SDLC – Software Development

Life Cycle

Questions and Answer’s

1.What is SDLC?

A1: SDLC is a process to develop a good software project. It includes a detailed plan describing how to develop,
maintain, replace or enhance specific software application. Its life cycle stages provide the quality of software
and the overall development process. SDLC phases are --

1. Requirement Gathering and analysis

A2: SDLC stands for Software Development Life Cycle which is the process used by the software developers to
design, develop, maintain, test and deploy software. Its cycle describes the process flow of the development of
the software to meet user expectations.

2. What are the different phases of SDLC?

A1: The different phases of SDLC are:

1.Requirement Gathering and analysis

3. What is Requirement Gathering and Analysis phase in SDLC?

A1: Requirement Gathering and Analysis is the most important and fundamental stage in SDLC. In this stage,
communication takes place between stakeholders, end users and project team. So, all people who are related to
the project come together and gather information for software development

From this stage BA’s will produce the documents like Business Requirement Specification /Functional
Requirement specification documents.

4. What is System analysis phase?

A1: Once the requirement analysis is done the next step is system analysis. System analysis requires SRS
document, Software Requirement Specification document includes all the project requirements to be designed
and developed in next phases.

In this stage, the system is divided into smaller parts to make it easier, more manageable for the developers,
designers, testers, project managers and other professionals who are going to work on the software .
2 SDLC- Software Development Life Cycle

5. What is the design phase in SDLC?

A1: In the design phase, based on the requirements specified in SRS Software Requirement Specification
document, a DDS - Design Document Specification OR Technical Design Document (TDD) is prepared and
documented. The data flow representation and architectural modules are defined here in this stage

A2: The design phase tells us to specify requirements related to software and hardware. It also provides
complete structure or architecture of the given project.

6. What Is the Coding Phase in SDLC?

A1: In this stage of SDLC the actual development starts and the product is built. A team of programmers is
assigned by the company to work on the software.

A2: In this phase, the actual code for the software is written by considering the information gathered from
the DDS (Design Document Specification) and the SRS (Software Requirement Specification). Based on the type
of software product/Project, the programming language is selected like Python, Java or C#.Also the budget, time
and risks associated with the project will get analysed in this phase.

7. What is the Testing Phase in SDLC?

A1: When software is ready, it is sent to the testing department where Quality Analyst test it thoroughly for
different errors by executing various test cases. Also, in this stage while testing the bugs/ defects are reported,
tracked, fixed and retested, until the product reaches the quality standards defined by users.

It is also analyzed whether the software works according to customer requirements and meets their demands.

8. What Is the Deployment Phase in SDLC?

Once the software product is tested and it passes through every level of the testing phase, it is considered that
we can deploy the software. It can be released as a demo for getting user reviews, upon which the software will
be improved further.

The formalities like handing over the ownership of the application, deployment preparation are carried out in
this stage.

9. What Is the Maintenance Phase in SDLC?

After the deployment of the software, the product needs to be maintained to behave as per the market
demands. In the maintenance stage, the software is monitored to measure its stability, user-friendliness, and
performance. Also based on customer feedbacks, any change requests raised by clients are deployed to the
software using patch deployment. New updates to the software are also released by the development team in
Maintenance phase using patch Deployment.
3 SDLC- Software Development Life Cycle

10. What is the implementation phase in the SDLC?

A1: The implementation phase consists of the coding, testing, integration, and installation of the software
product. The product is coded according to the DDS (Design Document Specification). Once the software is
developed, we can test it by executing the Test cases which are used to analyse if the software works according
to the user’s needs. After the errors and bugs are fixed, the product is then installed to check its performance.

11. What are SDLC models?

A1: The different SDLC models are Iterative, Waterfall, Agile, V-Shaped and Spiral. Starting from the basic
Waterfall model the other models are evolved based on the product type, the target audience and the platforms
where they have to be executed.

12. What are different kinds of models used in SDLC

A1: There are five models that are being used in SDLC are--

• Waterfall model
• Rapid Application Development (RAD) model
• Iterative model
• Spiral model
• Agile mode

13. Which SDLC model is best?

A1: There is no model that we can consider as the best for software development process. But nowadays the
Agile model is currently the most popular and widely used by all the software organisation. In this model after
every development stage (Sprint), the user is able to see whether the product meets his requirements. By this
way the risks are reduced as continuous changes are done depending on client’s feedback.

14. Which SDLC phases can be Automated?

A1: The most common SDLC stage which can be automated is the Testing phase. The automation can be done
successfully in the STLC (Software Testing Life Cycle).

15.What is the spiral model in SDLC?

A1: The Spiral model is a combination of the iterative and the waterfall model. Here, the product is developed
and improved after each iteration of the model. This model is used for complicated and expensive projects.

This spiral model has 4 phases:

• Identification of the requirements – The system requirements of the product is obtained here by the
communication between the system analyst and the end user.
• Designing – The physical, architectural, module and the product designs are made here for the software.
• Construction – This is the phase where the POC (Proof of Concept) is developed for receiving the user
reviews on the product. Later on, a working model called Build is developed.
• Risk analysis – The risks associated with the product are identified here.
4 SDLC- Software Development Life Cycle

16. What is the V model in SDLC?

A1: The V model in SDLC is also known as the Verification and Validation model. It is an extension of the waterfall
model and is based on the associated test stages for the development stages. The verification phases include
requirement analysis, product design, architecture design, and module design. The validation phases include
unit, system, integration and acceptance testing. In this model next stage is initialized after the previous stage is
completed.

17. What is the difference between SDLC and STLC?

A1: Software Development Life Cycle involves the complete Verification and Validation of a Process or a Project.
Whereas Software Testing Life Cycle involves only Validation.

Software Development Life Cycle involves business requirement specifications, Analysis, Design, Software
requirement specifications, Development Process(Coding and Application development), Testing
Process(Preparation of Test Plan, Preparation of Test cases, Testing, Bug reporting, Test Reports), Release and
Maintenance .Whereas Software Testing Life Cycle involves Preparation of Test Plan, Preparation of Test cases,
Test execution, Bug reporting & Tracking, Retesting , Regression Testing and Test Closure.
STLC is a Part of SDLC.

18. Why do we need testing in the SDLC process?

A1: The testing phase is very important to check whether the developed software is a quality product and
matching with a design document. This stage confirms that the developed product meets the requirements
defined by clients. In this stage we perform different types of tests including unit testing, acceptance testing,
system testing, etc. The software testing team works together with developers to identify and resolve software
bugs and provides the Quality Application to client.

19. Explain the software release process in brief

A1: In the software release process, the project manager makes a release team consisting of developers, testers,
project management executives. This team goes to customers’ places and deploys software product or they just
deploy the software at client’s server. Team also delivers some training to customers regarding the functioning of
software if required.