Glossary of Terms and Phrases Used Across the SDLC - Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Best Practices

Glossary of Terms and Phrases Used Across the SDLC

(Chapter 145 of Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Best Practices)

Authored and Published By: The International Foundation for Information Technology (IF4IT), LLC

Term or Phrase	Abbreviation or Acronym	Definition
Acquired Solution	—	A Solution or material component obtained from an external supplier through purchase, subscription, licensing, outsourcing, managed service, cloud service, or another contractual arrangement.
Activity	—	A defined unit or category of work performed to produce, evaluate, change, verify, validate, govern, communicate, or support an SDLC outcome.
Agile Delivery	—	A delivery methodology that performs lifecycle work through short, repeated feedback cycles, prioritized backlogs, and incremental delivery while preserving Release-level governance, evidence, and enterprise decision rights.
Application	—	A software-based Asset designed to provide defined functions, capabilities, workflows, or user interactions.
Asset	—	Anything of value to the enterprise that is owned, managed, used, governed, or depended upon to achieve business, operational, technology, or stakeholder outcomes.
Asset Owner	—	The person or authorized role accountable for lifecycle governance, value, risk, supportability, use, maintenance, and disposition of an Asset.
Canonical SDLC Path	—	The full reference path representing the complete enterprise SDLC and all 13 canonical phases.
Composite Solution	—	A Solution composed of a material combination of Custom-Built, Acquired, supplier-managed, cloud-based, data, infrastructure, integration, process, or other components.
Crawl-Walk-Run Maturity	—	A progressive model in which Crawl is minimum viable but controlled, Walk is standardized and repeatable, and Run is integrated, automated, measured, and continuously improved.
Custom-Built Solution	—	A Solution or material component designed, engineered, implemented, or substantially controlled by or for the enterprise.
Delivery Methodology	—	An approach used to organize, sequence, coordinate, and manage delivery work, such as Agile, Waterfall, or Hybrid.
Deployment	—	The governed technical movement, installation, configuration, activation, publication, or implementation of Release content into a target IT Operating Environment.
Design	—	The SDLC phase used to translate approved requirements into architecture and detailed Solution, data, integration, security, operational, and implementation designs.
Enterprise Systems Development Lifecycle	Enterprise SDLC	The authoritative, governed, and published Systems Development Lifecycle framework established for use across an enterprise.
Exceptional SDLC Path	—	An SDLC Path containing one or more formally approved deviations from otherwise applicable lifecycle requirements.
Hybrid Delivery	—	A Delivery Methodology that intentionally combines Agile, Waterfall, iterative, sequential, supplier-driven, or other delivery approaches.
Implementation/Build	—	The SDLC phase used to build, acquire, configure, provision, integrate, document, and prepare a Solution or Release for formal validation and transition.
Initiative	—	A governed enterprise effort established to pursue a strategic objective, solve a material problem, respond to an obligation, or create a targeted outcome.
Intake & Strategizing	—	The SDLC phase used to identify, qualify, align, own, prioritize, and authorize a need, problem, obligation, or opportunity.
IT Operating Environment	—	A governed logical or physical setting in which technology Assets, configurations, data, integrations, controls, and supporting services are researched, engineered, built, tested, trained on, staged, operated, maintained, or supported.
Operations & Maintenance	OPS	The SDLC phase used to operate, monitor, support, secure, maintain, remediate, improve, and assess an active capability and its Releases.
Planning	—	The SDLC phase used to define how lifecycle work, funding, resources, dependencies, governance, evidence, Environments, and delivery obligations will be managed.
Pre-Production Staging	PSTG	The SDLC phase used to rehearse and validate migration, cutover, rollback, deployment, support, monitoring, recovery, and operational readiness before Production.
Product	—	A governed offering or capability intentionally developed, acquired, managed, evolved, and funded to deliver value to defined customers, users, or stakeholders over time.
Product Lifecycle	—	The governed progression of a Product from concept and investment through development or acquisition, introduction, evolution, operation, support, maturity, decline, replacement, and retirement.
Product Owner	—	The person or authorized role accountable for Product value, roadmap, priorities, lifecycle utilization, stakeholder outcomes, Releases, supportability, and retirement.
Production	PROD	The SDLC phase used to deploy, activate, verify, stabilize, and transition an approved Release into its live operational context.
Program	—	A governed collection of related Projects, Releases, operational work, and change activities coordinated to achieve broader outcomes and benefits.
Project	—	A temporary, governed body of coordinated work undertaken to produce defined outputs, capabilities, changes, or outcomes within established constraints.
Readiness Gate	—	A governed decision point at which authorized stakeholders evaluate criteria and evidence to determine whether a scope may proceed, must be remediated, may proceed conditionally, or must stop.
