10 Essential SDLC Best Practices Every Software Development Team Should Know

In today’s era of constant innovation and ever-evolving technology, the pressure to deliver high-quality software quickly is higher than ever before. For organizations to stay ahead of the curve, a well-defined Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is imperative. It enables teams to streamline processes, delegate ownership, minimize errors, maximize productivity, and ultimately, complete projects within time, and with the required quality standards. 

In this article, we will share a list of best practices and guiding principles that pave the way for a well-defined and efficient SDLC.

What is SDLC and Why Are Best Practices Important?

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a structured, phase-driven process for building software. It provides a roadmap, broken down into distinct stages, to guide teams from initial concept (ideation) through development, testing, deployment, and ongoing maintenance.  While the core phases remain consistent, best practices can be implemented within each stage to optimize the SDLC for your specific project.
Let's start by exploring the significance of SDLC best practices and why they're vital to delivering high-quality software:

• Improved software quality: SDLC best practices directly contribute to improved code quality by promoting processes like code reviews, modular design, automated testing, and code standardizations.
• Faster releases: By streamlining processes and identifying issues early, best practices lead to quicker deployments of new features and bug fixes. The accelerated release cycles help businesses stay agile and competitive.
• Alignment and clarity: Clear communication and defined roles keep everyone, including development teams, testers, and project managers, on the same page regarding requirements and outcomes. This shared understanding prevents misalignments and scope creep.
• Increased security: SDLC security best practices help shift security left, meaning security considerations are integrated throughout the development process, rather than as an afterthought. This approach reduces the chances of vulnerabilities in deliverables.
• Reduced costs: Best practices help avoid rework and delays across different stages of the SDLC. Ultimately, this minimizes development costs and maximizes resource utilization.

10 SDLC Best Practices to Follow

Now that we've explored the why, let's move on to the what – the fundamental best practices that will transform your software development process.

Formalize Requirement Analysis to Build a Solid Foundation

A well-defined SDLC hinges on a formalized requirement analysis process. In this stage, you establish a clear understanding of what the software needs to achieve. Without a formal approach to requirement analysis, stakeholders may end up having different expectations, leading to miscommunications, rework, and ultimately, a product that misses the mark. 

However, the iterative nature of the SDLC means you don't need to nail down every single detail at the outset. Focusing on capturing the high-level requirements provides a solid starting point, with room for refinement as the project progresses.

To formalize the process, a good first step is to create key documents that capture the project’s functionalities, features, and user needs. For example:

• Functional requirements document: A comprehensive list of features and functionalities to be implemented.
• Non-functional requirements document: Specifications regarding performance, usability, security, and other non-functional aspects of the software.
• User stories: Brief narratives that describe how a specific user type will interact with the software to achieve a goal.

It's important to involve all key stakeholders in the requirement analysis to develop a well-rounded understanding of the project needs and potential challenges. With that said, avoid getting bogged down in excessive detail, as this can slow down the entire SDLC.

Strike a balance between thoroughness and efficiency to keep your project on track.

Make Security Integral to Everything

To build secure software, make security an intrinsic part of your entire development process. Here are some key practices to achieve this:

• Developers should write code with security in mind, following best practices like proper input validation, data sanitization, and secure authentication methods. They should also use security analysis tools like SonarQube to identify security hotspots and vulnerabilities before releasing code for testing.
• Testers should also develop a secure SDLC checklist to test code for common vulnerabilities, like SQL injection, Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), and Insecure Direct Object References (IDOR).
• Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) pipelines should also incorporate security controls, like automated vulnerability scans and security checks, to prevent the deployment of code with known security risks.
• Security leaders (e.g., DevSecOps teams) should educate team members on security best practices, incorporate best-in-breed security tools to the ecosystem, and foster a security-first culture.

Implement a Standardized Code Review Process

Through code reviews, developers can identify and fix potential bugs and corner cases, suggest improvements, and share knowledge with their fellows. Here’s how you can implement a standardized code review process:

1. For all new feature development and bug fixes, developers should create isolated branches from the main codebase (often referred to as the master branch).
2. Once a developer has completed their work in the feature branch, they should create a pull request (PR), which proposes merging the changes from the feature branch to the main branch. The PR should contain a clear and concise description of the changes made, along with the relevant context, such as related tickets and issues.
3. Other developers should then review the PR, providing feedback on clarity, functionality, adherence to coding standards, and potential areas for improvement.
4. Once the PR has been approved by peers, the code can be merged into the main branch.

Set up Automated Testing 

Automated testing is a fundamental pillar of a robust SDLC. It helps you catch errors early, reduce manual testing time, and improve overall code confidence. Developers should write unit tests to verify the functionality of individual units of code, and integration tests to ensure that different modules work well together.

