OSCA Solutions Logo

Your Partner for Comprehensive IT Solutions

Agile Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Our comprehensive Agile SDLC framework ensures successful project delivery through structured phases, clear role definitions, and seamless collaboration between all stakeholders.

Agile Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Our comprehensive Agile SDLC framework ensures successful project delivery through structured phases, clear role definitions, and seamless collaboration between all stakeholders. Each phase includes explicit accountability and hand-off criteria to maintain quality and timeline commitments.

📊 Metrics & KPIs Guidance: The targets shown throughout this SDLC are illustrative examples for guidance and should be tailored based on project size, complexity, domain, risk profile, and client requirements. Consider scaling expectations for MVPs vs. large enterprise projects.

Key Roles & Responsibilities Overview

Product Owner (PO): Defines business requirements, prioritises features, and validates user stories
Project Manager (PM): Manages timeline, resources, and stakeholder coordination
Business Analyst (BA): Bridges business and technical teams, analyses requirements
Solutions Architect: Designs system architecture and selects technologies
Technical Lead: Oversees technical execution, mentors developers, ensures code quality
Development Team: Implements features, writes code, conducts peer reviews
QA Engineer: Ensures software quality through testing and validation
DevOps Engineer: Manages infrastructure, deployment, and CI/CD pipelines
UX/UI Designer: Creates user experience and interface designs
Security Architect: Ensures secure system design and compliance

1. Discovery & Ideation

This initial phase focuses on understanding the business problem, identifying stakeholders, and defining the high-level vision for the solution. It involves market research, feasibility analysis, and initial scope definition to ensure the project aligns with business objectives.

Key Roles & Responsibilities

Product Owner

Description: Business stakeholder representing customer needs and product vision.

Responsibilities: Define product vision, identify business needs, prioritise high-level features, communicate stakeholder requirements, validate business value.

Accountability: Owns business requirements and product direction decisions.

Business Analyst

Description: Bridge between business and technical teams, analysing requirements.

Responsibilities: Gather detailed requirements, conduct stakeholder interviews, document business processes, identify dependencies, validate feasibility.

Accountability: Owns requirement documentation and stakeholder communication.

Project Manager

Description: Manages timeline, scope, resources, and stakeholder coordination.

Responsibilities: Create project timeline, manage resource allocation, track dependencies, coordinate stakeholder communication, manage risks, ensure delivery commitments.

Accountability: Owns project timeline, scope, and delivery commitments.

Technical Lead

Description: Hands-on technical leader who bridges architecture to implementation, mentors developers, and ensures code quality standards.

Responsibilities: Assess technical feasibility, identify implementation risks, define coding standards, mentor development team, ensure technical approach is executable, validate technical decisions.

Accountability: Owns technical implementation approach, code quality standards, and developer mentoring.

Distinction: Focuses on "how to build" vs Solutions Architect's "what to build" - translates architecture into actionable development tasks.

Solutions Architect

Description: Strategic technical leader responsible for overall system design, technology selection, and architectural decisions.

Responsibilities: Design high-level system architecture, select technologies and frameworks, define technical standards, assess scalability requirements, ensure architectural consistency.

Accountability: Owns architectural decisions, technology choices, and system design standards.

Distinction: Focuses on "what to build" and "with what technology" vs Technical Lead's "how to build" - defines the technical vision and constraints.

Key Interactions & Hand-offs

  • Product Owner ↔ Business Analyst: Collaborate on requirement gathering and business process analysis
  • Project Manager ↔ All Roles: Coordinate timeline, resources, and stakeholder communication
  • Technical Lead ↔ Solutions Architect: Validate technical feasibility and approach
  • All Roles: Participate in stakeholder interviews and feasibility assessment
Phase Exit Criteria:

✓ Business needs clearly defined and documented
✓ High-level feasibility confirmed
✓ Stakeholder agreement on project direction
✓ Initial timeline and resource estimates completed
✓ Initial risk assessment completed and documented

Risk Management:

Conduct initial risk assessment identifying technical, business, and operational risks. Document risk mitigation strategies and assign risk owners. Establish risk monitoring framework for ongoing assessment throughout the project lifecycle.

Stakeholder Communication & Sign-off:

Required Sign-off: Product Owner + Project Sponsor + Business Leaders
Sign-off Criteria: Project charter approved, high-level requirements validated, business case confirmed, initial budget and timeline approved
Process: Conduct stakeholder review sessions to validate business needs and obtain formal sign-off before proceeding to detailed requirements gathering.

