What is waterfall model in software engineering ?

What is waterfall model in software engineering, let us discuss in details what is waterfall model and how waterfall model works .

  1. What is waterfall model in software engineering ?

  2. Requirements Gathering.

  3. Requirements Analysis

  4. Design

  5. Coding

  6. Testing

  7. Deployment.

  8. Important Articles 

waterfall model in software engineering
 

 In software engineering, a waterfall model is a conceptual model for developing, testing, and deploying computer software. The model starts with defining the problem or requirement that the software is to address, then creating a high-level design of the system. Next, an implementation plan is created based on the design and specified using specific programming codes. Finally, units of testing are conducted to verify that the program works as it should. The entire process is repeated throughout the software development life cycle to ensure that all subsystems work as planned and that any bugs are fixed before launch into the production environment.

In software engineering, a waterfall model is a model of software development (also known as product development). It is a sequential, staged process in which each phase of the process is completed before moving on to the next. The waterfall model is most commonly used for large software projects, where it provides a well-defined and structured approach to writing, testing, and deploying releases.

The four major phases of the waterfall model are requirements gathering, design, development, testing, and maintenance. The requirement gathering phase involves getting all the relevant information about the project. This includes understanding what is being built and understanding the user’s needs. The design phase creates the overall structure of the software and determines how it will be implemented. During this phase, developers may create user interfaces or codebase components. Finally, development takes place during which the actual code is written. Testing ensures that the software functions as intended and is error-free. Once it meets these standards, it is released to users for maintenance. Depending on the size and complexity of the project, this might involve fixing bugs or adding new features

In software engineering, waterfall model is a development process that starts with requirements gathering and progresses through design, testing, and deployment. The goal is to achieve software quality levels before deploying the code. The process is divided into five phases: requirements gathering, design, coding, testing, and deployment.

Requirements gathering occurs during the early stages of project when stakeholders are gathered together to discuss their needs and goals for the project. This is where requirements are clarified, refined, and may be changed. Requirements should be concise but detailed enough to allow for proper planning.

Design occurs after the requirements have been collected and a plan has been created for the project. It includes developing a low-level specification of what will be implemented. Design also determines how the code will be coded and how it will be tested.

Coding takes place once the design has been completed and code is written in an appropriate language for the project. It involves creating individual modules that work together to implement the design specifications. Code should be well documented so future developers can understand it easily.

Testing begins once the code has been written and goes through various levels of testing to make sure it meets all the requirements set forth in the design phase. Once tests have been completed, it’s ready for deployment onto a real or simulated environment.

Deployment begins by pushing the new code to a staging area so that it can be evaluated before being released into production settings. If all goes according to plan, finally production environments can be updated with the new code.

  1. What are the Advantages of Waterfall Model?
  2. Agile vs Waterfall or Difference between waterfall and Agile
  3. What is Waterfall Methodology or Model in SDLC

We hope this article provided you an overview on what is Waterfall model in software engineering.

What Is REST API? How To Build A RESTful Web Service

What Is REST API?

What is REST API
What is REST API

This tutorial will show you how to build a RESTful web service using PHP and MySQL.

Create a Database Connection.

Define the HTTP Request Methods.

Implement the GET Method.

Implement the POST Method.

What is an API?

SDLC Interview Questions For Business Analyst

SDLC Interview Questions For Business Analyst

Let us observe some of the important SDLC Interview Questions for Business Analyst.

SDLC Interview Questions
SDLC Interview Questions

  1. What is SDLC?

SDLC stands for software development lifecycle. It is a set of processes and activities that are performed throughout the entire life cycle of developing software. These processes help ensure quality products are delivered to customers.

  1. How does SDLC differ from waterfall model?

The waterfall model is a traditional approach to software development where requirements are gathered at the beginning of the project and then followed by design, coding, testing, and deployment. In contrast, the agile methodology focuses on delivering working software frequently, responding to changing customer demands, and incorporating feedback early and often.

  1. How do you define Agile?

Agile is a collection of methods, techniques, and practices that promote collaboration among cross-functional teams to produce high-quality software. Agile emphasizes self-organizing teams, continuous integration, and short iterations.

