The job pattern of an IT company engaged in software development can be seen split in two

parts:

 Software Creation
 Software Project Management

A project is well-defined task, which is a collection of several operations done in order to

achieve a goal (for example, software development and delivery). A Project can be characterized
as:

 Every project may has a unique and distinct goal.

 Project is not routine activity or day-to-day operations.
 Project comes with a start time and end time.
 Project ends when its goal is achieved hence it is a temporary phase in the lifetime of an
organization.
 Project needs adequate resources in terms of time, manpower, finance, material and
knowledge-bank.

Software Project
A Software Project is the complete procedure of software development from requirement
gathering to testing and maintenance, carried out according to the execution methodologies, in a
specified period of time to achieve intended software product.

Need of software project management

Software is said to be an intangible product. Software development is a kind of all new stream in
world business and there’s very little experience in building software products. Most software
products are tailor made to fit client’s requirements. The most important is that the underlying
technology changes and advances so frequently and rapidly that experience of one product may
not be applied to the other one. All such business and environmental constraints bring risk in
software development hence it is essential to manage software projects efficiently.
The image above shows triple constraints for software projects. It is an essential part of software
organization to deliver quality product, keeping the cost within client’s budget constrain and
deliver the project as per scheduled. There are several factors, both internal and external, which
may impact this triple constrain triangle. Any of three factor can severely impact the other two.

Therefore, software project management is essential to incorporate user requirements along with
budget and time constraints.

Software Project Manager

A software project manager is a person who undertakes the responsibility of executing the
software project. Software project manager is thoroughly aware of all the phases of SDLC that
the software would go through. Project manager may never directly involve in producing the end
product but he controls and manages the activities involved in production.

A project manager closely monitors the development process, prepares and executes various
plans, arranges necessary and adequate resources, maintains communication among all team
members in order to address issues of cost, budget, resources, time, quality and customer
satisfaction.

Let us see few responsibilities that a project manager shoulders -

Managing People

 Act as project leader

 Liaison with stakeholders
 Managing human resources
 Setting up reporting hierarchy etc.

Managing Project

 Defining and setting up project scope

 Managing project management activities
 Monitoring progress and performance
 Risk analysis at every phase
 Take necessary step to avoid or come out of problems
 Act as project spokesperson

Software Management Activities

Software project management comprises of a number of activities, which contains planning of
project, deciding scope of software product, estimation of cost in various terms, scheduling of
tasks and events, and resource management. Project management activities may include:

 Project Planning
  Scope Management
 Project Estimation

Project Planning
Software project planning is task, which is performed before the production of software actually
starts. It is there for the software production but involves no concrete activity that has any
direction connection with software production; rather it is a set of multiple processes, which
facilitates software production. Project planning may include the following:

Scope Management
It defines the scope of project; this includes all the activities, process need to be done in order to
make a deliverable software product. Scope management is essential because it creates
boundaries of the project by clearly defining what would be done in the project and what would
not be done. This makes project to contain limited and quantifiable tasks, which can easily be
documented and in turn avoids cost and time overrun.

During Project Scope management, it is necessary to -

 Define the scope

 Decide its verification and control
 Divide the project into various smaller parts for ease of management.
 Verify the scope
 Control the scope by incorporating changes to the scope

Project Estimation
For an effective management accurate estimation of various measures is a must. With correct
estimation managers can manage and control the project more efficiently and effectively.

Project estimation may involve the following:

 Software size estimation

Software size may be estimated either in terms of KLOC (Kilo Line of Code) or by
calculating number of function points in the software. Lines of code depend upon coding
practices and Function points vary according to the user or software requirement.

 Effort estimation

The managers estimate efforts in terms of personnel requirement and man-hour required
to produce the software. For effort estimation software size should be known. This can
either be derived by managers’ experience, organization’s historical data or software size
can be converted into efforts by using some standard formulae.
  Time estimation

Once size and efforts are estimated, the time required to produce the software can be
estimated. Efforts required is segregated into sub categories as per the requirement
specifications and interdependency of various components of software. Software tasks
are divided into smaller tasks, activities or events by Work Breakthrough Structure
(WBS). The tasks are scheduled on day-to-day basis or in calendar months.

The sum of time required to complete all tasks in hours or days is the total time invested
to complete the project.

 Cost estimation

This might be considered as the most difficult of all because it depends on more elements
than any of the previous ones. For estimating project cost, it is required to consider -

o Size of software
o Software quality
o Hardware
o Additional software or tools, licenses etc.
o Skilled personnel with task-specific skills
o Travel involved
o Communication
o Training and support

Project Estimation Techniques

We discussed various parameters involving project estimation such as size, effort, time and cost.