Phase Metrics & KPIs:

Stakeholder Engagement: Number of stakeholder interviews conducted, stakeholder satisfaction score
Requirements Clarity: Percentage of requirements with clear acceptance criteria
Risk Assessment: Number of risks identified and mitigation strategies defined
Timeline Accuracy: Initial estimate vs. actual phase duration

Phase Outputs:

Project charter, high-level business requirements, initial risk register, stakeholder agreement, feasibility assessment, and initial timeline estimates. Outputs feed directly into Requirements Gathering phase.

2. Requirements Gathering

This phase involves detailed analysis and documentation of functional and non-functional requirements. It includes stakeholder interviews, user story creation, acceptance criteria definition, and requirements validation to ensure a clear understanding of what needs to be built.

Key Roles & Responsibilities

Product Owner

Description: Business stakeholder representing customer needs and product vision.

Responsibilities: Define functional requirements, prioritise features, create user stories, validate business value, communicate stakeholder needs.

Accountability: Owns functional requirements and user story acceptance.

Business Analyst

Description: Bridge between business and technical teams, analysing requirements.

Responsibilities: Create detailed specifications, document acceptance criteria, identify non-functional requirements, manage requirement traceability.

Accountability: Owns detailed requirement specifications and acceptance criteria.

Solutions Architect

Description: Technical leader responsible for overall system design and architecture decisions.

Responsibilities: Define non-functional requirements, assess technical constraints, identify integration points, specify performance requirements.

Accountability: Owns non-functional requirements and technical constraints.

Technical Lead

Description: Hands-on technical leader who validates implementation feasibility and ensures requirements are technically executable.

Responsibilities: Validate technical requirements, assess implementation complexity, identify technical dependencies, ensure requirements are implementable, define technical constraints.

Accountability: Owns technical requirement validation and implementation feasibility assessment.

Distinction: Focuses on practical implementation details vs Solutions Architect's high-level technical decisions.

QA Engineer (Early Consultation)

Description: Quality assurance specialist ensuring requirements are testable and comprehensive.

Responsibilities: Review requirements for testability, define test strategy, identify test scenarios, ensure acceptance criteria are measurable.

Accountability: Owns testability of requirements and test strategy definition.

Key Interactions & Hand-offs

  • Product Owner ↔ Business Analyst: Collaborate on detailed requirement gathering and user story creation
  • Solutions Architect ↔ Technical Lead: Define technical requirements and constraints
  • QA Engineer ↔ All Roles: Ensure requirements are testable and acceptance criteria are clear
  • Business Analyst ↔ Solutions Architect: Align functional and non-functional requirements
Phase Exit Criteria:

✓ Functional and non-functional requirements documented
✓ Acceptance criteria defined for all user stories
✓ Dependencies identified and documented
✓ Requirements validated for testability and implementability

Phase Metrics & KPIs:

Requirements Quality: Percentage of requirements with clear acceptance criteria, requirements traceability coverage
Stakeholder Validation: Number of requirement review sessions, stakeholder approval rate
Testability: Percentage of requirements validated for testability
Documentation Quality: Requirements documentation completeness score

Phase Outputs:

Detailed functional and non-functional requirements, user stories with acceptance criteria, requirements traceability matrix, stakeholder validation documentation, and testability assessment. Outputs feed directly into Specification & Design phase.

3. Specification & Design

This phase transforms requirements into detailed technical specifications and system designs. It includes architecture design, UI/UX mockups, database design, API specifications, and technical documentation to provide a clear blueprint for implementation.

Key Roles & Responsibilities

Solutions Architect

Description: Technical leader responsible for overall system design and architecture decisions.

Responsibilities: Design system architecture, define technical standards, select technologies, create architectural documentation, ensure scalability and maintainability.

Accountability: Owns system architecture and technical design decisions.

UX/UI Designer

Description: User experience and interface design specialist.

Responsibilities: Create wireframes and prototypes, design user interfaces, conduct user research, ensure accessibility, maintain design system.

Accountability: Owns user experience design and interface specifications.

Security Architect

Description: Security specialist ensuring secure system design.

Responsibilities: Define security requirements, design security controls, conduct threat modeling, ensure compliance, review security implementations.

Accountability: Owns security design and compliance requirements.

Data Architect

Description: Specialist in data modeling and database design.

Responsibilities: Design data models, define database schemas, plan data migration strategies, ensure data integrity, optimise data access patterns.

Accountability: Owns data architecture and database design decisions.

Technical Lead

Description: Hands-on technical leader who translates architectural designs into implementable development plans and coding standards.

Responsibilities: Review architectural designs for implementation feasibility, define coding standards and practices, plan detailed technical approach, mentor development team, ensure design is code-ready.

Accountability: Owns technical implementation approach, coding standards, and ensuring designs are development-ready.

