SDLC and Platform Engineering Tools Integration Guide

Parts of SDLC and Where Platform Engineering Tools Fit

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) traditionally consists of 7 core phases that guide software from concept to production and beyond:[1][2][3]

The 7 Phases of SDLC

Planning - Establishing project goals, scope, requirements, timelines, resource allocation, and cost-benefit analysis. This phase sets the project’s direction and ensures all stakeholders understand objectives.[2][1]

Requirements Analysis - Gathering detailed requirements from stakeholders, customers, and market research. Creating Software Requirement Specification (SRS) documents that define functional and security needs.[4][5]

Design - Creating system architecture, data flow diagrams, user interface wireframes, selecting technology stacks, and defining how components will interact. This includes both high-level and low-level design specifications.[6][1]

Implementation/Development - Writing actual code based on design specifications. Developers build features, integrate components, and create the software according to predefined requirements.[7][2]

Testing - Conducting various testing activities including unit testing, integration testing, user acceptance testing (UAT), security testing, and quality assurance to identify and eliminate bugs.[2][7]

Deployment - Moving software from build/staging environments to production, including packaging, environment configuration, installation, and making the application available to end users.[3]

Maintenance - Ongoing bug fixes, performance monitoring, security updates, customer issue resolution, and continuous improvements based on user feedback.[3]

Where Platform Engineering Tools Fit in SDLC

Service Catalog

Primary SDLC Phases: Planning, Design, Development, Maintenance

Service catalogs serve as a centralized metadata repository that spans the entire SDLC. They provide:[8][9]

• Discovery and Documentation: A single source of truth for all services, APIs, dependencies, infrastructure components, and ownership information[10][8]
• Onboarding Support: Help new developers understand the tech stack and service relationships during planning and development phases[8]
• Incident Management: Enable quick identification of service owners and dependencies during maintenance phase[11][8]
• Standards Tracking: Monitor compliance with organizational standards across all phases[11]

Service catalogs are foundational components of Internal Developer Platforms (IDPs) and provide visibility throughout the entire software lifecycle.[9][10]

Developer Self-Service

Primary SDLC Phases: Development, Testing, Deployment

Developer self-service capabilities reduce bottlenecks across multiple SDLC phases:[12][13]

• Development Phase: Enables developers to independently provision infrastructure, create development environments, and access pre-approved resources without waiting for IT/DevOps approval[14][12]
• Testing Phase: Allows spinning up isolated test environments with proper configurations quickly[12]
• Deployment Phase: Provides self-service CI/CD pipeline creation and management, enabling faster deployments[13][14]
• Benefits: Reduces wait times from days to minutes, frees DevOps teams from routine tasks, and accelerates time to market[13][12]

The self-service model includes centralized catalogs, automated provisioning, built-in guardrails, and monitoring capabilities.[14][12]

Ephemeral Environments

Primary SDLC Phases: Development, Testing

Ephemeral environments are temporary, isolated environments primarily used during development and testing:[15][16][17]

• Development Phase: Provide personal sandboxes for feature experimentation, prototyping, and proof-of-concept validation[16]
• Testing Phase: Enable parallel testing of multiple features on separate pull requests, providing production-like testing before staging[17][15]
• Key Benefits:
  • Eliminate bottlenecks from shared staging environments[17]
  • Cost optimization through automatic spin-up/spin-down[17]
  • Improved collaboration through shareable, isolated feature environments[17]
  • Early bug detection through E2E testing before merge[17]

Ephemeral environments should be truly short-lived (tied to specific Jira cards or pull requests) to avoid configuration drift.[18]

Feature Flags

Primary SDLC Phases: Development, Testing, Deployment, Maintenance

Feature flags enable decoupling code deployment from feature releases across multiple phases:[19][20][21][22]

• Development Phase: Support trunk-based development, eliminating complex merge conflicts from long-lived feature branches[22]
• Testing Phase: Allow testing features in production with limited user exposure (canary testing)[23][22]
• Deployment Phase: Enable gradual rollouts, A/B testing, and experimentation without redeployment[20][24]
• Maintenance Phase: Provide instant rollback capability if features cause issues, reducing mean time to remediate[22]

Feature Flag Lifecycle Stages:[25][19]

1. Define: Flag created, requirements being gathered
2. Develop: Code in progress, internal testing
3. Production: Feature deployed to users, gradual rollout
4. Cleanup: Feature completed, flag removal from code
5. Archived: Flag no longer receives metrics, safe to archive

Proper lifecycle management prevents technical debt from accumulating stale flags.[24][19]

Durable Workflow Execution Engine

Primary SDLC Phases: Implementation, Deployment, Maintenance

Durable workflow engines like Temporal and Cadence provide fault-tolerant orchestration for complex, long-running processes:[26][27][28]

• Implementation Phase: Enable developers to write business logic as workflows without handling failure scenarios explicitly[28][29]
• Deployment Phase: Automate multi-step deployment processes with automatic retry and recovery mechanisms[30][31]
• Maintenance Phase: Support long-running processes (days to years) with automatic state preservation across failures[27]