Project manager can estimate the listed factors using two broadly recognized techniques –

Decomposition Technique

This technique assumes the software as a product of various compositions.

There are two main models -

 Line of Code Estimation is done on behalf of number of line of codes in the software
product.
 Function Points Estimation is done on behalf of number of function points in the
software product.

Empirical Estimation Technique

This technique uses empirically derived formulae to make estimation.These formulae are based
on LOC or FPs.

 Putnam Model

This model is made by Lawrence H. Putnam, which is based on Norden’s frequency

distribution (Rayleigh curve). Putnam model maps time and efforts required with
software size.

 COCOMO

COCOMO stands for COnstructive COst MOdel, developed by Barry W. Boehm. It

divides the software product into three categories of software: organic, semi-detached and
embedded.

Project Scheduling
Project Scheduling in a project refers to roadmap of all activities to be done with specified order
and within time slot allotted to each activity. Project managers tend to define various tasks, and
project milestones and arrange them keeping various factors in mind. They look for tasks lie in
critical path in the schedule, which are necessary to complete in specific manner (because of task
interdependency) and strictly within the time allocated. Arrangement of tasks which lies out of
critical path are less likely to impact over all schedule of the project.

For scheduling a project, it is necessary to -

 Break down the project tasks into smaller, manageable form

 Find out various tasks and correlate them
 Estimate time frame required for each task
 Divide time into work-units
 Assign adequate number of work-units for each task
 Calculate total time required for the project from start to finish

Resource management
All elements used to develop a software product may be assumed as resource for that project.
This may include human resource, productive tools and software libraries.

The resources are available in limited quantity and stay in the organization as a pool of assets.
The shortage of resources hampers the development of project and it can lag behind the schedule.
Allocating extra resources increases development cost in the end. It is therefore necessary to
estimate and allocate adequate resources for the project.

Resource management includes -

  Defining proper organization project by creating a project team and allocating
responsibilities to each team member
 Determining resources required at a particular stage and their availability
 Manage Resources by generating resource request when they are required and de-
allocating them when they are no more needed.

Project Risk Management

Risk management involves all activities pertaining to identification, analyzing and making
provision for predictable and non-predictable risks in the project. Risk may include the
following:

 Experienced staff leaving the project and new staff coming in.
 Change in organizational management.
 Requirement change or misinterpreting requirement.
 Under-estimation of required time and resources.
 Technological changes, environmental changes, business competition.

Risk Management Process

There are following activities involved in risk management process:

 Identification - Make note of all possible risks, which may occur in the project.
 Categorize - Categorize known risks into high, medium and low risk intensity as per
their possible impact on the project.
 Manage - Analyze the probability of occurrence of risks at various phases. Make plan to
avoid or face risks. Attempt to minimize their side-effects.
 Monitor - Closely monitor the potential risks and their early symptoms. Also monitor the
effects of steps taken to mitigate or avoid them.

Project Execution & Monitoring

In this phase, the tasks described in project plans are executed according to their schedules.

Execution needs monitoring in order to check whether everything is going according to the plan.
Monitoring is observing to check the probability of risk and taking measures to address the risk
or report the status of various tasks.

These measures include -

 Activity Monitoring - All activities scheduled within some task can be monitored on
day-to-day basis. When all activities in a task are completed, it is considered as complete.
 Status Reports - The reports contain status of activities and tasks completed within a
given time frame, generally a week. Status can be marked as finished, pending or work-
in-progress etc.
  Milestones Checklist - Every project is divided into multiple phases where major tasks
are performed (milestones) based on the phases of SDLC. This milestone checklist is
prepared once every few weeks and reports the status of milestones.

Project Communication Management

Effective communication plays vital role in the success of a project. It bridges gaps between
client and the organization, among the team members as well as other stake holders in the project
such as hardware suppliers.

Communication can be oral or written. Communication management process may have the
following steps:

 Planning - This step includes the identifications of all the stakeholders in the project and
the mode of communication among them. It also considers if any additional
communication facilities are required.
 Sharing - After determining various aspects of planning, manager focuses on sharing
correct information with the correct person on correct time. This keeps every one
involved the project up to date with project progress and its status.
 Feedback - Project managers use various measures and feedback mechanism and create
status and performance reports. This mechanism ensures that input from various
stakeholders is coming to the project manager as their feedback.
 Closure - At the end of each major event, end of a phase of SDLC or end of the project
itself, administrative closure is formally announced to update every stakeholder by
sending email, by distributing a hardcopy of document or by other mean of effective
communication.