Distinction: Converts architectural blueprints into actionable development tasks vs Solutions Architect's creation of the blueprints.

QA Engineer (Early Consultation)

Description: Quality assurance specialist ensuring design is testable and quality-focused.

Responsibilities: Review designs for testability, define testing approach, identify performance test scenarios, ensure quality gates are defined.

Accountability: Owns testability of design and quality approach definition.

Key Interactions & Hand-offs

  • Solutions Architect ↔ Technical Lead: Collaborate on technical design and implementation approach
  • UX/UI Designer ↔ Product Owner: Validate design decisions against business requirements
  • Security Architect ↔ Solutions Architect: Integrate security requirements into system design
  • Data Architect ↔ Technical Lead: Define data access patterns and integration points
  • QA Engineer ↔ All Designers: Ensure designs are testable and quality-focused
Phase Exit Criteria:

✓ System architecture documented and approved
✓ UI/UX designs completed and validated
✓ Security and data architecture defined
✓ Technical approach validated for implementation
✓ Design testability confirmed

Stakeholder Communication & Sign-off:

Required Sign-off: Product Owner + Solutions Architect + Technical Lead + Business Stakeholders
Sign-off Criteria: System architecture approved, UI/UX designs validated, technical approach confirmed, security and performance requirements met
Process: Conduct design review sessions with business stakeholders to validate designs and obtain formal sign-off before proceeding to implementation planning.

Phase Metrics & KPIs:

Design Quality: Architecture review score (target: >8/10), design consistency rating (target: >90%)
Stakeholder Approval: Design approval rate (target: 100%), number of design iterations (target: <3)
Technical Validation: Architecture feasibility score (target: >9/10), security review completion (target: 100%)
Documentation: Design documentation completeness (target: 100%), technical specification coverage (target: 100%)

Risk Management Checkpoint:

Conduct technical and architecture risk review. Assess scalability risks, security vulnerabilities, integration challenges, and performance bottlenecks. Update risk register and ensure mitigation strategies are in place before proceeding to implementation planning.

Risk Thresholds: If technical debt ratio >10%, trigger architecture review. If security vulnerabilities >5, halt design approval. If performance estimates exceed baseline by >50%, require optimisation plan.

Phase Outputs:

System architecture documentation, UI/UX designs and prototypes, technical specifications, security and data architecture, design review documentation, and updated risk register. Outputs feed directly into Specification & Ticket Creation phase.

4. Specification & Ticket Creation

This phase breaks down the design into actionable development tasks and user stories. It involves backlog refinement, sprint planning, effort estimation, and ensuring all work items meet the Definition of Ready criteria before development begins.

Phase Overview: Once the system design and architecture have been defined, the next step is to break the work into well-defined, actionable items. This ensures clarity for the development team and alignment with business objectives.

Key Activities

  • Refine high-level requirements into epics, user stories, and tasks
  • Add acceptance criteria and testability conditions to each story
  • Estimate effort and complexity (story points, time, etc.)
  • Prioritise items with the Product Owner to build a sprint-ready backlog
  • Identify dependencies, risks, and blockers
  • Ensure stories meet the Definition of Ready before development begins

Key Roles & Responsibilities

Product Owner

Description: Business stakeholder representing customer needs and product vision.

Responsibilities: Define user stories, business value, and acceptance criteria; prioritise backlog items; validate business requirements; ensure stories align with product vision.

Accountability: Owns user story definition, business value validation, and backlog prioritisation.

Project Manager

Description: Manages timeline, scope, resources, and stakeholder coordination.

Responsibilities: Ensure scope, dependencies, and priorities align with delivery timelines; coordinate sprint planning; manage resource allocation; track dependencies and risks.

Accountability: Owns sprint planning coordination, timeline management, and delivery commitments.

Technical Lead

Description: Hands-on technical leader who provides technical input and validates feasibility during specification.

Responsibilities: Provide technical input, validate feasibility, review estimates, ensure consistency with architecture, break down complex stories, identify technical dependencies.

Accountability: Owns technical feasibility validation and architectural consistency during specification.

Distinction: Focuses on technical validation and architectural alignment vs Development Team's implementation input.

Development Team

Description: Cross-functional team of developers who contribute to specification and estimation.

Responsibilities: Contribute to estimation and technical breakdown of tasks; provide implementation input; validate technical approach; identify development dependencies.

Accountability: Owns development estimates and technical implementation input.

Distinction: Focuses on practical implementation input vs Technical Lead's architectural validation.

QA Engineer

Description: Quality assurance specialist ensuring comprehensive testing approach.