  1. What are some advantages of using Agile methodologies?

Using Agile methodologies helps teams focus on building great products rather than spending time managing processes. Teams can respond to changes in their environment more effectively. By focusing on delivering working software frequently and iterating continuously, teams can incorporate feedback early and often. Agile methodologies encourage transparency and communication between team members.

  1. What are some disadvantages of using Agile method?

Teams may not have enough time to plan ahead and prepare for upcoming tasks. Using Agile methodologies requires a lot of upfront planning and preparation.

  1. What is Scrum?

Scrum is a framework for organizing work and tracking progress in small increments called sprints. Each sprint contains a series of tasks that are completed over a period of two weeks. At the end of each sprint, the team meets to review what was accomplished and discuss how they can improve upon the previous sprint.

  1. What is Kanban?

Kanban is a visual management tool that provides a way to track workflow and prioritize tasks. Kanban boards display information about current projects and allow users to visualize the flow of work. Kanban boards are useful for keeping track of the status of ongoing projects.

  1. What is the difference between a waterfall model and agile methodologies?

Waterfall Model: In the waterfall model, each phase of the project is completed before moving onto the next phase. Agile Methodologies: In agile methods, teams work together to complete the project at the same time.

  1. How would you define SDLC?

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a series of steps followed while developing software. These steps include requirements gathering, design, coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance.

What should I expect from an SDLC interview?

  1. What do you want to achieve?

This question is often asked at the beginning of any project. You need to know what you want to accomplish before you begin working on the project. If you don’t have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish, then you won’t be able to create a plan to get there.

  1. How long does the project take?

The length of time it takes to complete the project is dependent upon many factors including scope, complexity, team size, skill level, etc. However, if you’re not sure how much time it’s going to take, you might consider breaking down the project into smaller pieces. That way, you’ll be able to estimate the amount of time each piece will take and adjust accordingly.

  1. How will you measure success?

Successful projects are measured by their outcome. You may choose to use quantitative measures (e.g., number of units produced) or qualitative measures (e.g. customer satisfaction). Regardless of the type of measurement you choose, make sure that you define what success looks like for your organization.

  1. Who else will be involved in the project?

You should always involve others who will be affected by the project. These people could be internal stakeholders (i.e., employees), external stakeholders (i.e. customers), or both. Make sure that everyone understands the goals of the project and agrees to those goals.

  1. What are the risks associated with the project?

Risks are anything that can happen that would prevent the project from being successful. Risks can be divided into two categories: known and unknown. Known risks are things that you already know about and can account for them ahead of time. Unknown risks are things that you don’t know about until they occur. When dealing with unknown risks, you should try to mitigate them as best as possible.

  1. What are the dependencies of the project?

Dependencies are tasks that must be completed before you can start work on the project. Dependencies can be broken down into three types: mandatory, recommended, and optional. Mandatory dependencies are tasks that must be done first. Recommended dependencies are tasks that you should do first unless there is a compelling reason not to. Optional dependencies are tasks that you can do later if necessary.

  1. What is the schedule for completing the project?

A schedule is a timeline that shows when different activities will be performed. A good schedule helps you to stay organized and manage expectations. It also gives you a sense of urgency and lets you know when you need to start doing something.

How do I prepare for an SDLC interview?

  1. Research the company

Before applying for any job, research the company thoroughly. Find out what their mission statement is, how they operate, who their clients are, etc. You want to make sure you’re going to fit in well with them and that you’ll have something in common with the people you work with.

  1. Prepare yourself mentally

Prepare yourself mentally for the interview. Know what questions you’re going answer and what you’re going say beforehand. Practice answering these questions aloud if possible. If not, then write down some sample answers beforehand and practice reading them off of paper.

  1. Dress appropriately

Dress professionally. Wear clothes that are clean and pressed. Make sure your hair is neat and tidy. Don’t wear anything that might distract others from your appearance.

  1. Be confident

Be confident! Even if you don’t feel confident, fake it until you make it. Pretend you’re excited about the opportunity and act like you know everything about the company.

