Life Cycle

Definition

Life Cycle

the cycle consisting of all phases during which a single system, application, or major component is produced, used, and retired

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, Life Cycle is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Concrete
• Superclass: Cycle With Duration
• Subclasses:
  • System Life Cycle
  • Application Life Cycle
  • Component Life Cycle

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of a life cycle are to:

• Develop a single system, application, or component that meets the needs of its customer organization.
• Deliver the system, application, or component to the customer organization.
• Manage the use of the system, application, or component by its user organization(s).
• Retire the system, application, or component when it is no longer needed.
• Provide an overview to the entire life of a system, application, or component in terms of its phases.
• Provide overall organization to the associated activities and milestones.
• Support top-level scheduling of activities, personnel, and resource acquisition.

Phases

As illustrated in the preceding figure, the Life Cycle typically consists of the following roughly sequential phases:

1. Initiation Phase
2. Construction Phase
3. Initial Production Phase
4. Full-Scale Production Phase
5. Delivery Phase
6. Usage Phase
7. Retirement Phase

Guidelines

• Different cycles contain different phases, depending on the mission of the endeavor.
• Cycles and phases can be combined or decomposed depending on the need for these stages to better map to engagements and contracts between the various organizations.