After closure, the team moves to next phase or project.

Configuration Management
Configuration management is a process of tracking and controlling the changes in software in
terms of the requirements, design, functions and development of the product.

IEEE defines it as “the process of identifying and defining the items in the system, controlling
the change of these items throughout their life cycle, recording and reporting the status of items
and change requests, and verifying the completeness and correctness of items”.

Generally, once the SRS is finalized there is less chance of requirement of changes from user. If
they occur, the changes are addressed only with prior approval of higher management, as there is
a possibility of cost and time overrun.

Baseline
A phase of SDLC is assumed over if it baselined, i.e. baseline is a measurement that defines
completeness of a phase. A phase is baselined when all activities pertaining to it are finished and
well documented. If it was not the final phase, its output would be used in next immediate phase.

Configuration management is a discipline of organization administration, which takes care of

occurrence of any change (process, requirement, technological, strategical etc.) after a phase is
baselined. CM keeps check on any changes done in software.

Change Control

Change control is function of configuration management, which ensures that all changes made to
software system are consistent and made as per organizational rules and regulations.

A change in the configuration of product goes through following steps -

 Identification - A change request arrives from either internal or external source. When
change request is identified formally, it is properly documented.
 Validation - Validity of the change request is checked and its handling procedure is
confirmed.
 Analysis - The impact of change request is analyzed in terms of schedule, cost and
required efforts. Overall impact of the prospective change on system is analyzed.
 Control - If the prospective change either impacts too many entities in the system or it is
unavoidable, it is mandatory to take approval of high authorities before change is
incorporated into the system. It is decided if the change is worth incorporation or not. If it
is not, change request is refused formally.
 Execution - If the previous phase determines to execute the change request, this phase
take appropriate actions to execute the change, does a thorough revision if necessary.
 Close request - The change is verified for correct implementation and merging with the
rest of the system. This newly incorporated change in the software is documented
properly and the request is formally is closed.

Project Management Tools

The risk and uncertainty rises multifold with respect to the size of the project, even when the
project is developed according to set methodologies.

There are tools available, which aid for effective project management. A few are described -

Gantt Chart

Gantt charts was devised by Henry Gantt (1917). It represents project schedule with respect to
time periods. It is a horizontal bar chart with bars representing activities and time scheduled for
the project activities.
PERT Chart

PERT (Program Evaluation & Review Technique) chart is a tool that depicts project as network
diagram. It is capable of graphically representing main events of project in both parallel and
consecutive way. Events, which occur one after another, show dependency of the later event over
the previous one.

Events are shown as numbered nodes. They are connected by labeled arrows depicting sequence
of tasks in the project.

Resource Histogram

This is a graphical tool that contains bar or chart representing number of resources (usually
skilled staff) required over time for a project event (or phase). Resource Histogram is an
effective tool for staff planning and coordination.
Critical Path Analysis

This tools is useful in recognizing interdependent tasks in the project. It also helps to find out the
shortest path or critical path to complete the project successfully. Like PERT diagram, each
event is allotted a specific time frame. This tool shows dependency of event assuming an event
can proceed to next only if the previous one is completed.

The events are arranged according to their earliest possible start time. Path between start and end
node is critical path which cannot be further reduced and all events require to be executed in
same order.
Software development life cycle
Software Development Life Cycle, SDLC for short, is a well-defined, structured sequence of
stages in software engineering to develop the intended software product.

SDLC Activities
SDLC provides a series of steps to be followed to design and develop a software product
efficiently. SDLC framework includes the following steps:

Communication

This is the first step where the user initiates the request for a desired software product. He
contacts the service provider and tries to negotiate the terms. He submits his request to the
service providing organization in writing.

Requirement Gathering

This step onwards the software development team works to carry on the project. The team holds
discussions with various stakeholders from problem domain and tries to bring out as much
information as possible on their requirements. The requirements are contemplated and segregated
into user requirements, system requirements and functional requirements. The requirements are
collected using a number of practices as given -

 studying the existing or obsolete system and software,

 conducting interviews of users and developers,
 referring to the database or
 collecting answers from the questionnaires.

Feasibility Study

After requirement gathering, the team comes up with a rough plan of software process. At this
step the team analyzes if a software can be made to fulfill all requirements of the user and if
there is any possibility of software being no more useful. It is found out, if the project is
financially, practically and technologically feasible for the organization to take up. There are
many algorithms available, which help the developers to conclude the feasibility of a software
project.

