7 · Lesson 1 of 8
The program development life cycle
Syllabus 7.1Syllabus 7.2
What this lesson covers
- Describe the program development life cycle: analysis, design, coding and testing
- Understand systems and sub-systems, and decompose a problem into inputs, processes, outputs and storage
Key vocabulary
- Program development life cycle
- The stages of building a program: analysis, design, coding and testing.
- Analysis
- Finding out exactly what the problem is and what the solution must do.
- Requirements specification
- A list of everything the finished system must do.
- Abstraction
- Removing unnecessary details to focus on what matters.
- Decomposition
- Breaking a problem down into smaller, more manageable parts.
- Design
- Planning how the solution will work, using structure diagrams, flowcharts and pseudocode.
- Iterative testing
- Testing each part as it's written, fixing errors, then testing again.
- Sub-system
- A part of a larger system. Sub-systems can be made of further sub-systems.
- Structure diagram
- A diagram showing how a system is broken down into sub-systems.
Check your learning
- Quick check: 4 questions
- Key vocabulary test: 9 terms
- Activity 1: Which stage? · 6 questions
- Activity 2: Input, process, output or storage? · 8 questions
- Activity 3: Life cycle quiz · 8 questions