and what are IBM RUP (Rational Unified Process) and SDLC (System Development Life Cycle)?

RUP is a product of Rational Corporation (recently IBM) and is a much more detailed process “guide” so to speak. RUP is basically a set of artifacts (with templates) that one should pick a suitable mix for a particular project. Also, RUP is meant to be an iterative process — something which the SDLC doesn’t talk about at all.

The SDLC is a general notion of the phases required for developing software:

1. System/Information Engineering and Modeling
2. Software Requirements Analysis
3. Systems Analysis and Design
4. Code Generation
5. Testing
6. Maintenance

Following are the basic popular models used by many software development firms.

a) System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) Model
b) Prototyping Model
c) Rapid Application Development Model
d) Component Assembly Model
e) RUP