Responsibilities: Review acceptance criteria for testability; identify early test cases; ensure test scenarios are defined; validate testability of stories.

Accountability: Owns testability validation and early test case identification.

Key Interactions & Hand-offs

  • Product Owner ↔ Technical Lead: Collaborate on user story breakdown and acceptance criteria
  • Project Manager ↔ Development Team: Coordinate sprint planning and capacity management
  • Technical Lead ↔ Development Team: Define technical tasks and implementation approach
  • QA Engineer ↔ All Roles: Ensure comprehensive testing approach and testability
  • All Roles: Participate in sprint planning and backlog refinement
Phase Exit Criteria:

✓ High-level requirements refined into epics, user stories, and tasks
✓ Acceptance criteria and testability conditions added to each story
✓ Effort and complexity estimates completed (story points, time, etc.)
✓ Sprint-ready backlog prioritised and approved by Product Owner
✓ Dependencies, risks, and blockers identified and documented
✓ All stories meet Definition of Ready criteria

Definition of Ready Criteria:

Stories/tasks must meet the Definition of Ready before entering development — dependencies resolved, acceptance criteria defined, estimates completed, required design/UX approved, security inputs in place, and technical approach validated.

Risk Management:

Review and update risk register with sprint-specific risks. Identify technical dependencies, resource constraints, and potential blockers. Establish risk mitigation strategies for high-priority risks and assign risk owners for ongoing monitoring.

Phase Metrics & KPIs:

Backlog Quality: Percentage of stories meeting Definition of Ready, estimation accuracy
Planning Efficiency: Sprint planning duration, story breakdown completion rate
Risk Management: Number of risks identified, mitigation strategy coverage
Team Velocity: Story points estimated vs. previous sprint capacity

Phase Outputs:

Sprint-ready backlog with prioritised user stories, technical task breakdown, effort estimates, sprint planning documentation, Definition of Ready validation, and updated risk register. Outputs feed directly into Development phase.

5. Development

This phase involves the actual implementation of features according to specifications. It includes coding, code reviews, unit testing, integration work, and continuous integration to build the software solution incrementally and iteratively.

Key Roles & Responsibilities

Frontend Developer

Description: Specialist in user interface and client-side development.

Responsibilities: Implement UI components, integrate with APIs, ensure responsive design, optimise performance, conduct frontend testing, maintain code quality.

Accountability: Owns frontend implementation and user interface quality.

Backend Developer

Description: Server-side development and API specialist.

Responsibilities: Develop APIs and services, implement business logic, manage databases, ensure system integration, optimise performance, maintain code quality.

Accountability: Owns backend implementation and API quality.

Mobile Developer

Description: Mobile application development specialist.

Responsibilities: Develop mobile apps, implement platform-specific features, ensure cross-platform compatibility, optimise for performance and battery life, maintain code quality.

Accountability: Owns mobile application implementation and quality.

Technical Lead

Description: Hands-on technical leader who oversees development execution, conducts code reviews, and mentors the development team.

Responsibilities: Oversee development progress, conduct code reviews, ensure technical standards compliance, mentor developers, resolve technical issues, maintain code quality, guide implementation decisions.

Accountability: Owns technical execution oversight, code quality standards, and developer mentoring during implementation.

Distinction: Focuses on technical oversight and mentoring vs Development Team's hands-on coding work.

QA Engineer (Continuous Testing)

Description: Quality assurance specialist ensuring continuous quality during development.

Responsibilities: Conduct testing as code is written, perform integration testing, validate functionality, identify defects early, ensure quality gates.

Accountability: Owns continuous quality assurance during development.

DevOps Engineer

Description: Infrastructure and deployment specialist.

Responsibilities: Set up CI/CD pipelines, manage development infrastructure, automate deployments, monitor system health, support development environment.

Accountability: Owns development infrastructure and deployment automation.

Key Interactions & Hand-offs

  • Frontend ↔ Backend Developers: Collaborate on API contracts and data flow
  • Technical Lead ↔ All Developers: Conduct code reviews and ensure technical standards
  • Development Team ↔ DevOps Engineer: Work together on deployment strategies and infrastructure needs
  • All Developers ↔ UX/UI Designer: Implement designs and provide technical feedback
  • QA Engineer ↔ Development Team: Continuous testing and quality feedback
  • Development Team ↔ Scrum Master: Daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospective meetings
Phase Exit Criteria:

✓ All planned features implemented and tested
✓ Code reviews completed and approved
✓ Unit and integration tests passing
✓ Technical standards met and documented
✓ Ready for comprehensive QA testing

Definition of Done Criteria:

Features must meet the Definition of Done before being considered complete — code written and reviewed, unit tests passing, integration tests passing, documentation updated, security requirements met, performance criteria validated, and ready for user acceptance testing.