  1. Smile

Smile! A genuine smile goes a long way. People will notice it and it will give you a positive vibe.

  1. Have fun

Have fun! Enjoy yourself and enjoy the experience.

  1. Show enthusiasm

Show enthusiasm for the position. Show interest in the company and show excitement about the opportunity.

These are the some of the important SDLC Interview Questions for Business Analyst.

Below articles will help you to understand on Waterfall Methodology and Agile Methodology and provide some of SDLC Interview Questions.

  1. What is SDLC ?
  2. What is Waterfall Methodology or Model in SDLC ?
  3. What are the Advantages of Waterfall Model?
  4. Agile vs Waterfall or Difference between waterfall and Agile
  5. Agile Methodology in Software Development Life Cycle

What are wireframes?

Topics Covered in this Article:

1.       What are wireframes?

2.     When wireframes to be created?

3.       Some of the advantages of wireframes?

4.       How to create wireframes?

5.       Why wireframes are required?

What are wireframes

1.        What are wireframes?

In simple words we can say wireframe is a diagram, Team use this diagram to understand how the developed product should be.  It helps to internal and external stake holders to understand the same.

 If we have good skills, then we can create mockups and proto types also for better understanding and it provides clear picture to the team.

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2.       When wire-frames to be created?

The wireframes or mockups or prototypes should be created before the software development is started. It helps to minimize rework and save the resource time.

If we are following waterfall methodology then wireframes should be created before development stage.

It does not matter how we are preparing the wireframes but ensure it is important that the wireframe designer (UI/UX designer), understands the information that has to be displayed on the screen.

The designer or UI developer has to really understand how the user will interact with the system. If they understand clearly what is the requirement then only they can prepare the wireframes.

So it is very important that requirements should be gathered properly before creating wireframes.

As we discussed in previous articles requirements can be gathered with using multiple elicitation techniques and same will be documented in relevant artifacts.

As requirements will be updated as User Stories or use cases, same will help to        design the wireframes.

3.      Advantages of Wire-frames.

a.      By using wire-frames we can prevent the rework.

b.      It saves resources time.

c.       Wire-frames are easy to use and understand.

d.      It avoids the confusion and misunderstanding within the team members.

e.      Wire-frames are used by the team to have a share understanding of the same information.

f.        Wire-frames are used to help design the user interface.

g.      Coding (Technical) skills not required. 

4.      How to create wire-frames?

There are tools available to create wire-frames. Some of the tools are free and open source; we can use the same to create wire-frames.

And even with using paper and pencil also we can design the wire-frames; or by using white board and pen also we can create the wire-frames, the ultimate goal to create wire-frame is make developers to understand what and how the screen should be.

But using software also has advantages such as data storage, data retrieval and wire-frame reusability. If we use software then we can use this wire-frames in future also when ever required.

To properly create the wire-frames, we need to understand what the buttons to be available in screen are and what the functionality is. And we need to understand what fields to be available on the screen.

By using some open source tools we can create the wire-frames even if you do not have the coding skills.

5.      Why wire-frames are required?

There are so many ways to document the requirements and make development team to understand, but wireframes will help to understand the requirement clearly. Wireframes are easy to draw and easy to understand.

FAQ’s

What are wireframes in design?

The designs you received are called wireframes (sometimes called wires, mockups, or mocks). A wireframe is a schematic, a blueprint, useful to help you and your programmers and designers think and communicate about the structure of the software or website you’re building.

What is the use of wireframe?

wireframe is commonly used to lay out content and functionality on a page which takes into account user needs and user journeys. Wireframes are used early in the development process to establish the basic structure of a page before visual design and content is added.

What are wireframes and mockups?

mockup is a static wireframe that includes more stylistic and visual UI details to present a realistic model of what the final page or application will look like. A good way to think of it is that a wireframe is a blueprint and a mockup is a visual model.

What should wireframes include?

wireframe is a two-dimensional illustration of a page’s interface that specifically focuses on space allocation and prioritization of content, functionalities available, and intended behaviors. For these reasons, wireframes typically do not include any styling, color, or graphics.

What are the different types of wireframes?

