Software Development Process

Software development process is also known as system development life cycle. There are four fundamental stages in any software development process.

1. Software Specification - This is a detailed document that describes all the aspects of intended system. This document is prepared after the system analysis and design phase. We can say that this is the blue print of the system.
2. Software Development - In this phase we actually start development of the system such as coding, database creation, etc. We use the software specification for develop the system.
3. Software validation / Testing - Once we develop the system or part of the system or while developing the system we test it with the system specification to validate that all the functions are working as expected. Software testing is an specialized area that involves lots of techniques and require expertise.
4. Software evolution - Once we test and deploy the system / software, it may time to time need changes according to customer requirements and changing nature of the environment. This is called software evolution. Think about how Windows operating system evolve over the time.