Planning and Installing a New System

Every computer system that an organization relies on begins as an idea and ends as software running on real hardware used by real people. The journey between those two points is rarely smooth, so computer scientists use a structured approach called the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The SDLC breaks a large, risky project into a sequence of manageable stages: analysis, design, implementation, testing, installation, and maintenance. By moving through these stages deliberately, a development team reduces the chance of building the wrong product, running over budget, or delivering software that no one can actually use.

Why planning matters

Before a single line of code is written, an organization must decide whether the project is worth doing at all. This is the job of a feasibility stu