Thursday 28 July 2016

Rational Unified Process

By,
Nikhil

RUP & Its Phases
a.Stands for "Rational Unified Process.
b. It is a software development process from Rational which is a division of IBM. And is included in
    the IBM Rational Method Composer (RM C) product which allows customization of the process.
 
c. It divides the development process into four distinct phases.
d. Each phase involve business modeling, analysis and design, implementation, testing, and
    deployment.

e. It was developed in 1996 with additions made in 1997, 1998 and 1999. As a result of which
    RUP now consists of Test, business modeling and configuration and change management
    and project management disciplines.

f. The following are the building blocks of RUP :
 i. Roles (who) – A Role defines a set of related skills, competencies and responsibilities.
 ii. Work Products (what) – A Work Product represents something resulting
                                                from a task, including all the documents and models produced while                                                  working through the process.
 iii. Tasks (how) – A Task describes a unit of work assigned to a Role that provides a meaningful
                                 result.


The four phases of RUP are as follows :
1.Inception –
  The idea for the project is stated. The development team determines if the project is worth   pursuing and what resources will be needed.
Scope of the system is determined to finalize the budget and initial costing.
Business case, a basic use case model, project plan, initial risk assessment and
project description are generated.

If the project does not pass this milestone, called the Lifecycle Objective
Milestone, it either can be cancelled or repeated after being redesigned to better
meet the criteria.                             

2. Elaboration –  
a) The project's architecture and required resources are further evaluated.
     Developers consider possible applications of the software and costs associated
      with the development.

Produces
 i) Use case model with almost 80% completion
       ii) Executable architecture derived from the rough architecture with its necessary use cases
       iii) Risks are revised along with the business case.
       iv) Development plan for the whole project.
        v) Prototypes for mitigating technical risks
       vi) Preliminary user manual.

This phase needs to pass the Lifecycle Architecture Milestone by ensuring the  following things :
i.                     Vision of the product is stable.
ii.                   Architecture is stable
iii.                  Major risk elements are addressed and resolved
iv.                 Construction phase plan is sufficiently detailed and accurate
v.                   All stakeholders agree that the current vision can be achieved using current plan in the context of the current architecture.
vi.                 Actual vs. planned resource expenditure is acceptable 
vii.                If the above answers are not satisfactory then the project can still be cancelled at this stage.
3. Construction
a) The project is developed and completed. The software is designed, written, and tested.
b) Main focus is on the development of components and other features of the system.       
      c) In case the scope of construction is huge then this phase could be divided
   into several smaller phases each producing a deliverable. Thus the whole
   phase is completed in several iterations.
      d) Produces the actual, tangible released software.
      e) This marks the Initial Operational Capability Milestone.

4. Transition –
a) The software is released to the public. Final adjustments or updates
     are made based on feedback from end users. 

b) Thus the transition is of the software from the development phase to production
     phase where it is used/tested by the end users and reviewed.
      
      c) One need to conduct training of the end users and maintainers and beta testing
   of the system to validate it against the end users' expectations.

      d) Development team also needs to check the final product against the quality
    levels set in the inception phase.

      e) If this phase is successful then we can say that the Product Release Milestone is achieved.

      f) Successful completion of this phase marks the end of development cycle.


Wednesday 27 July 2016

Digital Marketing Blogs that Every Business Should Follow

By,
Karishma

Digital marketing moves at a frightening speed.  The only way to be updated is to keep on reading. But with so many digital marketing blogs, it can be difficult to differentiate between the meaningful reads and the digital marketing weeds.
1. Digital Marketing News & Views: Marketing Land
What You Can Assume:
The best things about Marketing Land is that it features daily breaking news stories about all aspects of the digital marketing industry so that  you can get most of your digital marketing news from the one place. The writers at Marketing Land often publish practical solutions and strategies you can apply in your own digital marketing campaigns.

It’s applicable For:
Keeping up to date with important upcoming launches and digital marketing announcements and helping you to stay ahead of the competitive world.
 
2. Digital Marketing Statistics & Studies:
What You Can Assume:
You can go forward to a host of well designed infographics containing the latest digital marketing stats, studies and tests. You’ll also find an array of useful digital marketing guides that deal with topics like  email marketing, social media and customer analytics.

It’s applicable for:
Conducting research for your own articles and selecting meaningful stats to use for your campaign proposals.


3. Search Engine Marketing:
What You Can Assume:
Help to overcome duplicate content issues to communication plans like content strategy and relationship building.

It’s applicable For:
If you want to learn how to do something new in search.

4. Content Marketing: Content Marketing
What You Can Assume:
You can go forward to delving into real content marketing research, including information on the content marketing industry’s benchmarks, budgets and trends. It keeps you updated with the recent content marketing events.

It’s applicable For:
Learning how to design and implement an effective and scalable content marketing strategy by your own.

5. Social Media: Social Media Examiner
What You Can Assume:
As the name suggests Social Media Examiner distribute meaningful advice on all things social
media, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+ and Pinterest and more. You can look forward to advice from social media experts on how to formulate an effective social media strategy for each channel. Blog posts and articles include expert interviews, innovative case studies, reviews of the latest industry research, podcasts and the latest social media news.

It’s applicable For:
The strategy and case study blog posts are particularly useful for helping you plan and create your own social media strategy and content calendars.

6. Google Analytics
What You Can Assume:
Help you to find in-depth how-to guides and information on a wide range of topics, including qualitative analysis, competitive intelligence analysis, analytics tips, web metrics and more.

It’s applicable For:
Getting to grip with Google Analytics basics and learning more advanced Google Analytics steps to help you measure your website’s and campaign’s performance.

Monday 25 July 2016

UX Process vs UI PROCESS



By,
Aquib


FIND THE NEEDS OF THE CLIENT:-
UX Process- Clear cut information will be known from the client like as what are the company problems, why you hired me, what to achieve with this project, who is the decision maker etc. (these questions will rise throughout the project so as to come will the goal till a target, and these questions and answers will help as a spare for the project).
UI Process-The UX engineer will discuss the structure and look of the project for UI solutions. Both create wireframes together. And UI designer mostly brings specific solutions to the issues that may come on the platform in future.
DEFINING GOALS:-
UX Process-Define client's user and figure out the goals and needs required for them.
UI Process-Gets a visual identity/style guide from the client and will collaborate with the designers for the final project.

 

Analyzing:-
UX Process-Analyzes the user data and research on it.
UI Process-Creates layouts (for responsive guidelines)-animations-transitions.
The final stage:-
UX Process-Creates product structure and flows with wireframes-Prototype from wireframes and adding functional information-Meet and discuss with UI Designer as they handover the project overall-UX designer takes responsibility now onwards as a consultant and stay with the project.
UI Process-Create comprehensive style and giver reference guide-As development starts, UI meet UX and tests the project and give the feedback to develop the best.