Skip to content

SDLC Overview

Software Development Lifecycle for DataEngineX - stages, artifacts, and quality gates.

Quick Links: Lifecycle Stages · Development Workflow · Quality Gates

This document defines the software development lifecycle (SDLC) for DEX, including the required stages, artifacts, and quality gates.

Goals

  • Ship deterministic builds with a single immutable image tag per change.
  • Enforce quality gates (lint, test, type checks, security scan) on every PR.
  • Maintain a complete audit trail for promotion across environments.

Lifecycle Overview

graph LR
    Plan[1. Plan] --> Design[2. Design]
    Design --> Implement[3. Implement]
    Implement --> Verify[4. Verify CI]
    Verify --> Release[5. Release CD]
    Release --> Operate[6. Operate]
    Operate -->|Issues| Plan
    Operate -->|Incidents| Rollback[Rollback]
    Rollback --> Operate

    style Plan fill:#e1f5ff
    style Design fill:#e1f5ff
    style Implement fill:#fff3cd
    style Verify fill:#fff3cd
    style Release fill:#d4edda
    style Operate fill:#d4edda
    style Rollback fill:#f8d7da

Lifecycle Stages

1) Plan

Entry: Feature request, bug report, or operational task.

Activities: - Define scope and acceptance criteria. - Identify impacted services, APIs, or pipelines. - Track work in GitHub Issues and GitHub Projects (milestones, priorities, owners).

Exit: Clear acceptance criteria and implementation plan.

Artifacts: GitHub Issue, Project card, checklist of deliverables.

Use the organization project space: https://github.com/orgs/TheDataEngineX/projects

2) Design

Entry: Approved plan.

Activities: - Define interfaces, data contracts, and configuration changes. - Update architecture or runbook docs if required.

Exit: Design reviewed and aligned.

Artifacts: Updated documentation, diagrams if applicable.

3) Implement

Entry: Approved design.

Activities: - Develop in a short-lived feature branch. - Add or update tests. - Update docs if behavior or interfaces change.

Exit: Code complete and locally validated.

Artifacts: Code changes, tests, documentation updates.

4) Verify (CI)

Entry: Pull request opened against dev (integration) or main (release).

Required Checks: - CI, security, and quality checks as defined in the CI/CD pipeline.

See CI/CD Pipeline for the authoritative list of checks.

Exit: All checks pass and at least one reviewer approves.

Artifacts: CI logs, security scan reports, test results.

5) Release (CD)

Entry: - Dev deployment: PR merged to dev. - Stage/Prod deployment: PR merged to main.

Actions: - Build container image once and tag with commit SHA. - Push image to registry. - Update environment manifests via GitOps.

Exit: New image tag recorded in git and ArgoCD sync completes.

Artifacts: Image tag, git commit updating kustomization, ArgoCD sync history.

6) Operate

Entry: Deployment complete.

Activities: - Monitor application health and logs. - Respond to alerts and incidents. - Apply rollback if required.

Exit: Service stable and verified.

Artifacts: Alerts, logs, incident notes, rollback commits (if any).

Development Workflow (Summary)

flowchart TD
    Start([New Feature/Fix]) --> Issue[Create GitHub Issue]
    Issue --> Branch["Create branch: feat/xyz"]
    Branch --> Code[Implement + Tests]
    Code --> Local["Local checks: lint, test, types"]
    Local -->|Failed| Code
    Local -->|Passed| PR["Open PR → dev"]
    PR --> CI{CI Checks}
    CI -->|Failed| Fix[Fix Issues]
    Fix --> Code
    CI -->|Passed| Review{Code Review}
    Review -->|Changes Requested| Code
    Review -->|Approved| MergeDev["Merge to dev"]
    MergeDev --> DevDeploy[Auto-deploy to dev]
    DevDeploy --> DevTest{Dev Tests Pass?}
    DevTest -->|Failed| Hotfix[Hotfix or Rollback]
    Hotfix --> Code
    DevTest -->|Passed| ReleasePR["Create PR: dev → main"]
    ReleasePR --> ReleaseCI{CI Checks}
    ReleaseCI -->|Failed| Fix
    ReleaseCI -->|Passed| ReleaseReview{Code Review}
    ReleaseReview -->|Changes Requested| Code
    ReleaseReview -->|Approved| MergeMain["Merge to main"]
    MergeMain --> ProdDeploy[Auto-deploy to stage+prod]
    ProdDeploy --> Monitor[Monitor Production]
    Monitor --> End([✓ Complete])

    style Start fill:#e1f5ff
    style Issue fill:#e1f5ff
    style Code fill:#fff3cd
    style CI fill:#fff3cd
    style Review fill:#fff3cd
    style DevDeploy fill:#d4edda
    style ProdDeploy fill:#d4edda
    style End fill:#d4edda
    style Hotfix fill:#f8d7da

Steps:

  1. Create or update a GitHub Issue and add it to the GitHub Project board.
  2. Create a feature branch and implement changes.
  3. Open a PR to dev and request review.
  4. After validation in dev, open a release PR from dev → main.
  5. Merge after all required checks pass.

See Contributing Guide for branch naming, local checks, and PR conventions.

Development: - Contributing Guide - Contribution workflow - CI/CD Pipeline - Automated build and deploy

Operations: - Deployment Runbook - Release procedures - Project Roadmap - Issue tracking and milestone source

← Back to Documentation Hub