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2025
Software Development Life Cycle was a hands-on, 11 Week experience - August, September and October of 2025; 90 Individuals from around the world came together to tackle real life problems and create the right solutions.
SDLC Experience Workshop
Team 03
Our team represents six countries, five time zones, and a wide range of levels of experience.
When we formed, we were a group of strangers - now we are a working team!
Problem Statement:
In today’s digital world, many insurance companies still rely on outdated, manual processes to handle customer claims. Customers often must print forms, fill them out by hand, and mail or physically deliver them to a branch office. Once submitted, there’s no easy way to know whether the claim was received or where it is in the process. Communication is slow, and many customers call repeatedly just to get updates.
This paper-based method causes major delays and frustrations for both customers and staff:
● Customers don’t get timely updates, which reduces trust and satisfaction
● Claims officers waste time on data entry and manual routing
● There’s no easy way to monitor performance or track bottlenecks
● Errors and lost paperwork are common, leading to rework
Solutions
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A digital claims platform can fix this.
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It can offer customers a faster, more transparent process while reducing the workload for internal teams.
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Enable better data collection, status tracking, and accountability.
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Team 3 will design and build a simplified version of such a system.
Success Looks Like
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Submitting a claim is fast and intuitive.
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Customers can successfully submit a claim – w/attachments.
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Claim status can be updated by staff ,viewed by customers and easy to understand.
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Team can articulate the 'Before and After' value during the final presentation.
Kanban (Agile)
Kanban Purpose
A Kanban board is a visual project management tool that helps teams organize, prioritize, and track their work in real time. It breaks down tasks into columns like “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done,” making it easy to see what’s moving forward and where blockers may exist.
For SDLC teams, the Kanban board reinforces agile principles by promoting transparency, accountability, and continuous delivery. It also serves as a living roadmap—helping mentors, PMs, and contributors align on deliverables and timelines at a glance.
Key Lesson Learned
“Visualizing work through Kanban improves team alignment, accountability, and delivery speed.”
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Helped identify bottlenecks early (e.g., dashboard integration delays)
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Encouraged ownership and momentum across design, build, and testing phases
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Made final presentation smoother by ensuring essential tasks were not overlooked
Miro Link
Project Deliverables - By the Project Manager
Here are three reasons for initiating the insurance claims digitization project based on the project charter:
✅1. Improve Customer Experience
The current paper-based process causes delays, confusion, and frustration.
A digital system allows customers to submit claims easily, track progress, and receive timely updates—boosting satisfaction and trust.
✅2. Increase Operational Efficiency
Manual data entry, routing, and follow-ups waste staff time and lead to errors.
Digitizing the workflow reduces rework, streamline approvals, and frees up resources for higher-value tasks.
✅ 3. Enable Better Monitoring and Compliance
The existing system lacks audit trails, SLA tracking, and performance metrics.
A digital platform provides real-time visibility and automated documentation
✅ Project Results
Customer Experience - Customers could submit claims online, upload files, and view real-time status updates, eliminating the need for paper forms and phone follow-ups.
Operational Efficiency - Staff use a centralized dashboard to manage claims, reducing manual data entry and speeding up approvals.
Process Transparency - The new system provided clear tracking of each claim, improving accountability and reducing lost paperwork.
Team Collaboration - Tools like Slack, Miro, Balsalmiq, and Python enabled smoother communication and faster iteration across design and development.
Presentation Delivery - The team successfully demonstrated the full claims flow, from submission to status creating a MVP.
Miro Link Team 3 - Project Charter - Miro
Product Manager: Tina Ewing
Project Charter
Project Deliverables - By the Project Manager
Product Manager: Tina Ewing
Timeline Balance
Timeline Balance Benefits
Communicate expectations to team and all dependent parties.
Miro Link
Week 1 Planning: Scope, Roles, Miro Flow
Week 2-4 Requirements
Week 5-6 Design: Figma, Balsalmiq and Python
Week 7-8 Testing: QA + Optional Features
Week 9 Build and UAT
Week 10 Retrospective and Lessons Learned
Project Deliverables - By the Product Owner
Product Canvas
Vision
Modernize claims process with a simple digital platform
Target Users
Customers, Claims Officers, Customer Service Staff
User Needs
Easy submission, file uploads, status updates, efficient tools for staff
Product Features
Online form, uploads, dashboard, alerts
Business Goals
Improve satisfaction, reduce errors, boost compliance
Metrics for Success
Submitting a claim in a timely manner, updates are visible by staff
Miro Link
Product Owner: Aaron Whittenberger
Project Deliverables - By the Business Analyst
A use case diagram visually maps out how users interact with a system to achieve specific goals. It identifies the key actors (like customers or admins) and the actions they perform—such as logging in, submitting a form, or generating a report.
