Describe the stages of software development life cycle.

Software development process in systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, is a process of creating or altering information systems, and the models and methodologies that people use to develop these systems. In  software  engineering,  the  SDLC concept  underpins  many kinds  of  software  development methodologies.  These methodologies form the framework for planning and controlling the creation of an information system: the software development process.

 Systems development phases

The System Development Life Cycle framework provides a sequence of activities for system designers and developers to follow. It consists of a set of steps or phases in which each phase of the SDLC uses the results of the previous one.

A Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) adheres to important phases that are essential for developers, such as planning, analysis, design, and implementation,  and  are  explained  in  the  section  below.  A  number  of system development life cycle (SDLC) models have been created: waterfall, fountain,   spiral,   build   and   fix,   rapid   prototyping,   incremental,   and synchronize and stabilize. The oldest of these, and the best known, is the waterfall model: a sequence of stages in which the output of each stage becomes the input for the next.

 These stages can be characterized and divided up in different ways, including the following:

1) Preliminary Analysis: The objective of phase 1 is to conduct a preliminary analysis, propose alternative solutions, describe costs and benefits and submit a preliminary plan with recommendations.

2) Conduct the preliminary analysis: In this step, you need to find out the organization's objectives and the nature and scope of the problem under study. Even if a problem refers only to a small segment of the organization itself then you need to find out what the objectives of the organization itself are. Then you need to see how the problem being studied fits in with them.

3) Propose alternative solutions: In digging into the organization's objectives and specific problems, you may have already covered some solutions. Alternate proposals may come from interviewing employees, clients , suppliers, and/or consultants. You can also study what competitors are doing. With this data, you will have three choices: leave the system as is, improve it, or develop a new system.

 

The Development Life Cycle

As with most undertakings, planning is an important factor in determining the success or failure of any software project. Essentially, good project planning will eliminate many of the mistakes that would otherwise be made, and reduce the overall time required to complete the project. As a rule of thumb, the more complex the problem is, the more thorough the planning process must be. Most professional software developers plan a software project using a series of steps generally referred to as the software development life cycle . A number of models exist that differ in the number of stages defined, and in the specific activities  that  take  place  within  each  stage.  The  following example is a generic model that should give you some idea of the steps involved in a typical software project.

What is e-commerce? What are the benefits of e-commerce?

 E-commerce refers to the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems through Internet and other computer networks. The most popular medium in which E-commerce is conducted is the internet. E-commerce has become a buzzword of modern trading and information technology. It is a modern business methodology that addresses the needs of organizations, merchants, and consumers to cut costs while improving the quality of products and services and increasing the speed of service delivery. In general, it is the process of conducting all forms of business using computer hardware, software, processing data, communication and computer network. E-commerce allows consumers to electronically exchange goods and services with no barriers of time or distance. Electronic commerce has expanded rapidly over the past ten years and is predicted to continue at this rate, or even accelerate.

 

ADVANTAGES OF ECOMMERCE:

1. Overcome Geographical Limitations

2. Gain New Customers with Search Engine Visibility

3. Lower Costs

4. Locate the Product Quicker

5. Eliminate Travel Time and Cost

6. Provide Comparison Shopping

7. Enable Deals, Bargains, Coupons, and Group Buying

8. Provide Abundant Information

9. Create Targeted Communication

10. Remain Open All the Time

11. Create Markets for Niche Products

 

1)   Overcome Geographical Limitations: If you have a physical store, you are limited by the geographical area that you can service. With an ecommerce website, the whole world is your playground. Additionally, the advent of mcommerce, i.e., ecommerce on mobile devices, has dissolved every remaining limitation of geography.

2)   Gain New Customers with Search Engine Visibility: Physical retail is driven by branding and relationships. In addition to these two drivers, online retail is also driven by traffic from search engines. It is not unusual for

customers to follow a link in search engine results, and land up on an ecommerce website that they have never heard of. This additional source of traffic can be the tipping point for some ecommerce businesses.

3)   Lower Costs: One of the most tangible positives of ecommerce is the lowered cost. A part of these lowered costs could be passed on to customers in the form of discounted prices. Here are some of the ways that costs can be reduced with ecommerce:

o        Advertising and Marketing: Organic search engine traffic, pay-per-click, and social media traffic are some of the advertising channels that can be cost-effective.

o        Personnel:   The   automation   of   checkout,   billing,   payments,   inventory   management,   and   other operational processes, lowers the number of employees required to run an ecommerce setup.

o        Real Estate: This one is a no-brainer. An ecommerce merchant does not need a prominent physical location.

4)   Locate the Product Quicker: It is no longer about pushing a shopping cart to the correct aisle, or scouting for the desired product. On an ecommerce website, customers can click through intuitive navigation or use a search box to  immediately  narrow  down  their  product  search.  Some  websites  remember  customer  preferences  and shopping lists to facilitate repeat purchase.

5)   Eliminate Travel Time and Cost: It is not unusual for customers to travel long distances to reach their preferred

physical store. Ecommerce allows them to visit the same store virtually, with a few mouse clicks.

6)   Provide Comparison Shopping: Ecommerce facilitates comparison shopping. There are several online services that allow customers to browse multiple ecommerce merchants and find the best prices.

