Installation, Operation, and Acceptance Testing

This is the last and longest phase in SDLC. This system is delivered, installed, deployed, and tested for user acceptance.

Support from Risk Management Activities

The system owner will want to ensure that the prescribed controls, including any physical or procedural controls, are in place prior to the system going live. Decisions regarding risks identified must be made prior to system operation. This phase involves three activities: Installation, Operation, and Acceptance Testing.

• Installation Activity: The software system is delivered and installed at the customer site.
  • Risk Factors:
    • Problems in installation: If deployers are not experienced enough or if the system is complex and distributed, then in that case it becomes difficult to install the software system.
    • Change in the environment: Sometimes the installed software system doesn’t work correctly in the real environment, in some cases due to hardware advancement.
• Operation Activity: Here end users are given training on how to use software systems and their services.
  • Risk Factors:
    • New requirements emerge: While using the system, sometimes users feel the need to add new requirements.
    • Difficulty in using the system: Being a human it is always difficult in the beginning to accept a change or we can say to accept a new system. But this should not go on for long otherwise this will be a serious threat to the acceptability of the system.
• Acceptance Testing Activity: The delivered system is put into acceptance testing to check whether it meets all user requirements or not.
  • Risk Factors:
    • User resistance to change: It is human behavior to resist any new change in the surroundings. But for the success of a newly delivered system, it is very important that the end users accept the system and start using it.
    • Too many software faults: Software faults should be discovered earlier before the system operation phase, as discovery in the later phases leads to high costs in handling these faults.
    • Insufficient data handling: New system should be developed keeping in mind the load of user data it will have to handle in a real environment.
    • Missing requirements: While using the system it might be possible that the end users discover some of the requirements and capabilities are missing.

Prerequisite – Integrating Risk Management in SDLC | Set 1, and Set 2.

We have already discussed the first four steps of the Software Development Life Cycle. In this article, we will be discussing the remaining four steps: Integration and System Testing, Installation, Operation and Acceptance Testing, Maintenance, and Disposal. We will discuss Risk Management in these four steps in detail.