How do you support SDLC processes and activities?

As per my understanding we must Identify each personas and processes and we need to openly discuss the process, gaps, challenges, issues and validate the actual Problem Statements with the help of Story Boards and then get into details of requirement understanding.

Attaining successful project delivery hinges on a profound grasp of requirements, demanding precision and forward-thinking strategy. Core elements: Holistic Understanding: Grasping requirements comprehensively aligns tasks with project and organizational goals, illuminating potential bottlenecks. Stakeholder Collaboration: Involving stakeholders, from end-users to internal teams, fosters diverse viewpoints, refining requirements and nurturing ownership. Strategic Communication: Strategic prowess materializes in adept communication. Skilful transmission via fitting channels dismantles barriers and uncovers latent needs. Prioritization and risk mitigation, among other factors, further enrich comprehension, propelling project success.

In my view, grasping the requirements is like the foundation of SDLC. It lays the groundwork for the entire journey, making sure that the final product not only matches what stakeholders need but also solves the actual problem. We could also think about including Requirement Prioritization under Understanding the requirements. This means working with stakeholders to rank requirements by how important they are, how much they matter, and how doable they are. This way, we make sure that the most crucial features are tackled first, right at the beginning. This addition emphasizes the idea of putting the most important requirements first. It ensures that the development team focuses on delivering the high-impact stuff early on.

Understanding and refining the requirements is an ongoing part of the software development life cycle. Any substantial project has some requirements that are vague, ambiguous, or just wrong. One of the most important parts of developing software is debugging the requirements.

Prior to reviewing the documentation is preparing the documentation. Getting stakeholders to understand what is a requirement, for example functional requirements (features and functions that must be in the product or system) and non-functional requirements (appearance or style), is often a source of confusion.

In my current company, the key stakeholders pass on the requirements to developers as they learn about it from the customers. Lots of effort is put in at a high level to fine tune this as much as possible before it is passed on to the developers and even then things get missed. It is up to the developers to parse the requirements and make the feature that fulfills the requirements as much as possible. The real breakdown happens sometimes when the product is in the hands of the QA for testing. Most often, QA plays no role at requirement gathering and fine tuning stage. I often have to work hard to have an idea of how I need to test the features to ensure no P1 or P2 bugs get missed.

You assumed here that the standards and guidelines that apply have been identified. Company guidelines may exist that do not fit the current project. New or revised international standards may apply, requiring training of employees and modifications of company policies and procedures. Standards themselves do not ensure quality and functionality. The standards may provide guidance for checkpoints and planning, but they are not of themselves the needed processes to achieve the goal of a quality product. They must be included in preparing the polities and procedures used in development to ensure quality results. Following the same standards, two companies may have vastly different processes for their product development.

Unlocking the utmost efficiency in coding is achieved through a synergy of Behavior-Driven Development coupled with pair programming, which has proven to yield the most optimal outcomes

Collaboration with team forms the bedrock of smooth SDLC execution, uniting diverse perspectives into a shared vision that enhances problem-solving and infuses innovation into projects. Leveraging appropriate tools like version control systems, project management software, and communication channels will harmonize work and track progress. Collaborative efforts elevate productivity, creativity, and proficient problem-solving and ultimately enhances project outcomes.

With the pressure to meet deadlines, collaboration across the team often suffers. While it is tempting to complete a deliverable in a silo and move on, doing so often creates issues that manifest closer to the release date when it is much more expensive to repair. Inspecting requirements, design, code, and test cases as a team is a powerful tool in the effort to “shift left”, whereas sending out artifacts for review via email for individual review will not gain the advantages of putting heads together to really flush out the defects as early as possible. There is truth in the adage that “two heads are better than one.” The discussion which evolves in group reviews is truly worth its weight in gold.

This includes aiding in requirements gathering, providing guidance on system architecture and design, offering code implementation support with snippets and best practices, helping formulate testing strategies and analysing test results, providing insights into deployment strategies and troubleshooting, and many more. While I contribute valuable assistance, it's crucial to acknowledge that human expertise and decision making are essential for the success of software development endeavours.

Also Conduct Grooming sessions with Team and also ensure daily 15 minutes discussion with the team members in a small call to discuss the project progress and challenges. Measure team improvement indicators and map them on a graph.

You are missing a big element of SDLC, Reviews. Without reviews, documentation is busy work to be completed merely to check a completion box. Documentation needs reviewed to ensure it meets its goals. Each level of documentation has different goals, and may need different review techniques. Example: Software System design and requirement documents (with Test plans and software as well) are reviewed for traceability to requirements and design and also for functionality, correctness, robustness, and maintainability. Review techniques range from simple, informal (a desk check or peer review) to formal (requirements traceability up to a full Fagan Inspection). I follow the mantra: Write documentation for the person that replaces you.

Yes. Documenting the testcases and test results are key steps in software quality management. Collaborating with the software teams to gain buy-in and support of testing. Software developers and software testers need to see each other as part of the same team and not as adversaries.

Testing isn't just a SDLC step; it's defense against software disasters. Imagine perfect code crashing in reality, risking data loss, breaches, and frustration. Testing is that shield, ensuring code survives the real world. Unit, integration, system, and user acceptance tests challenge every aspect. You become a quality hero, preventing disasters and making software work reliably. Bugs are inevitable; testing is your magnifying glass. App crash mid-use? It's like a gala with lights flickering out. Testing is your armor against chaos, a guardian of trust.

Inclusion of the Testing team from the requirements stage propels and provides a different perspective on creating personas, value, and befits of the product apart from UX, Functionality, and cohesive testing strategies. There will be a sense of identity and achievement for the testing team.

Deployment should follow the best practices to avoid the errors 1. Automate it, many automation tools are available in the market, like chef, GitLab CI/CD 2. Continuous Integration (CI) 3. Separate Configuration Details. 4. Testing deployment.

In my experience, automation of deployment with the standards of CI & CD is very necessary and should be part of every team member's day-to-day activities. We have a robust branching strategy against features and all the testing and integration happens on individual branches before released.

We must manage all the defects following drill down approach and analytic also track user behaviours on product usage and accordingly develop the strategies.

It’s also about comprehending and implementing the functionality change and collaborating them as an attributes to clients need in the product. Supporting the product also varies on type of client business involvement, such as government policies and regulations which sometimes need to be embedded into the product. So this phase of SDLC is very critical in terms of reviewing the product from client prospective.

As I mentioned above, you missed the very important review process. I have worked in multiple industries, using different languages, following many different development processes. I have developed brand new systems and maintained and enhanced existing systems. I have been most successful when the documentation is high quality. And that high quality most often existed when it was developed in collaboration with others and with the goal that it guide the developer during both initial development and life-time maintenance.

And finally, write clean and maintainable code. Complexity is the enemy of security. Code should be developed in line with good practice, so it can be extended and maintained effectively.