Phase Metrics & KPIs:

Primary Metrics:
• Development Velocity: Story points completed per sprint (target: 80-100% of capacity)
• Code Review Coverage: Percentage of code reviewed (target: 100%)
• Defect Resolution Time: Average time to fix bugs (target: <2 business days)
• Cycle Time: Development start to Definition of Done (target: <5 business days per story)

Optional Metrics (for larger projects):
• Technical Debt Ratio: Debt vs. total codebase (target: <5%)
• Test Coverage: Unit test coverage percentage (target: >80%)
• Bug Density: Bugs per story point (target: <0.1)

Phase Outputs:

Implemented features meeting Definition of Done, code review documentation, unit and integration tests, technical documentation updates, and development metrics. Outputs feed directly into Testing & QA phase.

6. Testing & QA

This phase ensures software quality through comprehensive testing activities. It includes functional testing, performance testing, security testing, user acceptance testing, and quality assurance processes to validate that the software meets all requirements and quality standards.

Key Roles & Responsibilities

QA Engineer

Description: Quality assurance specialist ensuring software quality and reliability.

Responsibilities: Execute comprehensive test plans, perform functional testing, regression testing, performance testing, report and track bugs, ensure quality standards.

Accountability: Owns comprehensive testing execution and quality validation.

Automation Engineer

Description: Specialist in automated testing and continuous integration.

Responsibilities: Execute automated test suites, maintain test infrastructure, integrate with CI/CD, optimise test execution, monitor test coverage, ensure test reliability.

Accountability: Owns automated testing execution and test infrastructure.

User Acceptance Tester

Description: End-user representative validating business requirements.

Responsibilities: Validate user stories, test business scenarios, provide user feedback, ensure requirements are met, approve releases, validate user experience.

Accountability: Owns user acceptance validation and business requirement verification.

Security Tester

Description: Security testing and vulnerability assessment specialist.

Responsibilities: Conduct security testing, perform penetration testing, assess vulnerabilities, ensure compliance, validate security controls, report security findings.

Accountability: Owns security testing execution and vulnerability assessment.

Technical Lead

Description: Hands-on technical leader who coordinates testing efforts and resolves technical issues during QA phase.

Responsibilities: Coordinate testing efforts, resolve technical issues, ensure code quality, mentor team, validate technical fixes, maintain technical standards, guide bug resolution.

Accountability: Owns technical issue resolution and code quality during testing phase.

Distinction: Focuses on technical coordination and issue resolution vs QA Engineer's testing execution.

Project Manager

Description: Manages timeline, scope, resources, and stakeholder coordination.

Responsibilities: Coordinate testing schedule, manage testing resources, track testing progress, communicate status, manage testing risks, ensure testing completion.

Accountability: Owns testing timeline and resource coordination.

Key Interactions & Hand-offs

  • QA Engineer ↔ Development Team: Collaborate on bug fixes and quality improvements
  • Automation Engineer ↔ DevOps Engineer: Integrate automated tests into deployment pipeline
  • User Acceptance Tester ↔ Product Owner: Validate business requirements and user experience
  • Security Tester ↔ Security Architect: Validate security implementations and controls
  • Technical Lead ↔ All Testers: Coordinate technical issue resolution and quality standards
  • Project Manager ↔ All Roles: Coordinate testing schedule and resource management
Phase Exit Criteria:

✓ All functional tests executed and passed
✓ Non-functional tests completed (performance, security, load testing)
✓ User acceptance testing approved
✓ All critical bugs resolved and verified
✓ Quality gates met and documented
✓ Performance and security baselines established

Testing Focus Areas:

Conduct comprehensive non-functional tests: performance testing, security testing, load testing, and scalability testing. Ensure acceptance criteria and test cases align with non-functional and business requirements. Validate performance metrics, security controls, and system resilience under various conditions.

Environment-Specific Testing:

Integration Environment: API testing, service integration validation, data flow testing
Staging Environment: End-to-end testing, user acceptance testing, performance validation, security testing
Production Readiness: Smoke testing, monitoring validation, rollback procedure testing

Accessibility & Compliance Testing:

Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA compliance testing, screen reader compatibility, keyboard navigation validation
Data Protection: GDPR compliance validation, data privacy controls testing, consent management verification
Security Standards: OWASP compliance, security vulnerability scanning, penetration testing
Industry Standards: Relevant industry compliance requirements (e.g., HIPAA, PCI-DSS, SOX) validation

Phase Metrics & KPIs:

