The Solution Life Cycle (SLC) provides a general framework for delivering information solutions to satisfy business needs. It is not dependent upon nor specific to any particular technology (hardware and/or software) or any particular realization method (acquisition and/or custom development). SLC provides a means to address the full life cycle of an information solution, from inception through maturation to its eventual disposal. It provides a common context across all solutions; however, SLC does not attempt to provide fine details since those are necessarily specific to only a given solution.
The Solution Life Cycle can be divided up in many ways. For our purposes we have chosen to divide it into the following stages:
- Discover, Analyze, & Recommend
- Design, Develop, & Integrate
- Test & Quality Assurance
- Deploy & Maintain
- Evaluate
- Archive & Retire
For more description of a particular stage, click on its associated link in the above list.
The following diagram shows the relationships between the SLC stages:
Please note as depicted in the diagram, the Solution Life Cycle allows for a given solution to go through an unlimited number of iterations as it matures.