There are three main types of wireframes: low-fidelity wireframes, mid-fidelity wireframes, and high-fidelity wireframes.

Is Wireframing UX or UI?

Wireframing is a practice used by UX designers which allows them to define and plan the information hierarchy of their design for a website, app, or product. … Without the distractions of colors, typeface choices or text, wireframing lets you plan the layout and interaction of your interface.

What are Scrum Meetings?

What are Scrum Meetings

What are Scrum Meetings
What are Scrum Meetings

We discussed and observed what is Scrum and Scrum Roles, now we look into some other important terms and terminology. That is what is Sprint and what are Scrum Meetings  and what team discuss in Scrum Meetings.

What is Sprint Zero?

What is Sprint Planning?

We can say Sprint is nothing but Time Frame. Team discusses and decides what the prioritized items are and how much effort required achieving that. For example 3 user stories/ Requirements prioritized items are in product backlog, so team discuss about these three user stories, how much effort required and  how many man days required to complete these prioritized user stories in this sprint.

For example Sprint duration is 2 weeks, and then team needs to complete those 3 user stories within this time frame, which includes, Design > Development > Test > Integrate.

Scrum Meetings:

Daily Scrum Meeting: This happens every day where team will just discuss on 3 questions. Everyone should participate in this meeting, and meeting should be completed in 15 to 30 minutes.

  1. What did you do yesterday?

Here you need to explain what you have done yesterday and what the status of tasks assigned to you is.

  1. What will you do today?

Here you need to explain what you will do today to complete the assigned task as per schedule.

  1. Is there any impediments stopping you?

Here you need to explain if you are facing any issues to complete the assigned task. For example your task is depending on another task or functionality and it is pending with some other team. Then you need to explain the same in meeting, then Scrum Master will take a call and discuss with the concerned team to resolve the issue.  Scrum Master Note down these points and discuss offline with concerned teams.

These questions are depending on your scheduled Daily Scrum Meeting. For example if your meeting is at Morning then above questions will applicable.

If your meeting is scheduled at evening then questions as below.

  1. What did you do today?
  2. What will you do tomorrow?
  3. Is there any impediments stopping you?

Every team member of the team should participate in this meeting and need to update the status. As every individual team member should participate in this meeting, Scrum Master will discuss with individuals and schedule meeting as per convenient time.

For example you are working on Indian standard time as you are in India, but if your development team in some other country, then Scrum Master should coordinate and schedule meeting as per convenient time, and Scrum Master is the responsible person to ensure every team member joins in meeting.

Sprint Review Meeting or Scrum Review Meeting: This will happen at the end of the sprint where team will give demo on completed stories to product owner. As per above example Sprint completed in two weeks, then team will have this meeting and give demo on developed product. Usually it will take 3 to 4 hours.

Sprint retrospective Meeting: This will happen at the end of the sprint where team will answer these 3 questions.

What went well in the sprint?

What did not go well?

What are the required areas of improvements in next sprint?

This is continuous process, team discuss at the end of every sprint to improve the quality.

You may get this question in interviews also what are scrum meetings and what team will do in these meetings.

I hope it helped to provide overview of What are Scrum Meetings.

To know more about what are scrum meetings and what is scrum we can visit scrum official website.

What is Scrum in agile methodology?

What is Scrum?

What is Scrum

Scrum:  Scrum is not a methodology, Scrum is a framework. That means it provides opportunity to work as per the project needs or requirements with cross functional team to reach the project goals. It helps us to interact with the people easily.

Scrum is very popular now days and we can say without putting Agile  in your resume you will not get even interview calls also.  Don’t worry and do not think too much to understand what is scrum. Let us discuss in simple words.

Mostly it will use in implementation of projects.

When we are discussing about Scrum, we should understand and remember the ScrumTerminology and terms used. I am trying to explain in simple way.

Product Backlog:

Need to prepare the product backlog, it contains the list of user stories, user story is nothing but requirements.

Once we prepare the Product backlog, will prioritize the user stories which can be implemented in this Sprint.