For SDLC teams, this diagram helps clarify scope, align stakeholder expectations, and guide development by showing what the system must support. It’s especially useful early in the project to ensure that user needs are accurately captured and translated into functional requirements.
Miro Link: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVJXP0GUY=/
Business Analyst: Munirat Usman
Use Case Diagram
Quality Assurance Analysts: John Ellis and Ugochi Ekoh
Project Deliverables - By the QA/Tester
Lessons Learned
A key lesson learned from this QA phase is the importance of traceability and clear documentation. By mapping every test case directly to a User Story and its corresponding Acceptance Criteria, it became easier to identify gaps or inconsistencies early in the testing process. This traceability ensured that each requirement was validated and nothing critical was overlooked.
Another valuable insight was the role of bug tracking and backlogging. Logging and prioritizing issues that emerged during testing allowed the team to distinguish between critical defects (e.g., claim form submission failures) and non-critical improvements (e.g., UI alignment or field label updates). This structured backlog approach ensured timely fixes and helped the team maintain focus on delivering a high-quality, functional solution within the project timeline.
Through this QA process, the QA team learned how effective testing not only validates functionality but also enhances collaboration between QA, developers, UI/UX, and business analysts, ultimately leading to a more reliable and user-centered system.
Test Case Document
Test Cade Document Benefits
Test cases and the test case document serve as a structured blueprint for validating whether the product behaves as intended.
They help the team translate user stories and acceptance criteria into measurable, repeatable checks—ensuring that each feature meets quality standards before release.
By documenting expected inputs, actions, and outcomes, the team can identify defects early, streamline communication across roles, and reduce rework.
This process strengthens accountability and supports a more reliable, user-centered final product
Project Deliverables - By the UI/UX Designer
User Experience Designer - Toyin Grace
Wireframes are low-fidelity visual layouts that show the structure and flow of a user interface before final design begins. Created by the UI/UX designer, they help the team visualize how users will interact with the product—mapping out screens, buttons, and navigation paths. Wireframes clarify functionality, reduce design ambiguity, and allow early feedback from stakeholders and developers. By aligning the team around a shared visual blueprint, wireframes accelerate decision-making and ensure the final product is intuitive and user-centered.
Solution Walkthrough
Developer: Pamir Shinwari
Tools & Technologies Used
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Backend: Python Flask for business logic
and API management.
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Frontend: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and
Bootstrap for responsive UI.
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Database: PostgreSQL for secure data
storage.
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Development Tools: PyCharm IDE.
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Deployment: Render server.
This tech stack ensures scalability, maintainability, and efficiency across all user roles.
Developer: Pamir Shinwari
Policyholder Home Page
This page serves as the main dashboard
for policyholders to view and track their
submitted claims.
Features two buttons: New Claim and
View Claims.
Allows users to monitor progress :
Submitted, Approved, Rejected, or Paid.
Clean, responsive design for desktop and
mobile.
Improves communication by giving policyholders real-time visibility into the status of their claims.
Developer: Pamir Shinwari
Claim Processor Home Page
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Claim processors use this page to review and act on submitted claims.
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Displays statistics: Submitted, Approved, Paid, and Rejected claims.
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Provides a detailed table of claim
submissions with policyholder information and dates.
Streamlines internal review workflow and minimizes administrative delays.
Developer: Pamir Shinwari
Account Representative Home Page
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This page allows account representatives to manage claims submitted by policyholders.
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Shows total payment summaries and claim details.
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Includes filter options for Approved and Paid claims.
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The Pay button allows representatives to mark approved claims as paid.
Eliminates the need for manual tracking or spreadsheets.
Developer: Pamir Shinwari
Impact of the SDLC Experience Workshop
From the Team
Working with persons of different backgrounds & geographic locations
Exposure to SDLC and understanding of test cases
Very interesting to watch team members grow and interact with other global team members
Increased Productivity: Streamlined workflows and automation of repetitive tasks to free up developers to focus on more complex challenges, increasing throughput.
Better Collaboration and Transparency: Workshops bring together stakeholders, including developers, QA testers, BA and project managers, to ensure better communication and alignment with project goals.
Learned to focus on achieving Higher Customer Satisfaction: Ultimately, delivering high-quality, reliable MVP on time and within budget leads to greater client and customer satisfaction.
