In program development, there are five main phases. These phases are a series of steps that programmers undertake to build computer programs. The program development phases guide computer programmers through the development of a program.
The five main phases of program development are as follows:
PROBLEM ANALYSIS PHASE
During the problem analysis phase, the programmer will interview the client to find out what the client’s needs are.
For example, the client might be a school that wishes to set up a school registration program. So the school administrator might tell the programmer that they need to record students’ data such as name, date of birth, gender, class, parents’ names, address and contact numbers.
PROGRAM DESIGN PHASE
Based on that, the programmer will design a flow chart that represents the needs of the client, which in this case is the school registration program.
CODING PHASE
Once the flow chart is confirmed, the programmer will perform coding.
TESTING AND DEBUGGING PHASE
The school registration program will be tested by the users at the client’s site. In this case, it will be the school office administrators. If there are any errors, the programmer will do a debugging of the program.
They either show up as you type the program code, or if you have turned off the automatic syntax error check, the syntax errors show up when you try to run or compile the program.
DOCUMENTATION PHASE
After this, the programmer will complete the documentation for the program; this includes the user manual, a clear layout of the input and output records and a program listing.