Software Life Cycle

Abstract

The traditional software life cycle defined in ISO 12207 (Rada & Moore, 1997) begins with requirements capture and ends with retirement. The system development life cycle remains largely unchanged over the years, though it calls increasingly for end-user involvement. The system development life cycle is basically the same in healthcare as in numerous other industries. However, what to expect in implementing the life cycle in a health environment is different from what to expect in other environments. The assessment of healthcare information systems requires subjective or qualitative methods as well as objective or quantitative methods (Heathfield et al., 1997):