Release	—	A governed package of approved changes that is planned, validated, authorized, deployed or activated, and transitioned into use through an approved SDLC Path.
Release Iteration	—	A bounded cycle or increment of planning, development or acquisition, validation, integration, and refinement within a Release.
Release Manager	—	The role that coordinates a Release’s planning, dependencies, evidence, readiness, authorization, Deployment, stabilization, and closure Activities on behalf of the Release Owner.
Release Owner	—	The accountable role for a bounded Release outcome, including its scope, evidence, and eventual closure.
Release Post-Mortem and Closing	—	An OPS activity that evaluates a completed Release, captures lessons and actions, and formally closes the bounded Release record without closing the underlying capability lifecycle.
Requirements Capture	—	The SDLC phase used to elicit, analyze, document, prioritize, validate, and govern business, stakeholder, functional, non-functional, operational, data, security, privacy, accessibility, and other requirements.
Research & Prototyping	—	The SDLC phase used to investigate feasibility, alternatives, technologies, assumptions, risks, and uncertainties.
Retirement, Decommissioning & Disposal	—	The SDLC phase used to end a capability’s useful life by resolving users, data, dependencies, access, contracts, infrastructure, records, support, and disposal obligations.
Risk Owner	—	The accountable role for the disposition of a specific identified Risk, including its acceptance, treatment, transfer, or escalation.
SDLC Exception	—	A formally authorized, bounded departure from an applicable SDLC requirement, distinct from Tailoring, which selects an approved implementation rather than departing from a requirement.
SDLC Path	—	An approved sequence and configuration of SDLC phases, activities, roles, controls, artifacts, evidence, gates, and IT Operating Environments for a governed scope or class of work.
SDLC Phase	—	A governed lifecycle segment that groups responsibilities around a distinct purpose, expected outcomes, work, roles, inputs, outputs, evidence, decisions, and criteria.
SDLC Utilization Profile	—	An approved, version-controlled record that defines how a specific governed scope will use and tailor the enterprise SDLC.
Service	—	A governed means of delivering value or capability through defined outcomes, responsibilities, service levels, and operating commitments.
Service Lifecycle	—	The governed progression of a Service from initial need and design through introduction, delivery, operation, support, improvement, transition, termination, and retirement.
Service Owner	—	The person or authorized role accountable for Service definition, delivery commitments, operation, support, continuity, improvement, lifecycle records, and retirement.
Solution	—	An intentional combination of Assets, Products, Services, Systems, Applications, technologies, data, processes, people, and controls assembled or changed to address a defined need or outcome.
Standard SDLC Path	—	A reusable, enterprise-approved SDLC Path established for a recognized class of work, sourcing model, risk profile, or Solution type.
System	—	An organized set of interacting or interdependent elements that work together to achieve one or more defined purposes or outcomes.
Systems Development Lifecycle	SDLC	A governed, customizable sequence of phases used to conceive, evaluate, plan, define, design, build or acquire, integrate, verify, validate, deploy, operate, maintain, improve, retire, decommission, and dispose of a governed technology capability.
Systems Development Lifecycle Management	SDLC Management	The enterprise discipline responsible for defining, governing, publishing, tailoring, applying, integrating, measuring, maintaining, and continuously improving the SDLC.
Systems Integration Testing	SIT	The SDLC phase used to verify integrated technical behavior, interfaces, dependencies, data flows, configurations, controls, and error handling.
Tailored SDLC Path	—	A canonical or standard SDLC Path adjusted for a specific governed scope through approved tailoring rules.
Tailoring	—	The governed adjustment of lifecycle implementation according to risk, criticality, complexity, sourcing, delivery context, and maturity without informally eliminating accountability.
Technical Debt	—	A qualified, governed lifecycle obligation representing a known gap between the current and required state of a Solution, tracked, prioritized, and remediated through authoritative systems rather than left as an informal or hidden condition.
Training & Education	TRN/EDU	The SDLC phase used to prepare users, administrators, operators, support personnel, and other stakeholders.
User Acceptance Testing	UAT	The SDLC phase used to validate that a Solution or Release satisfies intended business, stakeholder, user, and operational needs.
Validation	—	Confirmation that a complete Solution is fit for its intended use in its intended operational context, evaluated independently of whether it was built correctly.
Verification	—	Confirmation that a lifecycle output was built, configured, or produced according to its approved requirements, design, or specified basis.
Waterfall Delivery	—	A delivery methodology that uses planned, sequential progression through lifecycle phases with controlled baselines and formal handoffs, while still permitting feedback, correction, and progressive elaboration.

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