The document discusses the product life cycle (PLC) and software product life cycle. It defines the PLC as describing how an organization manages product development from inception to end of life. The generic PLC has four phases - exploration, planning, development, and refresh. The software PLC refines this with six phases - requirements gathering, requirements specification, architecture design, detailed design, implementation, and validation and verification. It provides details on the activities and goals of each phase, noting that requirements gathering takes the most time and errors can occur without customer communication.

1. PSU CS 106 Computing Fundamentals II Product Life Cycle & SW Product Life Cycle HM 9/3/2007

6. Time Line of PLC Exploration Planning Refresh Development Product Production Candidate (PPC) Product Qualified (PLQ) Product Post Mortem Product Architecture Document (PAD) Product Deployment Opportunity Assessment (OA) Opportunity To Product Map (OPM) Product Qual Approval (PQA) Product Launch Approval (PLA) Opportunity Feasibility Approval Opportunity Scope Approval Opportunity Commit Approval Product Commit Approval (PCA) Product Feasibility Approval (PFA) Product Scope Approval (PSA) Product Integration Exit Product Integration Ready Product Design Complete Opportunity Identification Approval

7. Summary of PLC Phases Exploration Phase analyzes market, business and technology trends & opportunities which identify product solutions, that are implementable and of evident added value. Planning Phase formalizes next level of detail including market requirements, decision times, product scope, usage, features, technology integration, and results in an approved, documented POR . Development Phase implements requirements defined in Planning Phase; its Milestones are synchronization points to quantify progress toward goal. Refresh Phase constitutes further product revisions (or EOL) after initial product launch; may include updates to software, hardware, and other technologies. Exploration Planning Refresh Development