The life cycle begins when an application is first conceived and ends when it is no longer in use. It includes aspects such as initial concept, requirements analysis, functional design, internal design, documentation planning, test planning, coding, document preparation, integration, testing, maintenance, updates, retesting, phase-out, and other aspects. (See the Bookstore section's 'Software QA', 'Software Engineering', and 'Project Management' categories for useful books with more information.
it is the systematic approach to develop,operate and maintain the software
The total life period of the software from requirement to operation is know as software life cycle.every software life cycle goes through four phases i.e requirement,design,implement,operation.