Adherence of software engineering stages of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) in developing applications at some selected software development organization in Kano State

Abstract

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a framework that outlines the various stages of software development, from conception to deployment, and beyond until the software is no longer in use. This study investigated the adherence to software engineering stages of the SDLC within selected software development organizations in Kano State. Data was collected with the use of questionnaire. The findings showed strong adherence across different SDLC stages. During the Requirements Gathering phase, elicitation methods were widely employed, with (90.9%) of organizations using the interview technique. Post-elicitation analysis was common, with all organizations (100%) further analyzing requirements using Data Flow Diagrams (DFDs). In the Design Phase, (81.8%) of the organizations used custom development, (72.7%) created architectural designs, and (81.8%) developed User Interface (UI) designs. In the Implementation Phase, all organizations (100%) utilized Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), while (81.8%) used PHP as their programming language of choice. Good practices such as commenting and code reuse were universally applied. In the Testing Phase, all organizations (100%) conducted Unit, Integration, System, Release, Alpha, Beta, and Acceptance testing. A majority (70%) used a combination of white-box and black-box testing methods. In the Maintenance Phase, all organizations (100%) predominantly performed corrective maintenance and functionality additions. This study aims to contribute to capacity-building and skills development initiatives within the software development community in Kano State by identifying areas of low adherence to SDLC stages and suggesting improvement and training programs.