System Analysis

At this step the developers decide a roadmap of their plan and try to bring up the best software
model suitable for the project. System analysis includes Understanding of software product
limitations, learning system related problems or changes to be done in existing systems
beforehand, identifying and addressing the impact of project on organization and personnel etc.
The project team analyzes the scope of the project and plans the schedule and resources
accordingly.

Software Design

Next step is to bring down whole knowledge of requirements and analysis on the desk and design
the software product. The inputs from users and information gathered in requirement gathering
phase are the inputs of this step. The output of this step comes in the form of two designs; logical
design and physical design. Engineers produce meta-data and data dictionaries, logical diagrams,
data-flow diagrams and in some cases pseudo codes.

Coding

This step is also known as programming phase. The implementation of software design starts in
terms of writing program code in the suitable programming language and developing error-free
executable programs efficiently.

Testing

An estimate says that 50% of whole software development process should be tested. Errors may
ruin the software from critical level to its own removal. Software testing is done while coding by
the developers and thorough testing is conducted by testing experts at various levels of code such
as module testing, program testing, product testing, in-house testing and testing the product at
user’s end. Early discovery of errors and their remedy is the key to reliable software.

Integration

Software may need to be integrated with the libraries, databases and other program(s). This stage
of SDLC is involved in the integration of software with outer world entities.

Implementation

This means installing the software on user machines. At times, software needs post-installation
configurations at user end. Software is tested for portability and adaptability and integration
related issues are solved during implementation.

Operation and Maintenance

This phase confirms the software operation in terms of more efficiency and less errors. If
required, the users are trained on, or aided with the documentation on how to operate the
software and how to keep the software operational. The software is maintained timely by
updating the code according to the changes taking place in user end environment or technology.
This phase may face challenges from hidden bugs and real-world unidentified problems.

Disposition

As time elapses, the software may decline on the performance front. It may go completely
obsolete or may need intense upgradation. Hence a pressing need to eliminate a major portion of
the system arises. This phase includes archiving data and required software components, closing
down the system, planning disposition activity and terminating system at appropriate end-of-
system time.

Software Development Paradigm

The software development paradigm helps developer to select a strategy to develop the software.
A software development paradigm has its own set of tools, methods and procedures, which are
expressed clearly and defines software development life cycle. A few of software development
paradigms or process models are defined as follows:

Waterfall Model

Waterfall model is the simplest model of software development paradigm. It says the all the
phases of SDLC will function one after another in linear manner. That is, when the first phase is
finished then only the second phase will start and so on.
This model assumes that everything is carried out and taken place perfectly as planned in the
previous stage and there is no need to think about the past issues that may arise in the next phase.
This model does not work smoothly if there are some issues left at the previous step. The
sequential nature of model does not allow us go back and undo or redo our actions.

This model is best suited when developers already have designed and developed similar software
in the past and are aware of all its domains.

Iterative Model

This model leads the software development process in iterations. It projects the process of
development in cyclic manner repeating every step after every cycle of SDLC process.

The software is first developed on very small scale and all the steps are followed which are taken
into consideration. Then, on every next iteration, more features and modules are designed, coded,
tested and added to the software. Every cycle produces a software, which is complete in itself
and has more features and capabilities than that of the previous one.

After each iteration, the management team can do work on risk management and prepare for the
next iteration. Because a cycle includes small portion of whole software process, it is easier to
manage the development process but it consumes more resources.

Spiral Model

Spiral model is a combination of both, iterative model and one of the SDLC model. It can be
seen as if you choose one SDLC model and combine it with cyclic process (iterative model).

This model considers risk, which often goes un-noticed by most other models. The model starts
with determining objectives and constraints of the software at the start of one iteration. Next
phase is of prototyping the software. This includes risk analysis. Then one standard SDLC model
is used to build the software. In the fourth phase of the plan of next iteration is prepared.

V – model
The major drawback of waterfall model is we move to the next stage only when the previous one
is finished and there was no chance to go back if something is found wrong in later stages. V-
Model provides means of testing of software at each stage in reverse manner.

At every stage, test plans and test cases are created to verify and validate the product according
to the requirement of that stage. For example, in requirement gathering stage the test team
prepares all the test cases in correspondence to the requirements. Later, when the product is
developed and is ready for testing, test cases of this stage verify the software against its validity
towards requirements at this stage.

This makes both verification and validation go in parallel. This model is also known as
verification and validation model.

