Understanding the SDLC
The SDLC is the steps in the software development process. In short, much like any other engineering process, the SDLC is the process that should be followed in some way to ensure you are correctly building the correct program. Depending on who you ask or what you read, the SDLC is usually broken down into the following:
- Gathering requirements
- Designing the software
- Building the software
- Testing the software
- Deploying the software
- Maintaining the software
Now, some models will only use five steps, and some will use more. However, no matter the model, the steps are the same, just broken out differently.
Why care about the SDLC?
To many PLC programmers, the SDLC is as exotic a concept as alien life is to astrobiologists. Sadly, this comes from the mentality that software is an unimportant component of automation. However, to properly implement the concepts that we have covered thus far and to take our PLC software to the...