SDLC
Software Development Life Cycle
The overall process used to plan design build test release operate and maintain software.
Plain English
The stages software moves through from an idea to ongoing operation and maintenance.
In context
An SDLC gives teams a shared view of how software work moves through discovery requirements design implementation validation release operations and eventual change or retirement.
Example
“The security review is included early in our SDLC rather than waiting until release.”
When you'll hear this
- software planning
- delivery governance
- engineering onboarding
Common misunderstanding
An SDLC is not only the coding phase or one mandatory sequence; teams adapt the lifecycle to their context.
Also known as
software development lifecycledevelopment life cycle
Commonly used by
Related terms
Often compared with
Updated: 2026-08-28