For maximum efficiency, you should integrate your automated test suite into your CI/CD pipelines. This allows the tests to be automatically executed whenever new code changes are pushed to the code repository.

You can even set rules to disallow merges if PRs don't meet a certain test coverage percentage (e.g., 100%). Tools like Bitbucket and GitLab support this feature.

Break Down Silos for Success

Successful projects thrive on open communication, streamlined workflows, and a shared sense of ownership. Break down information barriers by promoting open communication across all levels and departments. Regular team meetings, status updates, and project management platforms foster transparency, and keep everyone involved and aligned.

Moreover, encourage active listening, provide opportunities for feedback and concerns, and address conflicts quickly. Empower team members to take ownership of their tasks and projects, and recognize their contributions and achievements. By doing so, you'll create a collaborative culture where team members feel valued, motivated, and accountable for the project's success.

Document the Journey(s)

Clear and concise documentation ensures that everyone involved in the project has a shared understanding of the software’s purpose, functionality, and maintenance requirements. In addition to the requirements documentation discussed above, here are the types of documentation to focus on:

• Design documentation: This includes system architecture diagrams, database schemas, and API specifications. For example, the design documentation for a mobile app may illustrate the data flow between the user interface, the application logic layer, and the backend server.
• Developer documentation: It includes code comments, coding standards, and API references.  
  User documentation: This type of documentation includes user manuals, tutorials, and release notes.
• Knowledge base: A knowledge base may include wiki pages for best practices and FAQs, and a glossary to define technical terms.
• Testing documentation: This documentation outlines the testing strategy, test cases, and expected results.  

Track Project Progress Metrics

Use metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure your team’s performance, and the progress of your project. Engineering metrics tools like Axify can be used for this purpose. Here are some metrics that you should consider:

• Feature delivery rate: Measure the time it takes to deliver new features and track progress towards project goals.
• Mean time to resolution (MTTR): Monitor the time it takes to resolve bugs and issues, working towards continuous improvement.
• Deployment frequency: Track how often you deploy new features and updates to your software, aiming for a high frequency of reliable releases.
• Defect density: Quantify the number of defects per unit of code to ensure quality and stability.

Implement Performance Monitoring

Your SDLC checklist should also incorporate performance monitoring. By proactively monitoring your applications’ health and performance, you reduce the chances of bottlenecks and downtime. Here’s how you can set up performance monitoring:

1. Start by identifying the key metrics that matter most for your application. For example, page load times, API response times, database query execution speeds, and memory usage etc.
2. Select a monitoring tool that best fits your tech stack’s needs. Popular options include: Prometheus, New Relic, and Nagios.
3. Instrument your application to collect performance data and report it to the monitoring tool. Many monitoring tools, including those mentioned above, offer libraries and frameworks that make the process easier.
4. Use the tool’s visualization capabilities to present performance metrics in an easy-to-understand format.
5. Configure alerts to notify administrators when performance metrics deviate from established thresholds.  

Embrace Contingency Planning

Even the most thoroughly planned SDLC can encounter unforeseen challenges. Unexpected bugs, resource constraints, or external dependencies can disrupt the development process and threaten project timelines.  Contingency planning helps you prepare for and deal with such situations. Here’s how you to go about it:

• Analyze your project's critical components and identify potential failure points, such as technical issues, procedural bottlenecks, cyber threats, or staff turnover. For example, for a mobile app development project, potential risks can be: compatibility issues with different device models, or delays in obtaining app store approvals.
• Once you've identified potential risks, create backup plans and procedures for each. For example, to avoid compatibility issues in your mobile app project, you can plan to conduct thorough device testing across several models before launch.  
• A certain degree of flexibility is crucial in any project schedule.  Allocate buffer time to accommodate unexpected delays or unforeseen tasks. 

Continuous Improvement – The Journey Never Ends

The final, and arguably most important, best practice for a successful SDLC is a commitment to continuous improvement. Regularly review the efficiency of your SDLC to identify areas for betterment, and keep your development process optimized and adaptable. Here are some tips in this regard:

• Hold retrospectives at the end of each sprint, release, or project to identify what went well and what didn't, gather feedback from team members, document lessons learned, and define action items for improvement.
• Establish clear channels for gathering feedback throughout the SDLC. Pay close attention to recurring themes and areas of concern in the gathered feedback data.
• Prioritize and implement any changes deemed necessary, then monitor progress to ensure that improvements are having the desired impact.
• Encourage your team to stay informed about the latest advancements in software development methodologies, tools, and best practices.

Conclusion

By implementing the best practices outlined above, you'll be well on your way to creating an efficient Software Development Life Cycle that empowers your team to deliver high-quality software with speed, agility, and precision.

As you continue on this path, take the next step in assessing your team's maturity level. Our quick maturity assessment tool is designed to help you evaluate your team's strengths and identify areas for growth. You can access it here.