Process and phases of a "Software Project"

The process and phases of a project can be mentioned as follows:
1. Client Requirement
2. Client approach
3. Discussion with client
4. Client Requirement Specifications
5. Project plan
6. Plan review
7. Commencement of Project
8. Completion of Project
9. Internal Quality Check by the team members
10. Quality Test by Quality Assurance Team
11. Quality Test Report
12. Fixation of errors and resubmission
13. Re-auditing by QA
14. Submission to Client
15. Client Acceptance

Client Requirement: Client requirement is the point of commencement of any project in the world. If client does not have any requirement, the question of approaching an individual or a business firm and the planning for any project will not arise at all.

Client Approach: When client has any sort of requirement, he approaches either an individual or a business firm which can provide a solution to his requirement. While approaching a business firm, client takes several factors into consideration such as reputation of the firm, easy accessibility, client friendliness, and certifications of the firm.

Discussion with Client: All the details about the discussion are mentioned in Minutes of Meeting. This discussion is usually attended by client, project manager, team leader and some of the team members.

Client Requirement Specifications: By the end of discussion, Client specifies all his requirements. A document titled “Client Requirement Specifications” is signed by the client as well as Project Manager. When the document is signed mutually, both the parties are said to be entered a legal bondage.

Project Plan: After client mentions specifications, Project Manager and his team members prepare Project Plan. While preparing a Project Plan, Project Manager has to take several factors such as resources available, resources to be hired if required and possible, provision of training to staff if required, assignment of activities to different members according to their capabilities, time scheduling, internal quality check and quality check by QA team and dead line.


Plan Review: The entire team reviews the Project Plan and makes modifications to Project Plan according to the requirements.

Commencement of Project: Project Plan is finalized after Project Review. The work commences and goes ahead according to the specifications of the Project Review. Team member assigns the work to different team members according to Project Plan. Internal quality check is conducted to check whether the work is carried on according to Project Plan. If any inconsistencies are found in the completion of work within stipulated time, reasons are detected and rectified.

Completion of Project: Project must be completed within the deadlines i.e., the time stipulated by the client and the final output must satisfy the specifications of the client. Quality objects must be satisfied and final output must be user friendly.

Internal Quality Check: After the completion of the Project, the project team conducts an Internal Quality Check in order to confirm if the client specifications and quality objects are met or not. If any discrepancies are found, team members fix them. Such kind of Internal Quality Check reduces the errors, improves the quality of final output and promotes confidence among team members about the quality of the project.

Quality Test by Quality Assurance Team: After the completion of internal auditing, the project is submitted to Quality Assurance Team. QA Team audits the projects and locates the errors and sends Project Test Report to Project team.

Fixation of errors: The project team fixes the errors according the Project Test Report and re-submits the project to Quality Team.

Re-auditing: The QA team re-checks the project work once again and sends the Project Test Report to the project team, which is supposed to fix the errors if any mentioned in Project Test Report and re-submits the work to QA team. This process continues until the zero errors are found.

Submission to Client and Client Acceptance: The final output is submitted to the client and client acceptance is the ending point of the project.

Prepared by: S. Chandrashekara Reddy
chandrashekarareddys@gmail.com