The Software Development Life Cycle - Software Testing: Testing Across the Entire Software Development Life Cycle - page 50

evaluated. Business users and developers have worked together throughout the
entire design process. This is the fi nal, formal review before taking the design to top
management for approval.

2.7.4 Select the Best Design

Armed with the evaluation data, business owner management and executives can se-
lect the best design. The management group can include project sponsors in the form
of the fi rm's executive committee and MIS steering committee, information systems
managers, and user area managers working with members of the project team who
provide technical expertise. With the design selected and approved, the developers
can turn their attention to preliminary construction.

2.8 THE PRELIMINARY CONSTRUCTION STAGE

During preliminary construction, the logical design is converted to a physical design.
Physical design consists of assembling the components of people, data, information,
software, hardware, and facilities that comprise a functioning system or subsystem.
These components are brought to the construction as needed. For some items such
as hardware, personnel, and facilities, planning can begin immediately with actual
arrival coming in later stages. For example, planning can begin for user training that
will actually take place close to the date when the new system is put into operation.
The preliminary construction stage is primarily concerned with software devel-
opment and consists of two major steps:

1.
2.

Construct the software and test data for each module.
Demonstrate the modules to users and project sponsors.

This is the key user decision point in the phased development methodology pictured
in Table 2.4. The user acceptance of this completed preliminary phase work deter-
mines whether analysis, design, and preliminary construction will proceed to fi nal
construction. If the preliminary phase work is not accepted by the users, the develop-
ers must iterate back thru the earlier phases making the modifi cations necessary to
gain user acceptance the next time around.

2.8.1 Construct the Software for Each Module

The software development unfolds during this and the two fi nal stages of the phased
development. During this stage the software for each module is prepared, tested,
and approved by the users. In the fi nal construction stage, the tested modules from
the preliminary construction stage are integrated to form the whole system and are
tested as such. During the installation stage the system receives fi nal user approval
and is put into operation.