Big Bang Model

This model is the simplest model in its form. It requires little planning, lots of programming and
lots of funds. This model is conceptualized around the big bang of universe. As scientists say that
after big bang lots of galaxies, planets and stars evolved just as an event. Likewise, if we put
together lots of programming and funds, you may achieve the best software product.
For this model, very small amount of planning is required. It does not follow any process, or at
times the customer is not sure about the requirements and future needs. So the input requirements
are arbitrary.

This model is not suitable for large software projects but good one for learning and
experimenting.

SDLC stands for Software Development Life Cycle. SDLC is a process that consists of a series
of planned activities to develop or alter the Software Products. This tutorial will give you an
overview of the SDLC basics, SDLC models available and their application in the industry. This
tutorial also elaborates on other related methodologies like Agile, RAD and Prototyping.

Why to Learn SDLC?

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a process used by the software industry to design,
develop and test high quality softwares. The SDLC aims to produce a high-quality software that
meets or exceeds customer expectations, reaches completion within times and cost estimates.

SDLC is a process followed for a software project, within a software organization. It consists of
a detailed plan describing how to develop, maintain, replace and alter or enhance specific
software. The life cycle defines a methodology for improving the quality of software and the
overall development process.

 SDLC is the acronym of Software Development Life Cycle.

 It is also called as Software Development Process.
 SDLC is a framework defining tasks performed at each step in the software development
process.
 ISO/IEC 12207 is an international standard for software life-cycle processes. It aims to be
the standard that defines all the tasks required for developing and maintaining software.
SDLC Models
There are various software development life cycle models defined and designed which are
followed during the software development process. These models are also referred as Software
Development Process Models. Each process model follows a Series of steps unique to its type to
ensure success in the process of software development.

Following are the most important and popular SDLC models followed in the industry −

 Waterfall Model
 Iterative Model
 Spiral Model
 V-Model
 Big Bang Model

Software requirement
The software requirements are description of features and functionalities of the target system.
Requirements convey the expectations of users from the software product. The requirements can
be obvious or hidden, known or unknown, expected or unexpected from client’s point of view.

Requirement Engineering
The process to gather the software requirements from client, analyze and document them is
known as requirement engineering.

The goal of requirement engineering is to develop and maintain sophisticated and descriptive
‘System Requirements Specification’ document.

Requirement Engineering Process

It is a four step process, which includes –

 Feasibility Study
 Requirement Gathering
 Software Requirement Specification
 Software Requirement Validation

Let us see the process briefly -

Feasibility study
When the client approaches the organization for getting the desired product developed, it comes
up with rough idea about what all functions the software must perform and which all features are
expected from the software.

Referencing to this information, the analysts does a detailed study about whether the desired
system and its functionality are feasible to develop.

This feasibility study is focused towards goal of the organization. This study analyzes whether
the software product can be practically materialized in terms of implementation, contribution of
project to organization, cost constraints and as per values and objectives of the organization. It
explores technical aspects of the project and product such as usability, maintainability,
productivity and integration ability.

The output of this phase should be a feasibility study report that should contain adequate
comments and recommendations for management about whether or not the project should be
undertaken.

Requirement Gathering

If the feasibility report is positive towards undertaking the project, next phase starts with
gathering requirements from the user. Analysts and engineers communicate with the client and
end-users to know their ideas on what the software should provide and which features they want
the software to include.

Software Requirement Specification

SRS is a document created by system analyst after the requirements are collected from various
stakeholders.

SRS defines how the intended software will interact with hardware, external interfaces, speed of
operation, response time of system, portability of software across various platforms,
maintainability, speed of recovery after crashing, Security, Quality, Limitations etc.

The requirements received from client are written in natural language. It is the responsibility of
system analyst to document the requirements in technical language so that they can be
comprehended and useful by the software development team.

SRS should come up with following features:

 User Requirements are expressed in natural language.

 Technical requirements are expressed in structured language, which is used inside the
organization.
 Design description should be written in Pseudo code.
 Format of Forms and GUI screen prints.
 Conditional and mathematical notations for DFDs etc.
Software Requirement Validation

After requirement specifications are developed, the requirements mentioned in this document are
validated. User might ask for illegal, impractical solution or experts may interpret the
requirements incorrectly. This results in huge increase in cost if not nipped in the bud.
Requirements can be checked against following conditions -

 If they can be practically implemented

 If they are valid and as per functionality and domain of software
 If there are any ambiguities
 If they are complete
 If they can be demonstrated

Requirement Elicitation Process

Requirement elicitation process can be depicted using the folloiwng diagram:

 Requirements gathering - The developers discuss with the client and end users and
know their expectations from the software.
 Organizing Requirements - The developers prioritize and arrange the requirements in
order of importance, urgency and convenience.
 Negotiation & discussion - If requirements are ambiguous or there are some conflicts in
requirements of various stakeholders, if they are, it is then negotiated and discussed with
stakeholders. Requirements may then be prioritized and reasonably compromised.

