SDLC Stages, Roles, and Outputs — Reference
A consolidated reference mapping each stage of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to its primary roles, responsibilities, and expected outputs. Derived and synthesized from the sources listed below; not a direct translation.
- Shruti Soni, “Essential Stages of SDLC & Key Roles That Drive Success”, LinkedIn Pulse
- GeeksforGeeks, “Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)”
- Dila Leynart, “Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC): Process, Steps, Team Roles, and Common Alternative Models”, Medium
- GitHub Resources, “What is SDLC?”
- resourceguruapp, Project team roles and responsibilities
Stage-by-stage reference table
| Stage | Primary Roles | Key Responsibilities | Typical Outputs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Planning | Project Manager, Project Sponsor, Business Analyst | Feasibility analysis, cost estimation, scheduling, resource planning; sponsor secures budget and staffing; PM/BA define scope and align stakeholders | Project plan, feasibility report, resource/budget plan |
| Requirement Analysis | Business Analyst, Product Manager, Customer Representatives, Users | Gather and document functional/non-functional requirements; translate business needs into specifications | Software Requirements Specification (SRS) |
| Design | Software/System Architects, UI/UX Designers, System Analysts | Define architecture, tech stack, database and module structure (high-level design); define component logic, APIs, data structures (low-level design); shape UX | Design Document Specification (DDS), architecture diagrams |
| Development | Developers (Frontend, Backend, Full-Stack, Mobile, API) | Write code per approved design; code reviews; unit testing; version control management | Source code, executable application/build artifacts |
| Testing | QA Engineers, Developers (unit testing), Automation Teams | Define test strategy and cases; run unit, integration, system, regression, and UAT testing | Test plan, test cases, test/defect reports |
| Deployment | DevOps Engineers, Release Managers, System Administrators | Production environment setup, deployment (increasingly via CI/CD pipelines), smoke testing | Deployed/released application, deployment pipeline config |
| Maintenance | Support Engineers, Developers, Product Teams | Bug fixes, performance tuning, updates, feature enhancements, monitoring | Patches/updates, incident/maintenance logs |
Notes on role overlap and framing differences
- Planning ownership: the GeeksforGeeks source frames Planning as owned jointly by project managers, senior engineers, and stakeholders, while the supplementary Ubiminds source is more specific — it splits this into the Project Manager/Business Analyst (scope, stakeholder alignment) and the Project Sponsor (budget, staffing) as a distinct role. This table follows the more specific split.
- DevOps/DevSecOps as cross-cutting: the GitHub Resources article emphasizes that DevOps (and DevSecOps) roles aren’t confined to the Deployment stage — they represent ongoing collaboration between developers, IT operations, and security across the whole lifecycle, not a single handoff point.
- Product ownership spans stages: Product Managers appear in both Requirement Analysis and as a lifecycle-spanning role (alongside analysts, test engineers, and support teams) depending on the source — treat “Product Manager” as present from Requirements through Maintenance rather than confined to one box in the table.
- QA vs. developer testing: unit testing is commonly done by developers themselves, with QA Engineers and Automation Teams owning integration/system/regression/UAT — the Testing row above reflects that split rather than assigning all testing to one role.