Managing the Development Cycle Overview

The development cycle as described here is a subset of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), dealing specifically with the part of the cycle that includes the implementation and control of actual development tasks. The development cycle described here does not include such things as modeling applications.

The tools of ALM include:

Requirements management
Source control
User interface design
Code visualization capabilities
Project building, compilation, and debugging capabilities

Requirements Management

Requirements management tools enable you to add, remove, and update requirements for your software project. A fully integrated tool also enables you to create links between the requirement specification and the portions of the code within your software project that fulfill the requirement.

Source Control

A source control system allows you to manage versions or renditions of your project files. Most source control systems maintain a central repository of code and allow you to check-in, check-out, update, commit, and otherwise manage your source files.

User Interface Design

RAD Studio provides a rich environment for designing a user interface. In addition to the Form Designer, which includes a full set of visual components, the IDE gives you tools to build Web Forms, along with a set of Web Controls.

The Designer offers a variety of alignment tools, font tools, and visual components for building many types of applications, including MDI and SDI applications, tabbed dialogs, and data aware applications.

Code Visualization

The Code Visualization feature of RAD Studio provides the means to document and debug your class designs using a visual paradigm. As you load your projects and code files, you can use the Model View to get both a hierarchical graphical view of all of the objects represented in your classes, as well as a UML-like model of your application objects. This feature can help you visualize the relationships between objects in your application, and can assist you in developing and implementing.

Compile, Build, Run, and Debug

RAD Studio provides MSBuild, the industry standard build engine, along with an integrated debugger. You can build only the changed elements of the project by using the Compile command. To build the entire project regardless of changes, use the Build command. Projects with subprojects and multiple source files can be built all together, or you can build each project individually.

The integrated debugger allows you to set watches and breakpoints, and to step through, into, and over individual lines of code. A set of debugger windows provides details on variables, processes, and threads, and lets you drill down deeply into your code to find and fix errors.