The requirements come from various stakeholders. To remove the ambiguity and
conflicts, they are discussed for clarity and correctness. Unrealistic requirements are
compromised reasonably.

 Documentation - All formal & informal, functional and non-functional requirements are
documented and made available for next phase processing.

Requirement Elicitation Techniques

Requirements Elicitation is the process to find out the requirements for an intended software
system by communicating with client, end users, system users and others who have a stake in the
software system development.

There are various ways to discover requirements

Interviews
Interviews are strong medium to collect requirements. Organization may conduct several types
of interviews such as:

 Structured (closed) interviews, where every single information to gather is decided in

advance, they follow pattern and matter of discussion firmly.
 Non-structured (open) interviews, where information to gather is not decided in advance,
more flexible and less biased.
 Oral interviews
 Written interviews
 One-to-one interviews which are held between two persons across the table.
 Group interviews which are held between groups of participants. They help to uncover
any missing requirement as numerous people are involved.

Surveys

Organization may conduct surveys among various stakeholders by querying about their
expectation and requirements from the upcoming system.

Questionnaires

A document with pre-defined set of objective questions and respective options is handed over to
all stakeholders to answer, which are collected and compiled.

A shortcoming of this technique is, if an option for some issue is not mentioned in the
questionnaire, the issue might be left unattended.

Task analysis

Team of engineers and developers may analyze the operation for which the new system is
required. If the client already has some software to perform certain operation, it is studied and
requirements of proposed system are collected.

Domain Analysis

Every software falls into some domain category. The expert people in the domain can be a great
help to analyze general and specific requirements.

Brainstorming

An informal debate is held among various stakeholders and all their inputs are recorded for
further requirements analysis.

Prototyping
Prototyping is building user interface without adding detail functionality for user to interpret the
features of intended software product. It helps giving better idea of requirements. If there is no
software installed at client’s end for developer’s reference and the client is not aware of its own
requirements, the developer creates a prototype based on initially mentioned requirements. The
prototype is shown to the client and the feedback is noted. The client feedback serves as an input
for requirement gathering.

Observation

Team of experts visit the client’s organization or workplace. They observe the actual working of
the existing installed systems. They observe the workflow at client’s end and how execution
problems are dealt. The team itself draws some conclusions which aid to form requirements
expected from the software.

Software Requirements Characteristics

Gathering software requirements is the foundation of the entire software development project.
Hence they must be clear, correct and well-defined.

A complete Software Requirement Specifications must be:

 Clear
 Correct
 Consistent
 Coherent
 Comprehensible
 Modifiable
 Verifiable
 Prioritized
 Unambiguous
 Traceable
 Credible source

Software Requirements
We should try to understand what sort of requirements may arise in the requirement elicitation
phase and what kinds of requirements are expected from the software system.

Broadly software requirements should be categorized in two categories:

Functional Requirements

Requirements, which are related to functional aspect of software fall into this category.

They define functions and functionality within and from the software system.
Examples -

 Search option given to user to search from various invoices.

 User should be able to mail any report to management.
 Users can be divided into groups and groups can be given separate rights.
 Should comply business rules and administrative functions.
 Software is developed keeping downward compatibility intact.

Non-Functional Requirements

Requirements, which are not related to functional aspect of software, fall into this category. They
are implicit or expected characteristics of software, which users make assumption of.

Non-functional requirements include -

 Security
 Logging
 Storage
 Configuration
 Performance
 Cost
 Interoperability
 Flexibility
 Disaster recovery
 Accessibility

Requirements are categorized logically as

 Must Have : Software cannot be said operational without them.

 Should have : Enhancing the functionality of software.
 Could have : Software can still properly function with these requirements.
 Wish list : These requirements do not map to any objectives of software.

While developing software, ‘Must have’ must be implemented, ‘Should have’ is a matter of
debate with stakeholders and negation, whereas ‘could have’ and ‘wish list’ can be kept for
software updates.

