Advantages and Disadvantages of Systems Development Life Cycle

A good system development life cycle will enable developers to be more efficient and achieve the highest level of documentation and management control. It will ensure that all stakeholders agree on the overall objective, have a clear action plan, and understand the resources and costs required. It can also be customized to suit specific needs. Let’s discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a systems development life cycle. Here are a few examples.

The first stage of the systems development life cycle is ideation. During this phase, a product’s idea and solution to a user problem is defined. The development team, however, is usually not involved in this process. The client begins searching for programmers when the product’s vision is defined. This means that the time frame and resources can be estimated at a high level. The disadvantages of this process include a lack of control over system changes. During the implementation stage, changes to one part of the system can affect other areas of the system.

System development can be expensive, as unforeseen circumstances can arise that delay the delivery. For example, a newly applied piece of hardware can increase the cost and length of the development process. Furthermore, a software project can be difficult to estimate at the beginning. A final phase, maintenance, can be slower for development teams, which can slow down the entire process. If this happens, it could cost millions of dollars.