# Program Development Life Cycle

One of the MOST important things a programmer needs to learn is the Program Development Life Cycle. Just like we should follow steps when building a house - we need to follow steps in building a computer program.

The Program Development Life Cycle has 5 major steps:

## 1. Design the Program

This step is done BEFORE starting to write your program. You need to:

1. understand the task that the program needs to perform, and
2. determine the steps (LOGIC) in their correct order that must be taken to perform the task.

You need to break down the task into a series of steps - IN THE CORRECT ORDER - this is called an ALGORITHM!!! You then may create a "visual" to help you - sometimes you can use a computer flowchart, or you can do pseudocode. Either a flowchart or pseudocode can map your statements into what the computer needs to do. Many programmers try to skip this step - DON'T fall into that trap!!!!

## 2. Write the Code

You will be using PYTHON as your programming language to write your computer programs.

## 3. Interpret or Compile Your Program

Interpret or compile your program - we will be using the interpreter; Correct any SYNTAX errors and put back through the interpreter until all SYNTAX errors are corrected.

## 4. Execute/Run the Program

Also referred to as "testing" - you are seeing if the correct Output is being produced. If the correct output is okay you are done, if not - go to step 5.

## 5. Correct the Logic Errors

Go back to your original program, make corrections in PYTHON language, put back through the interpreter and re-run (execute).