ScrumRoles:
  1. Product Owner(PO)

    : He will decide what needs to done in this sprint/project and he is the responsible for managing the product backlog. He will be the responsible person for product like how product should be and all.

  2. He interacts with Business Analysts and Customers. This role may be played by BA or any person who is having strong knowledge on product and who works with end users for a long time. Depends on the project client also may play this role.
  1. ScrumMaster (SM)

    He will monitor the performance of the team within the sprint. Team will raise all their concerns and issues to ScrumMaster.

  • He is responsible to provide solutions to the team. He will interact with the stake holders to address the issues and concerns raised by the team. This role can be played by any person in team usually Business Analyst will play this role.
  • Development Team (Cross functional team who are self organized)

Scrum Team: Resources who are working in this project are formed as Scrum team which comprises of Business Analyst, Developers and Testers.

If you are looking for Certification, you can refer scrum.org

What is JIRA Tool ?

What is JIRA Tool?

What is JIRA

What is JIRA?

Initially I was also thinking what is JIRA and how to use JIRA, JIRA is a project management tool. It can be used to track the requirements status like what is the current status of the requirement assigned to user whether it is open or closed or under processing.

We will discuss in detail what is JIRA and advantages of using JIRA?

Here I am not going to explain how to use JIRA and all, I am trying to provide overview about JIRA tool.

What is JIRA?

JIRAis a tool developed by Australian Company Atlassian. This software is used for bug tracking, issue tracking, and project management. The name “JIRA” is actually inherited from the Japanese word “Gojira” which means “Godzilla”. The basic use of this tool is to track issue and bugs related to our project.

Jira is especially useful for software development because it has built in templates that can be used to help you create a software development project.

For example Jira has a Scrum template that can be customized to fit in with your requirements.

The template can be used to create the development project, once your development project is created, then you can create your backlog, plan your sprints, and your software releases.

A Scrum board would also be created with different columns. The columns show the different status that the cards are in such as backlog, development, Quality Assurance (Q & A), demo and closed which shows the status of the cards.

A kanban board also already available, we can customize as per our requirement. We can use Scrum board or Kanban board as per our requirement.

Has below standard formats.

  • Scrum board tracking.
  • Kanban board tracking
  • Cumulative flow charts.
  • Burn down charts.
  • Sprint reports.

We can create customized boards as per our requirement. It helps us to understand how many tasks we have and what the status of each task is.

Assume we have 5 developers in our team, and we have 50 requirements in our hand, and out of 50 requirements 20 prioritized. So here we need to assign these tasks to our developers.

So here I can customize the boards and fields as per my requirement. If we observe in above example 30 requirements yet to prioritized so I can mark status as “to be process” and 20 requirements I need to assign to my developers. So we can assign 4 tasks to each of the developers and I can give the due dates also as per the requirement.

As per above example 4 I  assigned to X and 4 assigned to Z, so here I can track the requirements x is having how many tasks in his bucket and how much time required to complete the task and actual hours taken to complete the task.

We can track the same for Issues also.

Issue Tracking : Jira can also be used to track issues during software development. It can be used to identify and create new issue tasks, prioritize issues for completion, and track them using a workflow.

You can specify details about the issue which helps with replications and resolution.

Time tracking: Jira can be used to keep track of the the time spent on tasks and issues. This would help with future sprints planning. The time tracking views available include :

  • Working hours per day
  • Working hours per week

WorkFlows

A JIRA workflow is a set of statuses and transitions that an issue goes through during its lifecycle. JIRA workflow encompasses five main stages once the issue is created.

  • Open Issue
  • Resolved Issue
  • InProgress Issue
  • ReOpened Issue
  • Close Issue

What is Feasibility Study and why it is important?

What is feasibility study?

What is feasibility study
Before accepting or committing any requirement, as a Business Analyst, first we need to do the feasibility study, during (feasibility study) analysis we need to concentrate on below.

  1. The requirement is feasible or not.
  2. Whether it will impact any existing functionalities.
  3. Whether this requirement may cause to any performance issues.
  4. Whether this requirement fits in the current system or not.
  5. What are the dependencies on this requirement?
  6. What are the integration points?
  7. Any impact on integration points?

