The software development lifecycle is a framework that project managers use to describe the stages and tasks associated with software design.The first steps in the design lifecycle are planning the effort and then analyzing the needs of the people who will use the software and creating detailed requirements. After the initial requirements analysis, the design phase aims to determine how these user requirements will be met.
The next step is the application where the development work is completed, followed by software testing. The maintenance phase includes all the tasks needed to keep the system running.
Software design includes a decription of the structure of the software to be implemented, data models, interfaces between system components, and potentially algorithms that the software engineer will use.
The software design process converts user requirements into a form that computer programmers can use to make coding and application software. Software engineers iteratively improve the software design, adding detail and correcting it while improving the design.
Different types of software design include:
* Architectural design: it is the basic design that defines the general structure of the system, its main components and their relations with each other using architectural design tools.
* High-level design: this is the second layer of design that focuses on how it can be implemented in the form of modules supported by a software stack with all the components of the system. A high-level design decodes the relationships between the data stream and the various modules and functions of the system.
* Detailed design: this third design layer focuses on all the application details required for the specified architecture.