Systems development life cycle : theory and practice

• Main Authors: Lim, Kwok Yong, Tanabalan Kuppusamy, Sawlani Devdas Kalyan
• Other Authors: Gordon Hunter
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/63039
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The aim of the study is to investigate the differences in the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) between theory and practice and to provide reasons for the differences, if any. Three books were chosen to present the existing literature on SDLC. A distinctive feature was that, although different authors have classified the SDLC into different number of phases, there are certain generic activities that must be performed for a successful systems development. Hence, a model comprising the generic activities ( Generic model ) was proposed to serve as a basis of the analysis. For the purpose of the study, five companies from different industries were chosen. Through the analysis phase of our study, it was discovered that the SDLC in practice is virtually the same as theory in terms of the activities to be performed in a typical SDLC, although the activities are grouped into different number of phases. The analysis also revealed that even the tools used were similar in many aspects. This study suggest that the generic model, comprising the important and necessary activities, proposed in the study is applicable to virtually all companies in any industry.