When BNT Solutions was incorporated in 2001 there was one goal in particular that ran as a thread through everything that was done: simplify, simplify, simplify! Of course there are some things that, even though you try to keep them as simple as possible, are still going to be somewhat complicated. In these cases, the only solution is to Hold Hands with the customer as We Walk Through the Project Together. Towards that end, many documents were written and prepared over the years that try to help the customer to understand the How and Why of success in various areas.

The Software Development Cycle is one of those documents. The on-time and on-budget delivery of a successful software project is not difficult to achieve but it's never an accident. The only way to build a software system successfully is to work together, taking all the necessary steps while following a solid and reliable process.

This article is a big-picture overview of the Software Development Cycle as followed at BNT Solutions, Inc.

The very first time I tried to setup a server at home I discovered something unexpected: What I thought was going to be simple and easy turned out to be more complicated than expected because - in spite of many years of working with networks - it turned out that there was still so much more that I needed to know.

The next shock came soon after: virtually every book or document that I found on the subject attacked it in a way that made it seem terribly complicated. I wanted something simple and easy to read. I wanted something that was organized in such a way as to allow me to jump in and quickly start getting things done.

So here it is.

You can find a rather large number of Introductions to Networking on the Internet today. This one is intended to be different. In fact, let's go ahead and jump right in; let's start looking seriously at what we need to know to get simple things done.