SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT LIFECYCLE
SDLC BOARD EVALUATION 2026
GUARANTEED PASS ANSWERS GRADED A+
● What are some key characteristics of Waterfall? Answer: 1. All
planning is done up front with detailed planning documentation.
2. The scope of work is generally fixed.
3. There are 5 phases: Requirements, Design, Development, Testing,
Deployment and Maintenance.
4. The output of a phase becomes the input of the next phase.
● What are some reasons Waterfall does not work in the software
industry? Answer: 1. Late delivery of business value: The customer does
not get to see the product until late in the Waterfall cycle.
2. You could realize that the product being built is no longer viable due
to change in market conditions or organizational landscape.
3. You could realize the product has a major flaw that prevents it from
being deployed.
,In other words, your product development initiative could completely
fail after a lot of money and time had been spent on it.
The software industry is an iterative process and does not work like a
Waterfall cycle.
In the software industry, everything changes i.e. requirements, skills,
people, environment, business rules, etc.
● What is one of the earliest models to propose iterative development
including a mix of Waterfall and iterative approaches? Answer: The
Spiral Model.
● What is the theme of the Spiral Model? Answer: That building
software iteratively leads to identification and easier management of
risks.
● What are the four phases of the Spiral Development Model? Answer:
1. Planning: This phase includes requirements identification and
analysis, identification of stakeholders, and lifecycle objectives of the
system being built.
, 2. Risk Analysis: This phase includes risk-related activities, such as risk
identification, risk prioritization and mitigation. This is the phase when
you build prototypes to mitigate risks.
3. Engineering: This phase is where you perform software
implementation activities, such as design, coding, unit and acceptance
testing and deployment.
4. Evaluation: This phase is where you get your stakeholder review and
feedback and plan the next iteration.
● What are some key characteristics of Spiral? Answer: 1. Similar to
Waterfall, each iteration builds upon the output of the previous iteration.
2. The Spiral methodology can be visualized by a graph with four
quadrants which represent the four phases of the Spiral Modal, starting
with the top left quadrant and going clockwise.
- The top left quadrant is Planning.
- The top right quadrant is Risk Analysis.
- The bottom right quadrant is Engineering.
- The bottom left quadrant is Evaluation.
The X-Axis represents the volume of approval by review.
SDLC BOARD EVALUATION 2026
GUARANTEED PASS ANSWERS GRADED A+
● What are some key characteristics of Waterfall? Answer: 1. All
planning is done up front with detailed planning documentation.
2. The scope of work is generally fixed.
3. There are 5 phases: Requirements, Design, Development, Testing,
Deployment and Maintenance.
4. The output of a phase becomes the input of the next phase.
● What are some reasons Waterfall does not work in the software
industry? Answer: 1. Late delivery of business value: The customer does
not get to see the product until late in the Waterfall cycle.
2. You could realize that the product being built is no longer viable due
to change in market conditions or organizational landscape.
3. You could realize the product has a major flaw that prevents it from
being deployed.
,In other words, your product development initiative could completely
fail after a lot of money and time had been spent on it.
The software industry is an iterative process and does not work like a
Waterfall cycle.
In the software industry, everything changes i.e. requirements, skills,
people, environment, business rules, etc.
● What is one of the earliest models to propose iterative development
including a mix of Waterfall and iterative approaches? Answer: The
Spiral Model.
● What is the theme of the Spiral Model? Answer: That building
software iteratively leads to identification and easier management of
risks.
● What are the four phases of the Spiral Development Model? Answer:
1. Planning: This phase includes requirements identification and
analysis, identification of stakeholders, and lifecycle objectives of the
system being built.
, 2. Risk Analysis: This phase includes risk-related activities, such as risk
identification, risk prioritization and mitigation. This is the phase when
you build prototypes to mitigate risks.
3. Engineering: This phase is where you perform software
implementation activities, such as design, coding, unit and acceptance
testing and deployment.
4. Evaluation: This phase is where you get your stakeholder review and
feedback and plan the next iteration.
● What are some key characteristics of Spiral? Answer: 1. Similar to
Waterfall, each iteration builds upon the output of the previous iteration.
2. The Spiral methodology can be visualized by a graph with four
quadrants which represent the four phases of the Spiral Modal, starting
with the top left quadrant and going clockwise.
- The top left quadrant is Planning.
- The top right quadrant is Risk Analysis.
- The bottom right quadrant is Engineering.
- The bottom left quadrant is Evaluation.
The X-Axis represents the volume of approval by review.
