Software development

Question 1

What are the 6 stages of the software development life cycle?

Answer 1

1. Planning
2. Analysis/design
3. Development
4. Testing
5. Deployment and maintenance

Question 2

What documentation is associated with the planning stage of the SDLC?

Answer 2

1. Project plan- aims/goals, resources, timescales, constraints, feasibility study, Risk, Gantt chart, sign off
2. Options appraisal- Available options, cost/benefit, recommendation, sign off

Question 3

What is included in the TELOS method of feasibility?

Answer 3

Technical
Economic
Legal
Operational
Schedule

Question 4

What documentation is associated with the analysis/design stage of the SDLC?

Answer 4

1. Requirements specification
   a. User stories- As a I would like so that
   b. UML (use case)
   c. Requirements- Functional/non-functional
   d. constraints
   e. sign off
2. Software design document
   a. IEEE recommend splitting entire system into a series of view points represented by UML
   i. context, functional, information, development, deployment

Question 5

What is the difference between functional and non-functional requirements?

Answer 5

1. Functional- Describes a behaviour or a function of the software (what you want it to do)
2. How the system should behave in terms of:
   a. Accessibility
   b. Availability
   c. Compatibility
   d. Extensibility
   e. Risk
   f. Support

Sign off!

Question 6

What is UML?

Answer 6

Unified modelling language

Stable common design language that can be used to model applications/systems

Question 7

What are 6 common UML diagrams?

Answer 7

1. Use case- illustrate functional require (actors)
2. Class- how people and things interact
3. Sequence- Detailed flow (between systems) for a specific use case
4. Activity- Very high level procedural flow of system
5. Component- Physical components of the system
6. Deployment- How hardware will be deployed and how these components interact with each other.

Question 8

What are 3 benefits of using UML?

Answer 8

1. Readability- greater communication between developers and users
2. Transparency- audit trail of design to development

Question 9

What documentation is involved in the development stage of the SDLC?

Answer 9

Error/issue log

Question 10

What documentation is involved in the testing stage of the SDLC?

Answer 10

1. Testing specification (In
   a. test plan
   b. design (pass/fail criteria)
   c. Test report
   d. sign off

Question 11

What documentation is involved in the deployment and maintenance stage of the SDLC?

Answer 11

1. User manual
2. SOP
3. Change request form

Question 12

Name 2 project management methodologies?

Answer 12

Prince2- PRoject IN Controlled Environments

a. Generic management methodology that is used for many projects
b. Split into 3 themes- What? Why? and How?

SSADM- Structured systems analysis and design method

a. Used to design information system 
b. Waterfall model --> document heavy

Question 13

What are software development methodologies? (Name 2)

Answer 13

A method of implementing the stages of the SDLC

1. Waterfall
2. Agile

Question 14

What are the stages of the waterfall software development life cycle?

Answer 14

1. Requirements
2. Analysis
3. Design
4. Implementation
5. Testing
6. Deployment
7. Maintenance

Question 15

What are the advantages and disadvantages of the waterfall method of developing software?

Answer 15

Advantages:

1. Ease of use
2. Structure
3. Documentation (important clinically and for UKAS accreditation)

Disadvantages

1. Higher risk (Rigid- errors earlier on in project)
2. Front heavy (Needs very clear requirements- or time is wasted)

Question 16

What is the Agile software methodology?

Answer 16

Method of software development that aims to assist teams in responding the unpredictability of developing software

Used iterative development process known as sprints:
a. Plan, build, test, review…

Large involvement of the users of the system

Question 17

What are the pros and cons of the Agile methodology?

Answer 17

Pro-

1. Adaptive- responds to change
2. Allows for direct communication to maintain transparency
3. Improved quality by identifying expectation mismatches early

Con-

1. Focuses on working with software and lacks documentation efficiency
2. Changes of getting off-track as outcomes are not clear and requirements can change

Question 18

What is requirements gathering?

Answer 18

The process of generating a list of requirements from various stakeholders that will be using the software you are creating- usually an interview- can be questionnaire

Question 19

What is a constraint?

Answer 19

A constraint is a restriction on the degree of freedom you have in providing a solution. e.g. Limited development resources or decisions from senior management (e.g. use Python)

Question 20

Name two testing methods

Answer 20

1. Blackbox method- testing not aware of design or structure of the software e.g. UAT
2. White box- tester knows the internal structure e.g. unit or integration

Question 21

What are the 4 levels of testing?

Answer 21

1. Unit testing individual components (e.g. function or class) of software (input/output)
2. Integration- combines individual units and tests they interact as expected
3. System testing- Tests that the product created matches the requirements set by the user (both functional and non-functional)
4. UAT - Evaluates the system compliance with all the requirements set by the user within the environment they will be using the software. End point

Question 22

What is deployment?

Answer 22

All activities that make software available for use
1. installation- clone from github and complete configuration steps e.g. link to webserver

Involves making a release and tagging this with a numerical tag

Question 23

what is Alpha and Beta software?

Answer 23

1. Alpha- (pre-release- during testing)

2. Beta- (pre-release- major bugs solved, usability testing stage)