Cambridge O Level Computer Science · Syllabus 2210 · Algorithm Design and Problem-Solving
Program Development Life Cycle
What is Program Development Life Cycle?
The sequence of stages a program passes through from problem to tested solution, limited in this syllabus to analysis, design, coding and testing, where analysis identifies the problem and requirements using abstraction and decomposition, design records the solution as structure diagrams, flowcharts or pseudocode, coding writes the program code with iterative testing, and testing runs the program with chosen test data and compares actual results with expected results.
This definition is part of the Algorithm Design and Problem-Solving chapter in Cambridge O Level Computer Science.
Program Development Life Cycle in context
The program development life cycle is the sequence of stages a program passes through from the moment a problem is stated to the moment a working, tested solution exists. For this syllabus it is limited to four stages: analysis, design, coding and testing, and they are always described in that order. The order is not a suggestion — each stage produces the material the next stage needs.
Common mistakes with Program Development Life Cycle
- M1. “Coding is the first stage of the program development life cycle.” Correct Analysis is first, then design, then coding, then testing. Coding is the third stage. Why it matters A program written before the problem is understood solves the wrong problem, and the error is found only at the testing stage, when it is most expensive to fix.