Question

How would you explain “context diagram” to someone with no IT background?

How would you explain “normalization” to someone with no IT background?

How would you explain “use case diagram” to someone with no IT background?

How would you explain “system development life cycle (SDLC)” to someone with no IT background?

Answer 1

CONTEXT DIAGRAM

The Context Diagram shows the system under consideration as a single high-level process and then shows the relationship that the system has with other external entities (systems, organizational groups, external data stores, etc.). Another name for a Context Diagram is a Context-Level Data-Flow Diagram or a Level-0 Data Flow Diagram.

A DFD(data-flow diagram) is process centric and depicts 4 main components.

• Processes (circle)
• External Entities (rectangle)
• Data Stores (two horizontal, parallel lines or sometimes and ellipse)
• Data Flows (curved or straight line with arrowhead indicating flow direction)

A Context Diagram (and a DFD for that matter) is a diagram that provides no information about the timing, sequencing, or synchronization of processes such as which processes occur in sequence or in parallel. Therefore it should not be confused with a flowchart or process flow which can show these things.

NORMALIZATION

Normalization is a systematic approach of decomposing tables(divide the table into two or more small tables) to eliminate data redundancy(repetition or more than one same data) and undesirable characteristics like Insertion, Update and Deletion Anomalies. It is a multi-step process that puts data into tabular form, removing duplicated data from the relation tables.

you can assume the normalization to bag packing if you want to put a pair of socks and but you have a sealed bundle of shocks you you have to decompose that one pair of socks for your pag pack and the same type of socks in bundle you can think it as redundancy so if we have all same socks or data so why we get all into my bag so there for get only a single pair of sock called normalization.

USE CASE DIAGRAM

Use case diagram is a simplest representation of user's interaction with system that shows the different relationship between the user and the different use cases in which the user is involved.(with diagram)

for e.g submitting fee in any college needs user's interaction  

SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT LIFE CYCLE (SDLC)

SDLC you can understand it like a water cycle of the earth. so in water cycle one by one the states get changes to perform a water cycle due to which rain,water level,ground water level etc are maintained on earth.

so System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a series of six main phases to create a hardware system only

1. system planning
2. system Analysis
3. system Design
4. implementation and deployment
5. system testing and integration
6. System maintenance

1- System Planning

The Planning phase is the most crucial step in creating a successful system, during this phase you decide exactly what you want to do and the problems you’re trying to solve, by:

• Defining the problems, the objectives and the resources such as personnel and costs.

• Studying the ability of proposing alternative solutions after meeting with clients, suppliers, consultants and employees.

• Studying how to make your product better than your competitors’.

After analyzing this data you will have three choices: develop a new system, improve the current system or leave the system as it is.

2- System Analysis

The end-user’s requirements should be determined and documented, what their expectations are for the system, and how it will perform.

3- System Design

A general system design can be done with a pen and a piece of paper to determine how the system will look like and how it will function, and then a detailed and expanded system design is produced, and it will meet all functional and technical requirements, logically and physically.

4- Implementation and Deployment

In this phase, the system is ready to be deployed and installed in customer’s premises, ready to become running, live and productive, training may be required for end users to make sure they know how to use the system and to get familiar with it, the implementation phase may take a long time and that depends on the complexity of the system and the solution it presents.

5- System Testing and Integration

Bringing different components and subsystems together to create the whole integrated system, and then Introducing the system to different inputs to obtain and analyze its outputs and behavior and the way it functions. Testing is becoming more and more important to ensure customer’s satisfaction, and it requires no knowledge in coding, hardware configuration or design.

Testing can be performed by real users, or by a team of specialized personnel, it can also be systematic and automated to ensure that the actual outcomes are compared and equal to the predicted and desired outcomes.

6- System Maintenance

In this phase, periodic maintenance for the system will be carried out to make sure that the system won’t become obsolete, this will include replacing the old hardware and continuously evaluating system’s performance, it also includes providing latest updates for certain components to make sure it meets the right standards and the latest technologies to face current security threats.