ZDLC (Zero Deviation Life Cycle) is a set of engineering tools used in the end-to-end lifecycle of systems to drive down costs and accelerate delivery through automation and improved quality. It embraces agile iterative development while using executable models to reduce gaps between requirements and the built system. Key components of ZDLC include Smart Process Discovery (SPD) which enables extraction and modeling of existing systems, and User Activity Profiler (UAP) which intelligently captures user actions to document and validate business functions. ZDLC provides precise documentation of systems that is continuously updated, accelerates remediation, reduces testing time, and assessments impact of changes.

1. Zero Deviation Life Cycle

2. OverviewoftheZeroDeviationLifeCycle(ZDLC)
ZDLC (Zero Deviation Life Cycle) is a set of
engineering tools used in the end-to-end
lifecycle of systems (including by not
limited to traditional SDLC). It drives down
cost and accelerates delivery through
automation and improved quality.
• Applied to built-systems, systems being
upgraded or transitioned & systems under
development
• Technology & methodology agnostic
• Can be applied in a at the start of a new
project (or even in bid process), middle of
project underway, in testing or application
management.
WhatisZDLC?
“ZDLC embraces the agile iterative approach to development while using executable models to reduce the gap that can
arise between requirements and the built system.
Ovum believes that ZDLC has enormous potential in software development, not least is that the modeling
initiatives……that will create definitive standard solutions.”
Michael Azoff, Principal Analyst
Software Solutions Group, Ovum

3. ZDLC’s Smart process discovery (SPD) for application modelling
Cognizant’s smart process discovery (SPD) enables the extraction and modelling of existing IT systems and provides alignmentbetween
business functions (Voice of the Business) and the Systems behaviour (Voice of the Machine). This would help us reduce dependency on
incumbent and SME for application knowledge to help in choosing right business processes for migration, validation and proving cycles.
Application knowledge modelling by learning from the machine
SPD Provides:
 A precise picture and definition of the as is
applications
 A comprehensive representation of systems and
components (service) dependencies.
 A single point of authoring and managing the
system documents.
 A collaborative way of interacting with the
document system.
 A document system that automatically and
continuously updates itself.
Report
Compose
r
Reverse
Engineering
Core Module
AdaptersSystem
Behaviour
C/C++
JAVA
MAINFRAME
.NET
IBM BPM
COBOL
Configurati
on Matrix
Crawler
Generic
Parser
Analyser
ReportingModule
JVM, Jobs
Logs,
AppLogs
System logs,
DB Logs
PL / SQL
SAS etc..
SPD Reverse Engineering Process
TANDEM
ORACLE DB
MQs
Success Stories:
 Global Retail Bank: SPD was employed in a
programme to migrate from a Siebel case
manager to IBM BPM Workflow Management
System for a business process called complex
lending.
 Large US Insurer: SPD is implemented to
document the complex mainframe systems to
help in product support.
 Global Bank: SPD is being used to document a
complex wealth management systems for a
large Corporate Bank in a re-platforming
programme.
 Global Investment Bank: SPD is being used to
automatically reverse engineer the data models
and business rules to extract the data lineage of
the systems for the BCBS 239 initiative.
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4. ZDLC’s User Activity Profiler (UAP) for Business Process
Cognizant’s UAP accelerate the execution of test cycles by intelligently capturing the user actions of the UI and provides very detailed
chain of activities to document and validate any business function. UAP aims to accelerate and complement testing of a business
function and improve collaboration between QA and Development teams.
Business process discovery & validations by learning from the business
UAP Provides:
 A precise picture and definition of the business
process
 A comprehensive documentation of business
process flows
 A collaborative system between QA Analysts
and development teams
 A single point of authoring and managing the
business process documents
Report
Composer
Activity Profiler
Module
BrowsersSystem
Behaviour
Safari
Plugin
ReportingModule
UAP - Business Process Discovery & Validation
Success Stories:
 Large UK Retail Bank: UAP was employed in a
programme to help Online Banking platform
better manage UI defects and capture User
Journey
 Global Retail Bank: UAP was employed in the
testing phase of a Digital Banking programme to
help better manage UI defects and capture
User Journey
 Large UK Insurer: UAP is implemented to
document the UI Business Flow for
documentation & KT.
 Global Insurer: UAP was employed in the testing
phase of a Digital Underwriting development
programme to help better manage UI defects
and capture User Journey
Internet
Explorer
Chrome
Firefox
User Events
Request
Response
Screenshot
Watch Movie

5. ZDLC’s Benefits
Achieving Acceleration and Precision by means of Automation
• Provide a precise and comprehensive documentation of IT systems
• Continuously updates of the documentation as long as SPD observes the IT Systems
• Accelerate remediation of system failures
• Accelerated defect remediation
• Impact assessment of code enhancements
• Clear understanding of application dependencies
• Up to 40% reduction in effort for AS IS Architecture Discovery , Process Analysis and Data
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