7)   Enable Deals, Bargains, Coupons, and Group Buying: Though there are physical equivalents to deals, bargains, coupons, and group buying, online shopping makes it much more convenient. For instance if a customer has a deep discount coupon for turkey at one physical store and toilet paper at another, she may find it infeasible to avail of both discounts. But the customer could do that online with a few mouse-clicks.

8)   Provide Abundant Information: There are limitations to the amount of information that can be displayed in a physical store. It is difficult to equip employees to respond to customers who require information across product lines. Ecommerce websites can make additional information easily available to customers. Most of this information is provided by vendors, and does not cost anything to create or maintain.

9)   Create Targeted Communication: Using the information that a customer provides in the registration form, and by placing cookies on the customer's computer, an ecommerce merchant can access a lot of information about its customers. This, in turn, can be used to communicate relevant messages. An example: If you are searching for a certain product on Amazon.com, you will automatically be shown listings of other similar products. In addition, Amazon.com may also email you about related products.

10) Remain Open All the Time: Store timings are now 24/7/365. Ecommerce websites can run all the time. From the merchant's point of view, this increases the number of orders they receive. From the customer's point of view, an "always open" store is more convenient.

11) Create Markets for Niche Products: Buyers and sellers of niche products can find it difficult to locate each other

in the physical world. Online, it is only a matter of the customer searching for the product in a search engine. One example could be purchase of obsolete parts. Instead of trashing older equipment for lack of spares, today we can locate parts online with great ease.

What are the differences between OMR, OCR and MICR?

 MICR:

MICR  is  a  character  recognition technology  used  primarily  by  the  banking industry  to  facilitate  the  processing of cheques. The human readable characters are printed on documents using a magnetic ink. It stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.

OMR:

OMR which stands for Optical Mark Recognition is the process of gathering data with an optical scanner by measuring the reflectively of light at predetermined positions on a surface.

OCR:

OCR  stands  for  Optical  Character  Recognition.  OCR  is  the  recognition  of  printed  or  written  text  characters  by  a computer. It is the application software that allows a computer to recognize printed or written characters, e.g. letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and pictograms using an optical scanner for input. OCR is being used by libraries to digitize and preserve their holdings.

OBR:

It stands for Optical Bar Code Reader which is used for reading bar-coded data. It scans a set of vertical bars of different width for specific data and is used to read tags. Bar code reading is done by a light pen or scanner connected to a computer.

 

What is number system? Describe four number systems with example.

Number System is a set of values used to represent different quantities. For example, a number system can be used to represent the number of students in a class or number of viewers watching a certain TV program etc. The digital computer represents all kinds of data and information in binary numbers. It includes audio, graphics, video, text and numbers. The total number of digits used in a number system is called its base or radix. The base is written after the number as subscript such as 51210.

Some important number systems are as follows.

•        Decimal number system
•        Binary number system
•        Octal number system
•        Hexadecimal number system

The decimal number system is used in general. However, the computers use binary number system. The octal and hexadecimal number systems are used in the computer.

 

DECIMAL (base 10) - Possible digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

The Decimal Number System consists of ten digits from 0 to 9. These digits can be used to represent any numeric value. The base of decimal number system is 10. It is the most widely used number system. The value represented by individual digit depends on weight and position of the digit.

Each number in this system consists of digits which are located at different positions. The position of first digit towards left side of the decimal point is 0. The position of second digit towards left side of the decimal point is 1. Similarly, the position of first digit towards right side of decimal point is -1. The position of second digit towards right side of decimal point is -2 and so on.

The value of the number is determined by multiplying the digits with the weight of their position and adding the results. This method is known as expansion method. The rightmost digit of number has the lowest weight. This digit is called Least Significant Digit (LSD). The leftmost digit of a number has the highest weight. This digit is called Most Significant Digit (MSD). The digit 7 in the number 724 is most significant digit and 4 is the least significant digit.

 

BINARY (base 2) - Possible digits: 0, 1

Digital computer represents all kinds of data and information in the binary system. Binary Number System consists of two digits 0 and 1. Its base is 2. Each digit or bit in binary number system can be 0 or 1. A combination of binary numbers may be used to represent different quantities like 1001. The positional value of each digit in binary number is twice the place value or face value of the digit of its right side. The weight of each position is a power of 2.

 

OCTAL (base 8) - Possible digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Octal Number System consists of eight digits from 0 to 7. The base of octal system is 8. Each digit position in this system

represents a power of 8. Any digit in this system is always less than 8. Octal number system is used as a shorthand representation of long binary numbers. The number 6418 is not valid in this number system as 8 is not a valid digit.

 

HEXADECIMAL (base 16) - Possible digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F (Note: In base 10, A = 10, B = 11, C = 12, D = 13, E = 14, F = 15)

The Hexadecimal Number System consists of 16 digits from 0 to 9 and A to F. The alphabets A to F represent decimal numbers from 10 to 15. The base of this number system is 16. Each digit position in hexadecimal system represents a power of 16. The number 76416 is valid hexadecimal number. It is different from 76410 which is seven hundred and sixty four. This number system provides shortcut method to represent long binary numbers.