Key Characteristics:[32][27][28]

• Crash-proof execution: Automatically capture state at every step and resume after failures[28]
• No time limits: Can run indefinitely with periods of inactivity (e.g., scheduled notifications over months)[27]
• Deterministic replay: Workflows must be deterministic to ensure consistent behavior across replays[32]
• Automatic retries: Activities retry automatically on failure without manual intervention[28]

These engines are particularly valuable for orchestrating complex CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure provisioning, and business workflows that span multiple services and systems.[26][30]

Access Control (RBAC/ABAC)

Primary SDLC Phases: Design, Implementation, Deployment, Maintenance

Access control mechanisms are critical security components integrated throughout SDLC:[33][34][35]

• Design Phase (Requirements): Security requirements must define access control models, with RBAC specified for preventing unauthorized access[34]
• Implementation Phase: Developers implement role-based or attribute-based access control mechanisms using secure coding practices[36]
• Deployment Phase: Apply proper access controls, authentication mechanisms, and authorization policies[37]
• Maintenance Phase: Continuous monitoring of access patterns, regular reviews of roles/permissions, and updates to access policies[35]

Access Control Models:[38][33]

• RBAC (Role-Based Access Control): Assigns permissions based on predefined roles aligned with job functions. Simplifies management in large organizations but is static[33][35]
• ABAC (Attribute-Based Access Control): Grants access based on attributes (user characteristics, location, time, resource type). Provides dynamic, context-aware access control[38][33]

Both models support least privilege principles and separation of duties, which are fundamental security practices.[39][40]

Governance in SDLC

Yes, governance is absolutely critical throughout SDLC. Governance ensures that development processes align with security goals, regulatory compliance, risk management, and organizational standards.[41][42][43]

What is SDLC Governance?

SDLC governance provides a framework for managing and controlling software development, deployment, and maintenance:[42][44][41]

• Clear policies and standards: Documented guidelines covering security, data handling, code quality, and compliance requirements[42]
• Defined roles and responsibilities: Establishing accountability across development, security, and operations teams[43][41]
• Risk management: Systematic identification, assessment, and mitigation of threats throughout the lifecycle[36][43]
• Compliance enforcement: Ensuring adherence to regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS[37]
• Regular audits and assessments: Continuous monitoring of policy compliance, security vulnerabilities, and code quality[40][42]

Governance Across SDLC Phases

Planning & Requirements Phase:[45][34][36]

• Security and compliance requirements gathering
• Overall risk assessment
• Threat identification
• Defining security objectives and acceptance criteria

Design Phase:[34][41][45]

• Design reviews and threat modeling
• Security architecture definition
• Vulnerability and risk assessment
• Security controls documentation

Implementation Phase:[41][36][37]

• Secure coding standards enforcement
• Code analysis tools (SAST)
• Access control implementation
• Regular code audits

Testing Phase:[36][41]

• Security testing (SAST, DAST, IAST)
• Penetration testing
• Compliance validation
• Vulnerability scanning

Deployment Phase:[40][37][41]

• Security hardening
• Access controls and authentication
• Configuration management
• Change control monitoring

Maintenance Phase:[43][37][41]

• Security patching
• Log monitoring
• Continuous compliance
• Performance and security monitoring

Key Governance Components:[40]

1. Visibility: Security must have visibility into all tools, people, and processes in the SDLC[40]
2. Least Privilege Policies: Enforce minimal necessary permissions to reduce attack surface[40]
3. Authentication: Multi-factor authentication and single sign-on to verify user identity[40]
4. Branch Protection & Build Rules: Enforce peer reviews, commit signing, unit testing, and security scans[40]
5. Monitoring Change Controls: Alert when security configurations change, indicating potential tampering[40]

Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Framework[43]

Modern SDLC increasingly relies on GRC frameworks to manage the intersection of governance, risk management, and regulatory compliance:[43]

• Identifies and manages risks related to software development
• Ensures regulatory compliance across all phases
• Adopts Zero Trust architecture principles (“never trust, always verify”)
• Establishes systematic risk management frameworks with defined roles and procedures

Summary

All the tools you mentioned fit strategically into specific SDLC phases:

• Service Catalog: Spans all phases as a central source of truth for discovery, ownership, and documentation
• Developer Self-Service: Primarily Development, Testing, and Deployment phases for autonomous resource provisioning
• Ephemeral Environments: Development and Testing phases for isolated, temporary testing environments
• Feature Flags: Development through Maintenance for decoupled deployments and safe rollouts
• Durable Workflow Engines: Implementation, Deployment, and Maintenance for fault-tolerant orchestration
• Access Control (RBAC/ABAC): Design through Maintenance as foundational security mechanisms

Governance is fundamental throughout SDLC, establishing the framework that ensures security, compliance, risk management, and alignment with business objectives across all phases. It’s not a separate phase but rather an integrated practice that touches every stage of software development, providing policies, standards, auditing, and continuous monitoring to maintain software quality and security.[44][41][42][43]