Company leadership has discovered an untapped revenue stream within its customer base and wants to meet with IT to share its vision for the future…

The scenario describes the initial stage of a project where a high-level business concept ("untapped revenue stream") is presented to determine its viability ("determine whether to move forward"). This activity is characteristic of the Planning phase of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). This phase focuses on project initiation, feasibility analysis, defining the initial scope, and securing stakeholder buy-in before any detailed requirements are gathered or design work begins. The meeting between leadership and IT to share a "vision" is a classic example of this preliminary planning and feasibility assessment.

A. Implementation: This phase involves writing the actual code for the software, which occurs much later in the lifecycle after design is complete.

B. Design: This phase focuses on creating the system architecture and detailed component specifications based on established requirements, which have not yet been defined.

D. Requirements: This phase involves gathering and documenting detailed functional and non-functional specifications from stakeholders, which happens after the project has been approved in the planning phase.

1. Sommerville, I. (2016). Software Engineering (10th ed.). Pearson. In Chapter 2, Section 2.1.1, "Software specification," the author describes the first stage as establishing the "goals of the system" and conducting a "feasibility study," which aligns with the Planning phase. The text states, "The first stage in the software process is to understand and define what services are required from the system and to identify the constraints on its operation and development." This is precisely what the meeting between leadership and IT aims to initiate.

2. Pressman, R. S., & Maxim, B. R. (2020). Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education. Chapter 4, "An Introduction to Process," describes the initial "Communication" activity (part of planning) as involving stakeholder collaboration to "define the primary objectives for the project." The scenario's meeting to share a vision and decide whether to proceed is a core part of this initial communication and planning framework.

3. MIT OpenCourseWare. (2005). 6.170 Laboratory in Software Engineering, Fall 2005. Lecture Notes, Lecture 1: The Software Lifecycle. The lecture outlines the "waterfall" model, starting with a phase that involves understanding the problem and determining feasibility, which is synonymous with the Planning phase described in the question. This precedes the detailed "Requirements" phase.