The delivery lifecycle for software is not as cut and dry as many think. That's especially true with today's containerized approach to development. These days, development teams can continue adding new code and features to existing products, making software better and more capable as time goes on.
But with those new capabilities comes a more complex delivery lifecycle. It typically contains four distinct stages.
Design and Development
Whether teams create brand-new software or introduce cutting-edge features to live applications, everything begins with design and development. Engineers will design new features or updates before choosing the most compelling ones to commit to full development.
From there, teams can focus on development, writing new code and working with various other teams to create a full experience. Unified delivery data is crucial at this early stage. Development teams can encounter many possible issues that result in significant delays, so having insight into the process benefits engineering leaders.
Review and Testing
After development, feature additions and updates go through a review process. This stage involves testing code and ensuring it is worth moving forward in the delivery lifecycle. Not all updates will continue. Sometimes, leaders will determine that those additions are not appropriate for the software at this time. Or, they may realize that these features will work better with more extensive overhauls.
Whatever the case, testing is about fine-tuning.
Readiness Testing and Quality Assurance
From here, features must undergo strict quality assurance testing. Introducing new code comes with risks. There are many dependencies to consider and bugs to iron out. The last thing leaders want is for new additions to cause app-breaking issues.
Additions should be seamless; testing ensures the code is ready for implementation. Unified delivery data is crucial during testing. It highlights opportunities for improvement, maps milestones, highlights risks, etc.
Release
After testing and QA, the software is finally ready for release. At this point, updates go live, and new features go through implementation. Leaders will continue tracking releases and obtaining insights. The work isn't always over upon delivery, and historical data can lead to future insights that help teams become even more productive.
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