemented, and used.
Some of the most common parts of a software life cycle are planning phases. Those skilled in the art typically refer to requirements gathering or analysis, in which an undeveloped product is defined by recorded criteria.

Subsequent phases include the analysis and design of the product, followed by development. The final parts of the life cycle include a product that has been released to a customer or other end user. At this time, the product manufacturer is often involved through maintenance, problem solving, updating, and other processes.
Another way of looking at the separation of the phases of the software life cycle is to use the terms “production environment” and “end use environment”. A clear distinction is made here between the product as internal work in progress and a product that has been published.

It is important to note that software does not always travel through these parts of a software life cycle in a linear manner. Rather, there can be different parts of a product that develop differently. These are often called iterations within the professional IT community.