Cisco DevNet Associate – The SDLC
One of our favorite topics in the new Cisco DevNet Associate course here at Lammle.com is the SDLC. What does this acronym stand for? It is the Software Development Lifecycle. This approach to standardizing (somewhat) the life of software code is an advancement that was well received and has served our industry well for a long time now. Without such a well-designed and thought-through plan, we might be engaged in the hilariously named “cowboy coding”. This is when there is little planning, and perhaps some genius code, but no plan on how to take things to the next level.
And perhaps the biggest nightmare about cowboy coding environments is the fact that they can be a nightmare to support and troubleshoot. Oftentimes, key pieces of code are not “self-documenting”, and the fact that they might be cutting edge makes this even more of a nightmare.
The SDLC can help make sure you do not skip key steps in the software development process. Generally, the SDLC typically consists of 6 stages – as follows:
- Stage 1 – Planning
- Stage 2 – Defining
- Stage 3 – Designing
- Stage 4 – Building
- Stage 5 – Testing
- Stage 6 – Deployment
And then, of course, it starts all over again. Notice how surprised a cowboy coder might be to learn that the SDLC does not start the way they love to – BUILDING. No, in fact, there are no less than three important stages before that one!
In reality today, there are many specific variations of the SDLC. Just some of them include:
- Waterfall
- Lean
- Agile
- Iterative model
- Spiral model
- lV model
- Big Bang model
- Prototyping models
Fortunately, in the DevNet Associate, we must be well-versed in only three of these – Waterfall, Lean, and Agile. We hope you enjoy the videos we have planned on these important topics!
