Deloitte tech interview QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Deloitte tech interview QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 9 macro forces that drive transformation in tech 1. Cloud 2. Analytics 3. Digital experience ^these are the 3 big pillars that have sparked change over the last 10 years 4. Digital reality - the next generation of engagement with augmented reality, virtual reality, and the internet 5. Cognitive and evolution from passive understanding to automated intelligent response 6. Blockchain - a new foundation for assets and trust 7. Evolving core systems 8. The business of technology 9. Cyber and risk strategies - security, privacy, regulatory compliance, and increasingly the ethics of advanced technology Beyond the digital frontier: mapping your future (tech trend) -Digital transformation promises a triumphant response to the pressures and potential of disruptive change. But to make it concrete, achievable, and measurable, organizations need to look at broader trends—and a variety of technology advances -only 1/3 of deloitte's global CIO survey respondents reported having an enterprise digital strategy -cyber security and risk, data intelligence, automation, game-changing tech, predictive analytics, user control, automated procurement and vehicle tracking and routing/scheduling, enterprise agility DevSecOps and the cyber imperative (tech trend) -DevSecOps fundamentally transforms cyber and risk management from compliance-based activities to essential framing mindsets. -To enhance their approaches to cyber and other risks, organizations are embedding security, privacy, policy, and controls into their DevOps culture and processes, enabling the entire IT organization to share responsibility for security. Beyond marketing: experience re-imagined (tech trend) -CMOs and CIOs partnering to elevate the human experience -In the new world of marketing—personalized, contextualized, and dynamic—CMOs are partnering with their technology organizations to bring control of the human experience back in house, with a fresh arsenal of experience-focused marketing tools. -data driven, customized based on wants/needs, dynamic, across channels, outcome-oriented Intelligent interfaces (tech trend) -Reimagining the way humans, machines, and data interact -​Combining human-centered design techniques with leading-edge technologies, new interfaces are moving from keyboards to touchscreens, voice commands, and beyond, transforming the way we engage with machines, data, and each other. -Robotics, internet, networks, AI, digital reality, cloud and computing edge Connectivity of tomorrow (tech trend) -For digital transformation, rapid advances in connectivity and new, advanced networking products and services are becoming mission-critical. -Advanced networking is the unsung hero of our digital future, offering a continuum of connectivity that can drive development of new products and services, transform inefficient operating models, and make digital transformation possible. -Use cases: driverless vehicles (transmits mapping and navigation data) and healthcare (optimize ambulance routing and patient data tracking) NoOPS in a serverless world (tech trend) -The next state in the evolution of cloud computing automates key tasks, allowing IT talent to shift focus from operations to outcomes. -​The hyper-automation of cloud computing has created a NoOps environment where software and software-defined hardware are provisioned dynamically, setting talent free to transition into new roles and help drive business outcomes. -maintenance and reaction time decrease -capacity, security, and delivery velocity increase -automated monitoring and provisioning AI-fueled organizations (tech trend) -Reaching AI's full potential can lead to data-driven decision-making and insights across core business processes and enterprise operations. -As AI technologies standardize across industries, becoming an AI-fueled organization will likely be table stakes for survival. And that means rethinking the way humans and machines interact within working environments. -assisted --> augmented --> automated intelligence -free workers to be more creative Macro technology forces at work (tech trends) -Nine technological forces—the backbone of tech innovation past and present—make it possible for organizations to drive purposeful, transformational change. Understanding how they function, together and separately, is key. -The calling of our time is to unlock what combination of macro trends matters for any given line of business, function, agency, or country Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) -a detailed plan describing how to develop, maintain and replace specific software 1. Planning - gather requirements from client 2. Implementation - software engineers start writing the code 3. Testing - finding defects or bugs 4. Documentation - every step in the process is documented for future reference, writing the application programming interface (API) 5. Deployment and Maintenance - the software is deployed after being approved for release 6. Maintaining - software maintenance is done for future reference Cloud computing -the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer. -Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The term is generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet -A system in which all computer programs and data is stored on a central server owned by a company (e.g. Google) and accessed virtually How to implement new tech in an organization (process for digital transformation) 1. Work from the ground up - evaluate if it would be a good fit for the organization, think of why you need the tool (will it boost productivity, reduce costs, or improve processes?) 