You can discuss with internal and external stakeholders to understand the requirement clearly, if we not understand requirement clearly, then there is a chance to miss out some functionalities. It may lead to system issues/ bugs or client escalations.

If we delivered defect product then client will not happy and they may lose confidence on us.  So it is very important to understand the requirement clearly before committing to client.

A Analysis  is a preliminary analysis of solution alternatives or options to determine whether and how each option can provide an expected business benefit to meet the business need or requirement.

A Analysis  may address either a business problem to be resolved or a business opportunity to be exploited.

We can do the feasibilitystudy based on the resource and data available with us.  Some tools also can be used to do the feasibility study.

The feasibilitystudy is an integral part of formulating a major business transformation project.  Eg. Re-engineering a core business process and supporting  technology, establishing a new line of business, increasing market share through acquisition, or developing a new product or service.

Who is project Manager & what they do?

Who is Project Manager?

Who is Project Manager
Who is Project Manager?

Let us discuss and observe who project manager is and what he does in project.  Till now we have discussed the role and responsibilities of Business Analyst in project.  And we may have get doubt as “Business Analyst is handling the project and he is involving in every phase of the software development life cycle.

Business Analysts are usually active members of project teams and many business analysis tasks are very similar to project management tasks, but who exactly is a Project Manager?

As we discussed and observed in previous articles business analysts involves almost all the phases of the software development life cycle.

  1. Requirements gathering
  2. Requirements Analysis
  3. Design
  4. UAT
  5. Functional Testing
  6. Production Movement
  7. Maintenance and Support

Business Analyst involves in above phases based on the project and organization. Now a day’s some of the organizations expecting even technical skills from the Business Analyst.

As Business Analyst involves in all the phases of the software development life cycle but Project Manager is the person who can take decisions and who can decide how project should be and how project to be drive in smoothly to reach the customer expectations and meet the project goals.

He / She is the person who can decide which methodology to be used and project manager is the person to design the project.  Project Manager is the responsible for the entire project.

What are the skills needed to prove as a good project Manager.

  • They have to be able to manage people and develop trust and communication with the project’s stakeholders in order to ensure the project’s success.
  • He/ She has to be able to adapt to change, work well under pressure.
  • He/ She is responsible for using their skills and techniques to ensure the project’s success.

Some of the important responsibilities are below.

  1. Ensure that the project is delivered on-time, within scope and within budget.
  2. Develop a detailed project plan which is used to monitor and track progress.
  3. Set deadlines, assign responsibilities and monitor the progress of the project.
  4. Perform risk management to assess the project’s risks.
  5. Meet with clients to understand the project’s requirements.
  6. Manage the stakeholder’s relationships.
  7. Measure the project’s performance.
  8. Create and maintain comprehensive project documentation

What is GAP Analysis and why it is important?

What is GAP Analysis?

What is GAP Analysis

What is the GAP Analysis and why it is important? GAP means the difference between Current state and future state.

Who performed GAP Analysis?

This is a process performed by Business Analysts and Project Managers. The difference between the current process and future process is known as GAP. This help us to understand where we are (Current State)  and where do we want to be (Future State)?

This helps us to measure investment of time, money and human resources required to achieve a particular outcome or desired outcome.

There is no formal method to conduct (GAP) Analysis. It depends on organization to organization and process to process. A simple excel sheet can be used to for this purpose. The main objective of the (GAP)analysis is to provide difference between current state and future state or desired state.

Key Points :

  • Good understanding of the current process.
  • All the business affecting factors must be well defined.
  • GAPanalysis is an assessment tool used to find the deviation or gap between what exists versus what is needed or desired.
  • No ambiguity in the requirements and future prospects.
  • Document the gaps using graphs, charges and images.
  • Ensure to include the feedback from the stakeholders.
  • Ensure to inform to all the involved parties or stakeholders about the identified gaps.

Different stages in GAP Stages

  • Review System
  • Develop Requirements
  • Comparison
  • Implications
  • Recommendations

This is one of the best procedures followed by any organization to improve the process and recognize the processes which needs improvement.

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