The document describes the six phases of the systems development life cycle: 1) preliminary investigation, 2) systems analysis, 3) systems design, 4) systems development, 5) systems implementation, and 6) systems maintenance. Each phase involves specific activities like gathering requirements, designing system components, developing and acquiring software/hardware, testing, training users, and ongoing maintenance. Traceability matrices are used to map requirements to designs and validate that the life cycle process is followed.