Topic: Programming Lifecycle: Concept. This reading provides a brief overview of the software development process. Software goes through various stages from its conception to its end. The term software development life cycle(SDLC) refers to the steps taken to develop software. There is no hard-and-fast rule to developing software, and many methodologies have been used. Though each takes a different approach, the various phases of the software development process can be broadly summarized as follows: 1.Planning and Analysis; 2.Design ; 3.Implementation; 4. Testing and Debugging 5.Deployment; 6. Maintenance The first stage of software development is planning and analysis. In this stage a requirement analysis is done, which includes finding out what the client's needs are. Often, the client has an abstract idea about the requirements and a software engineer can get information about the project from the client through a series of one-on-one interviews, group sessions, and some brainstorming sessions. Based on the information gathered in this stage, a scope document which serves as the starting point for next stage is prepared. Once the requirements are gathered, the second and third phase of the software development process begins. In these phases, a simple version of the program is implemented using a programming language chosen the team lead. As the software is written, it is tested and debugged to eliminate as many bugs as possible. Once the software is tested and works according to specification, it is deployed and given to the client. In the maintenance stage, the software is enhanced and any new found bugs are fixed. If there are new requirements at this stage they can be added. One can add additional features and repeat the steps of implementation, testing ,and deployment as often as required Questions: 1. How the software engineer can collect the information from the client about the software to be designed and developed. Answer: 2. Discuss maintenance stage in short. Answer: 3. List down the general steps in SDLC