Primary Metrics:
• Test Pass Rate: Percentage of tests passing (target: 100%)
• Defect Resolution Time: Time to fix critical bugs (target: <1 business day)
• Test Execution Time: Full test suite duration (target: <4 hours)
• Security Scan Results: Critical security issues (target: 0)

Optional Metrics (for larger projects):
• Code Coverage: Unit test coverage percentage (target: >80%)
• Defect Density: Bugs per 1000 lines of code (target: <2)
• Defect Escape Rate: Bugs found post-release (target: <5%)
• Test Automation: Percentage of automated tests (target: >70%)

Phase Outputs:

Test execution reports, defect tracking documentation, quality gate validation, performance and security test results, user acceptance testing approval, and testing metrics. Outputs feed directly into Release & Deployment phase.

7. Release & Deployment

This phase involves deploying the tested software to production environments and making it available to end users. It includes release planning, deployment automation, environment configuration, monitoring setup, and user training to ensure a smooth launch.

Key Roles & Responsibilities

Release Manager

Description: Specialist responsible for coordinating and managing software releases.

Responsibilities: Plan release schedules, coordinate deployments, manage rollback procedures, communicate release status, ensure smooth transitions, manage release risks.

Accountability: Owns release coordination and deployment success.

Technical Lead

Description: Hands-on technical leader who validates release readiness and coordinates technical aspects of deployment.

Responsibilities: Validate release readiness, coordinate technical deployment, resolve technical issues, ensure code quality, manage technical risks, guide technical decisions during release.

Accountability: Owns technical release readiness and technical deployment coordination.

Distinction: Focuses on technical validation and coordination vs Release Manager's overall release coordination.

DevOps Engineer

Description: Infrastructure and deployment specialist.

Responsibilities: Execute deployment processes, manage production infrastructure, automate deployments, monitor system health, ensure scalability, handle rollbacks.

Accountability: Owns deployment execution and production infrastructure.

System Administrator

Description: Infrastructure and system management specialist.

Responsibilities: Manage production environments, configure systems, monitor performance, handle incidents, maintain system stability, ensure security.

Accountability: Owns production environment management and system stability.

Project Manager

Description: Manages timeline, scope, resources, and stakeholder coordination.

Responsibilities: Coordinate release timeline, manage stakeholder communication, track deployment progress, manage release risks, ensure delivery commitments.

Accountability: Owns release timeline and stakeholder communication.

QA Engineer (Smoke Testing)

Description: Quality assurance specialist ensuring post-deployment quality.

Responsibilities: Perform smoke testing, validate production functionality, verify deployment success, identify post-deployment issues, ensure quality gates.

Accountability: Owns post-deployment quality validation and smoke testing.

Key Interactions & Hand-offs

  • Release Manager ↔ DevOps Engineer: Coordinate deployment processes and automation
  • Technical Lead ↔ All Roles: Validate release readiness and coordinate technical deployment
  • System Administrator ↔ Development Team: Collaborate on production issues and system requirements
  • Project Manager ↔ All Roles: Coordinate release timeline and stakeholder communication
  • QA Engineer ↔ All Roles: Validate post-deployment quality and functionality
Phase Exit Criteria:

✓ Release successfully deployed to production
✓ Smoke testing completed and passed
✓ Production monitoring active and stable
✓ Rollback procedures tested and ready
✓ Stakeholders notified and documentation updated

Rollback & Incident Response Plan:

Rollback plan in place with defined triggers, roll-out/roll-back procedures documented, communication plan ready, incident response team identified, and escalation procedures established.

Environment Stages & Deployment Pipeline:

Development Environment: Initial development and unit testing
Integration Environment: Integration testing and API validation
Staging Environment: Pre-production testing, user acceptance testing, and performance validation
Production Environment: Live deployment with monitoring and rollback capabilities

Each environment stage includes appropriate testing, security validation, and performance verification before promotion to the next stage.

User Training & Adoption:

For significant new features, prepare user training materials and conduct training sessions before or immediately after release. Develop user documentation, create adoption guides, and establish support channels to ensure smooth user transition and feature adoption.

Phase Metrics & KPIs:

Primary Metrics:
• Deployment Success Rate: Successful deployments (target: >95%)
• Production Incidents: Critical incidents post-release (target: 0)
• Deployment Duration: Time to complete deployment (target: <30 minutes)
• Rollback Frequency: Percentage of deployments requiring rollback (target: <5%)

Optional Metrics (for larger projects):
• User Training Completion: Percentage of users trained (target: >90%)
• Feature Adoption: User adoption within 30 days (target: >70%)
• User Satisfaction: Post-release satisfaction score (target: >4.0/5.0)
• Environment Health: Staging validation success (target: 100%)

Risk Management Checkpoint:

Conduct operational and production risk review. Assess deployment risks, data migration challenges, performance under load, security vulnerabilities, and rollback procedures. Ensure incident response plans are tested and communication protocols are established.