2. Use a framework - needs to be a framework revolving around a sense of urgency, realistic, measurable, time-bound 3. Present change to multiple teams - educate your teams about the tech, select employees that can promote the tool 4. Provide productive support - Providing support and training is necessary during the early stages of implementation, online manuals and digital help centers, videos to answer questions, be clear about the tech's features and the problem it solves 5. Prepare for resistance - this may be out of some people's comfort zone, many have been using the same tools and processes for years, must convince them the new way is better, resolve concerns by collecting feedback through an anonymous survey Sample questions for survey to employees after implementing tech -Do you understand the pain points the technology solves? -What feature are you excited to use? -What part of technology looks most complicated to you? What looks easiest? -Do you have any questions or concerns? -Was there enough training provided during the onboarding process? -What part of training could be improved? Steps / framework to case 1. Understand business scenario 2. Ask the right questions 3. Develop a logical structure 4. Analyze potential solutions 5. Present and support your recommendation Agile Methodology -Best for DYNAMIC (changing customer needs, ex. retail) projects with external dependences and higher complexity -User-centric Approach -Begins with user stories that state client need from perspective of the individual -Design/development in sprints where groups of user stories are addressed -User stories not covered put in backlog for future sprints -Client exposed to system prototype early and often to enhance user centricity of final product -Capabilities built iteratively -Ex. web-based stuff, gmail -Can also do internal agile for a bit, and then external agile where the customer/client is involved -Nothing's really fully agile besides web-development -Agile Methodology which allows the company to react and adopt to the rapidly changing market. Agile IT teams deliver smaller increments of work, which will make it possible to gather customer's feedback sooner. The customer's feedback can be used to prioritize work and make decisions around which modules should be enhanced with additional functionalities. OR Agile Methodology since the industry is evolving rapidly, and speed to market is the main challenge. Waterfall Methodology -Best for projects with clear, STATIC (no changing customer needs) requirements and high user familiarity with system -Sequential, system-focused approach -Begin with requirement gathering that state client need from system perspective -requirements confirmed prior to initiation of build and tracked rigidly -Client not exposed to system until user acceptance testing -Capabilities built progressively -ex. System upgrade, ERPs (enterprise resource planning) - integrates all processes that run a business into one software CTO Chief Technology Officer: -Big visions of the future - new tech or new services to explore? -5 year plan -Capabilities of IT department -Resources -Pain points - previous failed attempts -Process impacts -e-Commerce assessments (activity of buying and selling products or services online) -Tech trends to get ahead (ex. black friday, can service support the volume of people then) CMO Chief Marketing Officer -Pricing and market research -Designing advertising and promotions -Coordinating different styles of thinking in a single team -Products and sales strategy -Customer-facing technology implementations -Digitalization and the rise of consumer-centric marketing has changed the role of the CMO CIO Chief Information Officer -Purchase of IT equipment from suppliers -Creation of new IT systems -Competitive advantage -Recruiting -Procurement -With the rising awareness in organizations that their customers are expecting digital services as part of their relationship with an organization, CIOs have been tasked with more product-oriented responsibilities. CFO Chief Financial Officer -Advisor and a strategic partner to the CEO -Strategy of organization -Data-driven decision making -Big picture -Modeling transparency and accountability of fiscal data Following development, how would you test and evaluate the stability of the new system? -Front end and back end tests -Make sure system can handle large traffic like Black Friday -1. Unit test (smallest components, individual functions, small piece of code, good to prevent bugs) --> 2. Integration (testing communication between platforms, testing two parts of the system together, asking will the system operate as a whole?) --> 3. Functional test (verify end to end scenarios that users engage in, user acceptance testing) What deployment methodology would you evaluate when incorporating the new tech and how would you determine the best approach? 1. Rollout strategies: Pilot (test in 1 market before going to others), Phased (Slow deployment by segments), or Big Bang (deploy all at once - not good answer unless time sensitive) 2. Risk mitigation: Pilot (rollout with smaller markets to decrease risk to sales and operations), Phased (Analyze past performance by geography to minimize revenue risk) , Big Bang (Must gain executive support) 3. Additional factors: increased complexity of digital properties, international privacy regulations that limit creation of 360˚ view of customer Omni-channel (retail) strategy -an approach to sales and marketing that provides customers with a fully-integrated shopping experience by uniting user experiences from brick-and-mortar to mobile-browsing and everything in between -Can your customers browse a product in-store, scan it with your app, and then add it to their bag to purchase later at home in a different size? -Can they browse your online store for new styles, explore those outfits on Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook, and then get an in-store coupon to redeem? -Does your data connect in-store purchases so that loyal customers get notified via Messen when similar similiar styles are released online or off? ex. Disney park app tableau or hadoop -data analytics tools -Tableau is business intelligence software that enables anybody to easily connect to data, then visualize and create interactive, sharable dashboards. Hadoop is a free, Java- based programming framework that supports the processing of big data sets in a distributed computing environment KPI examples 1) Customer Acquisition Costs. 