the United States Department of Justice’s System Development Life Cycle

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Initiation Phase

A new year has begun and all the up-to-date models of cars have been released. The question arises whether to upgrade a current car or buy a brand new model. Things to consider are improvements upon the current car or buy a new car for the enhancements and expected performance.

The initiation phase of the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is similar to this situation. Management of a business or organization determines that it is necessary to enhance a business process through the application of the computer system or information technology. There are certain requirements that will be followed during this phase of the SDLC. First, there must be a need for improvement of a current process or the potential for a new process. Second, there has to be a sponsor for the project, usually someone from the executive management level or a current supervisor. And third, depending upon the type of business, a demand from the public to enhance or make improvements upon a service currently being delivered or create a new service based upon public demand.

Once the go ahead has been given, then a structure to the proposal begins to develop by the SDLC. The opportunity to improve a business functions follows and a project sponsor identified. A Project Manager is selected to develop a project proposal and documents the opportunities or deficiencies in the process. A project organization is formed with the Project Manager as the lead to work with stakeholders, persons involved in the business process that is affected, and potential individuals who can participate in the formal reviews of the project. This project organization will allow for the least amount of resistance...

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...d at this stage of the SDLC. If the project is continued, the project is reviewed, organized, planned, and led by the Program Manager and/or representative. This includes the budget, risk, and user requirements needed for the project.

Although these are only the first two phases of the United States Department of Justice’s System Development Life Cycle, the benefits are enormous compared to planning a project on a whim. The SDLC has checks and balances to ensure that projects are justified and those resources are being used or will be used to their maximum potential. The DoJ’s SDLC is very comprehensive and detail, but the success is in the details of the life-cycle. There are several variations to the waterfall model of the system development life cycle, but the DoJ model encompass public laws and recognizes the sensitivity of the data that is being processed.

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