User Interface requirements

UI is an important part of any software or hardware or hybrid system. A software is widely
accepted if it is -

 easy to operate
 quick in response
 effectively handling operational errors
 providing simple yet consistent user interface
User acceptance majorly depends upon how user can use the software. UI is the only way for
users to perceive the system. A well performing software system must also be equipped with
attractive, clear, consistent and responsive user interface. Otherwise the functionalities of
software system can not be used in convenient way. A system is said be good if it provides
means to use it efficiently. User interface requirements are briefly mentioned below -

 Content presentation
 Easy Navigation
 Simple interface
 Responsive
 Consistent UI elements
 Feedback mechanism
 Default settings
 Purposeful layout
 Strategical use of color and texture.
 Provide help information
 User centric approach
 Group based view settings.

Software System Analyst

System analyst in an IT organization is a person, who analyzes the requirement of proposed
system and ensures that requirements are conceived and documented properly & correctly. Role
of an analyst starts during Software Analysis Phase of SDLC. It is the responsibility of analyst to
make sure that the developed software meets the requirements of the client.

System Analysts have the following responsibilities:

 Analyzing and understanding requirements of intended software

 Understanding how the project will contribute in the organization objectives
 Identify sources of requirement
 Validation of requirement
 Develop and implement requirement management plan
 Documentation of business, technical, process and product requirements
 Coordination with clients to prioritize requirements and remove and ambiguity
 Finalizing acceptance criteria with client and other stakeholders

Software Metrics and Measures

Software Measures can be understood as a process of quantifying and symbolizing various
attributes and aspects of software.

Software Metrics provide measures for various aspects of software process and software product.
Software measures are fundamental requirement of software engineering. They not only help to
control the software development process but also aid to keep quality of ultimate product
excellent.

According to Tom DeMarco, a (Software Engineer), “You cannot control what you cannot
measure.” By his saying, it is very clear how important software measures are.

Let us see some software metrics:

 Size Metrics - LOC (Lines of Code), mostly calculated in thousands of delivered source
code lines, denoted as KLOC.

Function Point Count is measure of the functionality provided by the software. Function
Point count defines the size of functional aspect of software.

 Complexity Metrics - McCabe’s Cyclomatic complexity quantifies the upper bound of

the number of independent paths in a program, which is perceived as complexity of the
program or its modules. It is represented in terms of graph theory concepts by using
control flow graph.
 Quality Metrics - Defects, their types and causes, consequence, intensity of severity and
their implications define the quality of product.

The number of defects found in development process and number of defects reported by
the client after the product is installed or delivered at client-end, define quality of
product.

 Process Metrics - In various phases of SDLC, the methods and tools used, the company
standards and the performance of development are software process metrics.
 Resource Metrics - Effort, time and various resources used, represents metrics for
resource measurement.

Software implanmentation
In this chapter, we will study about programming methods, documentation and challenges in
software implementation.

Structured Programming
In the process of coding, the lines of code keep multiplying, thus, size of the software increases.
Gradually, it becomes next to impossible to remember the flow of program. If one forgets how
software and its underlying programs, files, procedures are constructed it then becomes very
difficult to share, debug and modify the program. The solution to this is structured programming.
It encourages the developer to use subroutines and loops instead of using simple jumps in the
code, thereby bringing clarity in the code and improving its efficiency Structured programming
also helps programmer to reduce coding time and organize code properly.
Structured programming states how the program shall be coded. Structured programming uses
three main concepts:

 Top-down analysis - A software is always made to perform some rational work. This
rational work is known as problem in the software parlance. Thus it is very important that
we understand how to solve the problem. Under top-down analysis, the problem is
broken down into small pieces where each one has some significance. Each problem is
individually solved and steps are clearly stated about how to solve the problem.
 Modular Programming - While programming, the code is broken down into smaller
group of instructions. These groups are known as modules, subprograms or subroutines.
Modular programming based on the understanding of top-down analysis. It discourages
jumps using ‘goto’ statements in the program, which often makes the program flow non-
traceable. Jumps are prohibited and modular format is encouraged in structured
programming.
 Structured Coding - In reference with top-down analysis, structured coding sub-divides
the modules into further smaller units of code in the order of their execution. Structured
programming uses control structure, which controls the flow of the program, whereas
structured coding uses control structure to organize its instructions in definable patterns.

Functional Programming
Functional programming is style of programming language, which uses the concepts of
mathematical functions. A function in mathematics should always produce the same result on
receiving the same argument. In procedural languages, the flow of the program runs through
procedures, i.e. the control of program is transferred to the called procedure. While control flow
is transferring from one procedure to another, the program changes its state.

