Life Cycle of a Typical Computer Program

Good Day Great Steemians, I know we all use various computer software and programs to handle many operations and purposes. To this effect, this post is meant to enlighten us on the life cycle of computer programs. A computer Program has 3 Basic stages of life. It goes through this stages as long as it is still in existence and in usage.

Life Cycle Of A Computer Program

These stages include:

Development Cycle

This is the initial stage, it involves nurturing a software from being just an idea to becoming a hosted and working program. Every Software we use today started as a blank space in the Screen of someone's computer. This stage involves:

Coming up with an idea for a desired software or program

Deciding the probable user of the program

Deciding which computer or device the software should be compatible with

Deciding which programming language to use

Designing the program using pseudo codes or any other tool to discern the structure of the program

Writing the Program Codes

Alpha testing: This is a process where the developer tests the program

Correcting any errors noticed during alpha testing

Beta testing: Here, a programmer shares the program with other programmer and potential users to test

Fix any problems discovered during beta testing

Release the Program to the General public for installation and usage

Maintenance Cycle

As Users use your software, they drop reports or reviews, therefore, there is a need for maintenance, bug fixing and improvement of User Interface and experience.
This stage involves:

Going through all reports to notice possible bugs and how to fix them

Fixing the noticed bugs

Test the program to ensure the bugs are fixed and that new changes do not introduce new bugs

Look out for additional Problems and fix

Release the Program Patch to the public for usage

Update Cycle

As new technologies are introduced regularly, update is needed to the software, therefore, this stage is important. This is when a developer introduces new features and updates to a software.
At this stage, A developer does the following:

Determines what new feature needs to be added

Plan and clearly define how the update will flow with the existing program

Modify the program to implement the new feature

Test the new program to notice the ensure that the new features are functioning as planned

Fix any bugs the new feature may introduce

Share the update with others for beta testing and fix any reported problems

Release the Program for public usage and wait for feedback before embarking on any maintenance

Conclusion

Developing and maintaining a program is not easy, that is why the programmers need our assistance in dropping reviews and reports as these helps them to make needed changes and update programs for improved experiece.