Domain Analysis
It is usually the first step in attempting to design a new piece of software. It involves the investigation of the area such as: banking, marketing, retailing, insurance etc., where the software is to be employed.
Know The Client
The holy grail of any project, satisfy your client. For that you need to know, what is in his mind regarding his requirements. He is the best person to tell you, what they want. While skilled and experienced software engineers can fill in any incomplete, ambiguous or contradictory information.
Specification
Specification means precisely describing the software to be written in a rigorous way.
Software architecture
The architecture of a software system refers to an abstract representation of that system. Architecture is concerned with making sure the software system will meet the requirements of the product, as well as ensuring that future requirements can be addressed.
Implementation (or coding)
Reducing a design to code may be the most obvious part of the software engineering job, but it is not necessarily the largest portion.
Testing
Testing of parts of software is done by a software engineer to check out any bug or error.
Documentation
An important (and often overlooked) task is documenting the internal design of software for the purpose of future maintenance and enhancement.