Question

Summarize in your own words what the system development life cycle (SDLD) is and why you think understanding it is or not important to accountants. Does your conclusion hold true for accountants in all areas of the profession? Explain. Briefly include descriptions of the important elements of the SDLC in your answer.

Answer 1

SDLC

Stands for "System Development Lifhecycle." SDLC is a structured approach to creating and maintaining a system used in information technology. It can be applied to networks and online services, but is most often used in software development.

When applied to software, the SDLC is also called the "application development life-cycle." Some SDLC models have as few as five stages, while others have as many as ten. A typical SDLC framework used for developing a software application might include the following seven stages:

Planning - The most fundamental part of the SDLC is planning. This includes steps like determining a need for a specific program, who will be the end users, what the development will cost, and how long it will take.

Defining - In this stage, the general development plan is funneled into specific criteria. The specific requirements of the program are defined. At this stage, the development team may also decide what programming language should be used to build the program.

Designing - This process involves creating the user interface and determining how the program will function. For larger applications, it is common to create a design document specification (DDS), which may need to be reviewed and approved before the actual development begins.

Building - The building stage typically comprises the bulk of the software development process. It includes programming the source code, creating the graphics, and compiling the assets into an executable program. Small projects may involve a single programmer, while larger projects may include multiple teams working together. For example, one team might design the user interface, while another team writes the source code. For multiplatform applications, individual teams may be assigned to different platforms.

Testing - The all-important testing phase allows the developer to catch unknown issues and fix any bugs that arise in the program. Some testing may be done internally, while a beta version of the software might be provided to a select group of users for public testing.

Deployment - Once a program has passed the testing phase, it is ready for deployment. In this stage, the software is released to the public. It may be provided via an electronic download or as boxed software, which comes on a CD or DVD.
Maintenance - After a software application has been released, there may still be additional bugs or feature requests submitted by users. The development team must maintain the software by fixing bugs and adding new features. Commercial software programs often include some level of technical support.

The reason the above stages are referred to as a cycle is because these stages are repeated each time a new major version of the software is released. While the maintenance stage may encompass minor updates, most software companies stay in business by regularly releasing paid updates (version 2, version 3, etc). Before embarking on a new major version, the development team must first create a plan (stage 1) and then continue through the other stages of the system development life cycle.

Understanding of the system development life cycle may not be as much as important to the accountants.

Reasons for the above given statement.

1. Accountants are the end users of The system. Who uses the system after the entire system is developed.

2. Accountants may be a part of team which 2 system development only for giving inputs in the requirements how the software should be build.

3. If there is no accountants in the team of system development then also nothing to bother about the issues. Because the software people who developed the system will give the training to the accountant about how to use the system for the accounting purposes.

4. So this there is no compulsory need for understanding the system development life cycle in the phases in system development life cycle by the accountant.

This understanding holds true for each and every accountant who works for an organisation.

But this may have some exceptions if an accountant who is working by the use of software in an organisation will not be need to understand about the system development life cycle. But the person who is working in the development team has to understand the system and their responsibility of that accountant it is to suggest any improvements requirements in a system. For those suggestions and improvements he need to understand the elements of system development life cycle.

But in most cases there is no need to hire an accountant separately only for the system development purpose. Due to this reason we said this is an exception.