METHODOLOGY

SDLC

Software Development Lifecycle

The end-to-end set of stages a software project moves through: discovery, design, build, test, deploy, operate, retire.

Last reviewed: 2026-05-24 byKevin Riedl wiki β†—

Software Development Lifecycle is the umbrella term for the stages software goes through from idea to retirement. Different methodologies (waterfall, agile, devops, continuous delivery) define different stage boundaries and different ways of moving between them. The stages themselves are roughly invariant.

Useful as a vocabulary, not as a process. Teams that try to enforce a strict SDLC end up with documentation overhead that does not survive the second sprint. Teams that ignore the SDLC entirely end up rediscovering each phase the painful way ("we shipped without a deploy plan", "we did not think about how to retire this").

Wavect’s preferred shape: discovery up front, design and build interleaved in short cycles, automated test and deploy from day one, operate with clear ownership, retire with documented migration paths.

// FAQ

FAQs

FAQs

No, and teams that try usually drown in documentation overhead. Treat the SDLC as a vocabulary: every project needs discovery, design, build, test, deploy, operate, and retire to happen somewhere. The methodology decides how, not whether.
Retire and operate, in that order. Teams build, ship, and move on, leaving the operational story vague and the retirement plan nonexistent. The bill arrives later, in the form of unowned services no engineer wants to touch.