Risk Thresholds: If deployment success rate <90%, require additional testing. If rollback frequency >10%, halt deployment. If critical security issues >0, block release. If performance degradation >20%, require optimisation.

Release Approval & Sign-off:

Required Sign-off: Product Owner + QA Lead + Technical Lead + Security/Compliance (if applicable) + Business Stakeholders
Sign-off Criteria: All quality gates passed, security validation complete, performance benchmarks met, user acceptance testing approved, rollback procedures tested
Process: Conduct final release review meeting with all stakeholders to obtain formal approval before production deployment.

Phase Outputs:

Successfully deployed production release, deployment documentation, rollback procedures, monitoring setup, user training materials, and release metrics. Outputs feed directly into Post-Release Monitoring & Feedback phase.

8. Post-Release Monitoring & Feedback

This phase focuses on monitoring system performance, gathering user feedback, and ensuring the software operates as expected in production. It includes performance monitoring, user feedback collection, issue tracking, and continuous improvement based on real-world usage.

Key Roles & Responsibilities

Performance Engineer

Description: Performance monitoring and optimisation specialist focused on post-release system health.

Responsibilities: Monitor system performance, identify bottlenecks, optimise resource usage, ensure scalability, maintain performance standards, analyze usage patterns, generate performance reports.

Accountability: Owns performance monitoring, optimisation, and system health reporting.

Support Engineer

Description: Post-deployment support and user assistance specialist.

Responsibilities: Provide user support, handle incidents, document issues, escalate problems, ensure user satisfaction, gather user feedback, track support metrics.

Accountability: Owns user support, feedback collection, and incident resolution.

Technical Lead

Description: Hands-on technical leader who coordinates technical monitoring and resolves post-release technical issues.

Responsibilities: Coordinate technical monitoring efforts, resolve technical issues, ensure code quality, mentor team, validate technical fixes, maintain technical standards, guide technical improvements.

Accountability: Owns technical issue resolution and technical monitoring coordination.

Distinction: Focuses on technical coordination and issue resolution vs Performance Engineer's monitoring and Support Engineer's user assistance.

System Administrator

Description: Infrastructure and system management specialist.

Responsibilities: Monitor production environments, configure systems, handle incidents, maintain system stability, ensure security, manage infrastructure health.

Accountability: Owns production environment stability and infrastructure monitoring.

Project Manager

Description: Manages timeline, scope, resources, and stakeholder coordination.

Responsibilities: Coordinate monitoring activities, manage stakeholder communication, track monitoring progress, manage post-release risks, ensure monitoring commitments.

Accountability: Owns monitoring coordination and stakeholder communication.

Key Interactions & Hand-offs

  • Performance Engineer ↔ Technical Lead: Collaborate on performance optimisation and technical improvements
  • Support Engineer ↔ Technical Lead: Coordinate technical issue resolution and user support
  • System Administrator ↔ Technical Lead: Collaborate on infrastructure monitoring and technical issues
  • Project Manager ↔ All Roles: Coordinate monitoring activities and stakeholder communication
  • All Roles ↔ End Users: Gather feedback and ensure continuous monitoring
Phase Exit Criteria:

✓ Production monitoring systems active and stable
✓ User feedback collection processes established
✓ Performance metrics baseline established
✓ Support processes documented and operational
✓ Monitoring insights ready for analysis

Key Metrics & KPIs:

Metrics baseline compared, feedback collected & analyzed, monitoring alerts in place, key incidents documented. Track: system performance metrics, user satisfaction scores, security incident frequency, deployment success rate, and support ticket resolution time.

Phase Metrics & KPIs:

Primary Metrics:
• System Uptime: Percentage of time system is available (target: >99.5%)
• Response Time: Average API response time (target: <200ms)
• Error Rate: Percentage of failed requests (target: <0.1%)
• Incident Resolution: Time to resolve critical issues (target: <2 business hours)

Optional Metrics (for larger projects):
• User Satisfaction: Post-release satisfaction score (target: >4.2/5.0)
• Feature Adoption: User adoption within 30 days (target: >70%)
• Security Incidents: Number of security issues (target: 0)
• Business ROI: Return on investment metrics (project-specific)

Metrics Ownership & Reporting:

Primary Owner: DevOps Engineer (system metrics), Product Owner (business metrics)
Review Frequency: Daily (system health), Weekly (performance trends), Monthly (business impact)
Stakeholder Reporting: Technical Lead reports to Project Manager, Product Owner reports to business stakeholders
Tools & Dashboards: Monitoring tools (e.g., Grafana, DataDog), project management tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps), business intelligence platforms

Phase Outputs:

Monitoring dashboards, performance baselines, user feedback analysis, incident reports, system health metrics, and monitoring insights. Outputs feed directly into Maintenance & Evolution phase.

