SimpleOne SDLC: a system for managing the development department
Updated at: 22 April 2025
Managing software development is becoming a real challenge for companies as products become more complex and the number of teams grows. Data silos, loss of focus on product development, difficulties with task prioritization - all these are signs that IT needs a specialized IT product management system instead of generic project management solutions.
This article explains what an SDLC system is and how SimpleOne SDLC helps synchronize product development.
What is SDLC
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a methodology that covers all stages of software development from the initial idea to the release and further support of the product.
The SDLC includes seven interrelated steps:
- requirements gathering and analysis;
- planning;
- architecture design, analytics, and design;
- development;
- testing;
- implementation;
- support and maintenance.
This methodology provides a structured approach to development that enables teams to create quality products with predictable outcomes. Each step in the SDLC has its own tasks and deliverables that become inputs to the next step. For example, the output of the analysis step is considered the finished documentation that will be the basis for the design step.
SimpleOne SDLC is a system built on the principles of methodology. The solution closes all stages of software development, helping teams to organize the process from planning to release and support of the finished product. The solution unites all the necessary tools in a single environment, making the development process more transparent and manageable.
At the center of the SDLC system is the product around which all processes are built. This approach helps manage complex products and coordinate the work of multiple teams toward a single goal - the release of a quality product.
When you should think about implementing a development management system
Companies of all sizes face a moment when the usual tools for managing development tasks can no longer cope with the growing complexity of processes. If a company seeks a systematic approach to managing product development, rather than just solving individual tasks, there is a need for an IT product management system. Here are a few situations where a business needs an SDLC system:
Need centralized management of a product ecosystem
When a company develops multiple interconnected products with common modules, the need for centralized management arises. An SDLC system allows you to work on complex products with multiple components. A development management system also prevents duplication of efforts when different teams develop the same modules due to poor communication between teams. When a company has a single backlog to work with in the space of one system, development is directed towards a common goal.
Scaling development teams
When the number of developers grows and multiple teams are formed, a system is required that can bring together the efforts of a large number of teams and synchronize their work so that the processes are transparent to all participants.
There is a need to integrate IT support and development processes
Feedback from users through the help desk is a valuable source of data for product development. In order for the development team to receive and utilize this data, information sharing processes need to be established. Integrating SDLC and ITSM systems for IT service management helps create a common language for communication across departments and simplifies data synchronization between systems. Integration at the level of data and processes opens up opportunities for cross-functional collaboration and allows you to build a full development cycle based on feedback from real users.
Existing tools do not meet the company's needs
If the specifics of business processes require flexibility in system customization, and "boxed" solutions are poorly customizable, or customization is too expensive. In this situation, companies turn to solutions based on low-code platforms, which allow them to adapt the system to specific business processes and do not require complex implementation of bulky systems.
Why an SDLC system for IT is better than project management systems
One-size-fits-all project management systems often overburden IT departments with excessive functionality and complex tools not designed for software development tasks. As a result, they create additional workload - teams spend time customizing and adapting tools rather than on the development itself. A specialized SDLC system, on the other hand, is designed from the ground up to meet the needs of IT teams and allows them to focus on what really matters: product management, team coordination, and producing quality software. Using SimpleOne as an example, let's look at how the right system helps development.
Product-centric approach
SimpleOne SDLC puts the product at the center of all development processes, which is fundamentally different from the classic project approach. The product becomes the core around which the work of all teams and release planning is organized. The system allows you to manage a portfolio of products of any complexity due to its flexible modular structure. For large-scale products, you can create an unlimited number of nested modules that accurately reflect the functional architecture of the product.
SimpleOne SDLC features shared backlog management both at the level of the entire product and for individual modules. A common backlog allows you to build a hierarchy of requirements that corresponds to the product structure and flexibly distribute tasks between teams. Product managers can work with the common backlog, prioritizing tasks across the entire product, and teams can get their own parts of work related to specific modules. This maintains a holistic view of product development, which is important when managing complex solutions.
Specialized development boards
SimpleOne SDLC offers convenient workflow visualization tools in the form of specialized boards tailored to the needs of development teams:
- Kanban boards with customizable columns (task statuses) and "swimlanes" (swimlanes) for logical separation of tasks of different types;
- boards for Scrum projects with customizable columns, card badges and color markers;
- the ability to aggregate statuses into areas for a more visual representation of work stages;
- WIP limits (limits on the number of tasks in a job) to prevent team overload and manage task flow more efficiently;
- color indicators and markers to quickly identify problem tasks (e.g., tasks that have not been updated for more than a month).
The system supports both Kanban and Scrum approach to work organization. For Scrum-teams there is available sprint planning with evaluation of tasks in story points and visual charts of task burn-in, allowing to control the uniformity of work execution.
Task hierarchy for product development
Unlike common project management systems, SimpleOne SDLC offers a task hierarchy customized for product development:
- a complete structure from large epics to small subtasks with the ability to create unlimited nesting;
- separation between product backlog (tasks planned for product development) and team backlog (tasks taken into work);
- special types of tasks (epics, fixes, stories, defects) that allow structuring work and analyzing the correlation between different types of activities.
Hierarchical representation of tasks in the form of a tree structure allows you to easily navigate even in a large volume of work and track progress in each area of product development.
Integration with ITSM processes
SimpleOne SDLC seamlessly integrates with the ITSM system, creating a single environment for development and support teams to interact. This enables end-to-end processes from user reporting of a problem to the release of a fix:
- the ability to create development tasks directly from incidents in ITSM;
- automatic generation of product technical debt based on user requests;
- prioritization of development tasks taking into account the criticality of related incidents;
- two-way traceability between incidents and development tasks;
- end-to-end notifications of task status changes for all process participants.
Integration eliminates barriers between departments, establishes a common communication language, and accelerates the feedback loop from users to developers.
Reporting and metrics for product development
SimpleOne SDLC provides specialized analytics tools focused on product development management:
- Task Burndown Charts (Burndown Chart), showing the progress of a sprint and how evenly labor is being written off across the team;
- Cumulative Flow Diagrams (CFDs) to analyze the progress of tasks through different statuses;
- Team Velocity metrics for more accurate planning;
- task type distribution reports to control the balance between developing new functionality and fixing defects;
- flexible report and dashboard builder for visualization.
Unlike common project management systems, all reporting tools are built directly into the platform - you won't have to use third-party solutions to analyze metrics, it's easier to work with up-to-date data.
Integration with version control systems
SimpleOne SDLC features integration with GitLab, which includes the ability to view information from GitLab in the SimpleOne system. Once the integration is configured, a special widget appears that allows you to view merge requests, branches, and commits associated with the task. Linking is performed by task number, for this purpose you should specify task number in descriptions of merge requests, commits and branches, and the system automatically pulls these data from GitLab and displays them in the interface.
The main advantage of the integration is team synchronization. Developers can track changes made by each member directly from the task interface in SimpleOne SDLC, making it easy to monitor work progress. There is no need to constantly check in GitLab what happened to branches or merge requests - all information is available in the IT development management system.
Additional features
The features of the SimpleOne SDLC solution simplify the implementation and use of the system in an organization:
- Mobile version - PWA application automatically adapts to the mobile version and does not take up device memory. A stable internet connection is sufficient to access it.
- Flexible customization - SimpleOne SDLC is developed on the basis of SimpleOne Low-code platform, so users can create any individual solutions without deep knowledge in programming.
- Advanced integration capabilities - SimpleOne solution can be integrated with any other system that supports import to Excel, JSON or provides access to its ARI.