2) Customer Lifetime Value. 3) Sales Target. 4) Operating Expenses Ratio. 5) Net Profit Margin Percentage. 6) Return on Assets. 7) Return on Equity. 8) P/E Ratio. 9) Growth in revenue Mobile app vs mobile web advantages App: -customers can use additional features like camera -can use without cellular service -have to download so customers will keep comin back -can make monthly and yearly plans Web: -can track user preferences and behaviors online (data tracker of user) -doesn't require them to download new versions What are some of the attributes you would need to test after developing the app? -Testers would test the functionality against the system requirements collected prior to development. This should include functional testing (making sure that the app can accomplish all the functions it is designed to do) and non-functional testing (for example, performance and security vulnerability). -Testers should start with testing the basic functionality and then build on that in iterations until they test the entire end-to-end process. -Test the functionality to make the basic utility of the app works, such as a customer being able to add items to their cart and purchase items from the app. -User-friendly, check for bugs, unit / integration / functional testing and seeing if the system works as a whole and with other systems, if it can connect to a server What leading edge capabilities should be considered when doing this project? -Tech trends!! -A great answer will list leading edge capabilities as well as how those capabilities can be used (ex: Push notifications for product deals based on past purchases, Artificial Intelligence for taking photos of products and re-ordering) -Automatic Refills, Push notifications, Artificial Intelligence Which steps should be taken to ensure the success of this data project? A good data model will remove redundancies, increase performance and provide the ability to scale. Having a standardized method to input data across all parties will mitigate risk of data loss during unnecessary data conversions. Finally, encryption of the data transmission will increase safety of the project information which ultimately will increase safety of our client - the US Government (for engine case) What can our client do to ensure the security of project data? -Invest in Fraud management services to actively monitor suspicious network traffic and resolve security concerns (automatic blocks, alerts etc.) -Data encrypt in transit and at rest -Store confidential data in a private data server not accessible to the outside public -Use transient data in application sessions rather than storing all information locally -Require multi-factor authentication (username and password, fingerprint, security questions) -Password requirements (number of characters, special characters, passphrase) What data quality issues can occur and what can be done to mitigate them? -Data with skewed values, incorrect historical data attached to a customer's profile, duplicate records, a release of sensitive customer information (PII - Personally Identifiable Information), and errors in converting billing information (account numbers, billing addresses, amounts, services) could occur. These issues could result in extra hours required to reconcile data, a delay in the reporting system's deployment, a loss of credibility in the system, a loss of revenue for Top Engine (and additional costs) and legal/compliance problems. -To mitigate these issues employees should be properly trained on data entry and review their work, conversion should first be tested with mock conversion runs and results should be carefully analyzed prior to backing up legacy system data and converting it. -Unstructured data, inaccurately translated data, breach of PII -Conducting thorough testing and several mock conversions prior to the final conversion of data could prevent many of these issues from occurring. What KPI's (key performance indicators) do you think could be used to evaluate project success? -ROI based on project budget -Number of project resources -Allocation of resource time -Ability to meet project deadlines / milestones -In addition to a good answer surrounding project management KPI's, a great answer will also consider the value that is earned to the client. These include the following: -Timeliness of balanced financial statements -Decreased data duplication -Accuracy of financial reporting Which groups of stakeholders should Deloitte meet with before recommending a CRM (customer relationship management) System? -Identify the business partners and try to understand the key performance metrics that the system will have to meet -Discuss the current skill level and capacity with the IT department's leadership to understand how complex of a system they can support -Talk to end users to understand their business requirements and how the system can help in their day-to-day tasks -Meet with Finance and the board to understand budget constraints -Meet with the IT team to define system requirements. -Current employees What information or insight would benefit the business to help improve the call center? Name types of information or activities (Key Performance Indicators) that the call center should be able to capture. -Number of calls -Duration of calls -Caller demographics -A great answer will list which types of activity of information to capture as well as why that information is important -my answer: what the key issues people are calling for (possibility for automated response system answering questions or AI system), number of calls a day, number of help center employees, ROI based on project budget, number of project resources, allocation of resource time