9. Maintenance & Evolution

This ongoing phase involves maintaining the software system, addressing bugs, implementing enhancements, and evolving the solution based on changing business needs. It includes bug fixes, feature updates, performance improvements, and planning for future iterations.

Key Roles & Responsibilities

Maintenance Developer

Description: Specialist in ongoing system maintenance and updates.

Responsibilities: Fix bugs, implement minor features, perform updates, maintain code quality, ensure system stability, address technical debt, implement improvements.

Accountability: Owns ongoing maintenance and system stability.

Business Analyst (Ongoing)

Description: Continuous requirement analysis and business process improvement.

Responsibilities: Gather new requirements, analyze business processes, identify improvement opportunities, facilitate change management, analyze user feedback, prioritise enhancements.

Accountability: Owns continuous requirement analysis and process improvement.

Product Owner

Description: Business stakeholder representing customer needs and product vision.

Responsibilities: Analyze user feedback, prioritise improvements, plan future features, validate business value, communicate product direction, drive product evolution.

Accountability: Owns product evolution and future feature prioritisation.

Change Manager

Description: Specialist in managing organisational change and user adoption.

Responsibilities: Plan change strategies, manage user training, facilitate adoption, handle resistance, ensure successful transitions, measure adoption success.

Accountability: Owns user adoption and change management success.

Training Specialist

Description: User training and documentation specialist.

Responsibilities: Create training materials, conduct user training, maintain documentation, provide ongoing support, ensure user competency, update training based on feedback.

Accountability: Owns user training and documentation quality.

Technical Lead

Description: Hands-on technical leader who coordinates maintenance efforts and guides technical evolution.

Responsibilities: Coordinate maintenance efforts, resolve technical issues, ensure code quality, mentor team, validate technical improvements, maintain technical standards, guide technical evolution.

Accountability: Owns technical maintenance coordination and technical evolution guidance.

Distinction: Focuses on technical coordination and evolution vs Maintenance Developer's hands-on maintenance work.

Key Interactions & Hand-offs

  • Maintenance Developer ↔ Technical Lead: Collaborate on maintenance tasks and technical improvements
  • Business Analyst ↔ Product Owner: Continuously refine requirements and prioritise enhancements
  • Change Manager ↔ Training Specialist: Coordinate user adoption and training programs
  • All Roles ↔ End Users: Gather feedback and ensure continuous improvement
  • Product Owner ↔ All Roles: Feed insights back into next discovery cycle
Phase Exit Criteria (Continuous):

✓ Maintenance processes established and operational
✓ User feedback analyzed and prioritised
✓ Technical debt addressed and documented
✓ Enhancement roadmap created and communicated
✓ Insights fed back into next discovery cycle

Phase Metrics & KPIs:

Maintenance Efficiency: Bug fix time (target: <1 day), maintenance task completion rate (target: >95%), technical debt reduction (target: >10% per quarter)
User Satisfaction: User feedback score (target: >4.2/5.0), feature request fulfillment rate (target: >80%), support ticket satisfaction (target: >4.0/5.0)
System Health: System stability metrics (target: >99.5% uptime), performance improvement rate (target: >5% per quarter), security patch compliance (target: 100%)
Evolution Progress: Enhancement delivery rate (target: >90%), roadmap completion percentage (target: >85%), innovation metrics (target: >2 new features per quarter)

Technical Debt Assessment:

Conduct quarterly technical debt assessment to evaluate code quality, architecture health, and maintenance burden. Allocate 20-30% of development capacity for technical debt reduction. Assess and decide whether to allocate budget/time for debt vs. new features based on business impact and technical risk.

Phase Outputs:

Maintained and enhanced system, technical debt assessment reports, user feedback analysis, enhancement roadmap, maintenance documentation, and evolution metrics. Outputs feed back into Discovery & Ideation phase for next iteration.

Agile SDLC Benefits

Rapid Delivery

Iterative development with frequent releases ensures faster time-to-market and continuous value delivery.

Continuous Collaboration

Regular communication and feedback loops ensure alignment between all stakeholders throughout the development process.

Adaptive Planning

Flexible approach allows for changes and improvements based on feedback and changing business needs.

Quality Focus

Built-in quality assurance and testing processes ensure high-quality deliverables and reduced technical debt.