Life cycle of a Software Project

It is basically divided in to following phases

1) Planning2) Development3) Testing4) Deployment5) Documentation6) Training7) MaintenanceWhen a Project is at hand a team has to be formed for the development of the project. Here the project Manager and his capable team is selected for the proper development of the project. It is very important while selecting the team to choose all members who are qualified enough for handling the project at hand. A person who is good at PHP and you ask him for doing a high level .net project it becomes a bit difficult for him to understand few things and it takes him loner time to understand few things. He wastes more time in understanding concepts than doing the project and thus things gets delayed. There are few exceptions to this rule but they are very few. Its very important to select a right team for the project.Once the team is selected its the work of Project Manager to gather his team and plan all details about the project at hand. The client either gives the Project Specifications in writing or explains the type of product he wants in detail and you have to prepare the specifications. Preparing and understanding the Project specifications is very important as that is the skeleton or first step for start of the project. Once the Project specification is ready it is planned how to do the project. Which person will work on which module and in his absence what all steps will be taken so that the project does not rune out of time. Each person receives a copy of the project specifications with instructions on what they have to work on.After the Planning stage is over Development phase starts. In this stage full fledged development starts. Its the work of project manager to check if things are moving fine and report daily the work done and send weekly report to the authorized person who in turn will communicate with the client. This will remove hassles from work because if few things were misunderstood the client will correct them and its always advisable to make changes at the start during development phase rather than banging head when everything is over. Its very important to keep track of work done on weekly basis and communicate the same with the client. Reporting on weekly basis is also good because client checks the work flow and its always easy to explain small portions at a time rather than explaining the whole stuff at one time and confusing the client. Keeping track of each and every point is very important. Once the development of a project is over it should be checked that each and every point is covered and nothing is missed out.After the Completion of development phase the developed software has to be rigorously tested so that no bug is left in the project. A very good and qualified tester needs to test each and every point in detail as well as the flow of the project. Sometimes few bugs are left unseen and they become troublesome in the near future. Its always better to be secured from your end rather than facing embarrassment before the client for silly things. Few errors and bugs are interlinked so if one is solved rest will fixed automatically. It sometimes happens that testing and bug fixing takes more than alloted time so its always better to keep more time for testing. Testing phase is also very important because during development phase several modules were developed and then all modules are integrated and after this integration phase few modules don't work together and hence needs changes. So until and unless ample time is devoted it is very difficult to find and fix bugs.After the testing phase is over the project has to be deployed. If its a website it has to be uploaded on a server and then checked whether everything is running fine. If the website is looking as demanded by the client and it is running successfully in all browsers. It sometimes happens that a website works fine on Firefox but looks distorted in Internet Explorer. These all too needs to be fixed. Then the whole site needs to be tested and functionality to be checked on live server before the site goes live.After the deployment phase Documentation for using the software has to be created so that each and every part is clear to the client. Here it is explained in detail how the site works and the whole flow of the site. This part needs to be done by a really qualified professional.Once the software is developed people needs to be trained on how to use it. If no body understands the flow its no use developing the software and the whole work will go waste. Its very important to train people on how to use the software so that it can run successfully in an organization.Developed softwares needs maintenance as it needs to be updated from time to time with the changes in work environment and due to changed needs. Its always not necessary to develop a new software, work can be carried out will the old one but with few advancements. The maintenance part is very crucial as it keeps the software updated and meets current needs.For a Project to succeed its very important that all the phases are carried out timely and with the right team.