The SDLC — Navigating the SDLC to Create Great Code

I didn’t realize until I was about halfway through my graduate degree that software engineering is so much more than just writing code. Sure, I had several years of experience under my belt, but the full notion of what software engineering was didn’t fully sink in until I took a class that focused on navigating the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Luckily, I was in good company. While taking the class I realized I wasn’t the only one who viewed the notion of the SDLC as exotic. The idea was reinforced after I graduated and progressed to a point in my career where I was working with less-experienced developers. In short, I found during the first part of my career that many developers were not aware of the SDLC, what it stood for, or more importantly, what it was.

Software engineering is much more than developing great code. Like any other engineering discipline, software engineering is a process...