In procedural programming, it is possible for a procedure to produce different results when it is

called with the same argument, as the program itself can be in different state while calling it.
This is a property as well as a drawback of procedural programming, in which the sequence or
timing of the procedure execution becomes important.

Functional programming provides means of computation as mathematical functions, which

produces results irrespective of program state. This makes it possible to predict the behavior of
the program.

Functional programming uses the following concepts:

 First class and High-order functions - These functions have capability to accept
another function as argument or they return other functions as results.
 Pure functions - These functions do not include destructive updates, that is, they do not
affect any I/O or memory and if they are not in use, they can easily be removed without
hampering the rest of the program.
 Recursion - Recursion is a programming technique where a function calls itself and
repeats the program code in it unless some pre-defined condition matches. Recursion is
the way of creating loops in functional programming.
  Strict evaluation - It is a method of evaluating the expression passed to a function as an
argument. Functional programming has two types of evaluation methods, strict (eager) or
non-strict (lazy). Strict evaluation always evaluates the expression before invoking the
function. Non-strict evaluation does not evaluate the expression unless it is needed.
 λ-calculus - Most functional programming languages use λ-calculus as their type
systems. λ-expressions are executed by evaluating them as they occur.

Common Lisp, Scala, Haskell, Erlang and F# are some examples of functional programming
languages.

Programming style
Programming style is set of coding rules followed by all the programmers to write the code.
When multiple programmers work on the same software project, they frequently need to work
with the program code written by some other developer. This becomes tedious or at times
impossible, if all developers do not follow some standard programming style to code the
program.

An appropriate programming style includes using function and variable names relevant to the
intended task, using well-placed indentation, commenting code for the convenience of reader and
overall presentation of code. This makes the program code readable and understandable by all,
which in turn makes debugging and error solving easier. Also, proper coding style helps ease the
documentation and updation.

Coding Guidelines

Practice of coding style varies with organizations, operating systems and language of coding
itself.

The following coding elements may be defined under coding guidelines of an organization:

 Naming conventions - This section defines how to name functions, variables, constants
and global variables.
 Indenting - This is the space left at the beginning of line, usually 2-8 whitespace or
single tab.
 Whitespace - It is generally omitted at the end of line.
 Operators - Defines the rules of writing mathematical, assignment and logical operators.
For example, assignment operator ‘=’ should have space before and after it, as in “x = 2”.
 Control Structures - The rules of writing if-then-else, case-switch, while-until and for
control flow statements solely and in nested fashion.
 Line length and wrapping - Defines how many characters should be there in one line,
mostly a line is 80 characters long. Wrapping defines how a line should be wrapped, if is
too long.
 Functions - This defines how functions should be declared and invoked, with and
without parameters.
 Variables - This mentions how variables of different data types are declared and defined.
  Comments - This is one of the important coding components, as the comments included
in the code describe what the code actually does and all other associated descriptions.
This section also helps creating help documentations for other developers.

Software Documentation
Software documentation is an important part of software process. A well written document
provides a great tool and means of information repository necessary to know about software
process. Software documentation also provides information about how to use the product.

A well-maintained documentation should involve the following documents:

 Requirement documentation - This documentation works as key tool for software

designer, developer and the test team to carry out their respective tasks. This document
contains all the functional, non-functional and behavioral description of the intended
software.

Source of this document can be previously stored data about the software, already
running software at the client’s end, client’s interview, questionnaires and research.
Generally it is stored in the form of spreadsheet or word processing document with the
high-end software management team.

This documentation works as foundation for the software to be developed and is majorly
used in verification and validation phases. Most test-cases are built directly from
requirement documentation.

 Software Design documentation - These documentations contain all the necessary

information, which are needed to build the software. It contains: (a) High-level software
architecture, (b) Software design details, (c) Data flow diagrams, (d) Database design

These documents work as repository for developers to implement the software. Though
these documents do not give any details on how to code the program, they give all
necessary information that is required for coding and implementation.

 Technical documentation - These documentations are maintained by the developers and

actual coders. These documents, as a whole, represent information about the code. While
writing the code, the programmers also mention objective of the code, who wrote it,
where will it be required, what it does and how it does, what other resources the code
uses, etc.

The technical documentation increases the understanding between various programmers

working on the same code. It enhances re-use capability of the code. It makes debugging
easy and traceable.
 There are various automated tools available and some comes with the programming
language itself. For example java comes JavaDoc tool to generate technical
documentation of code.

 User documentation - This documentation is different from all the above explained. All
previous documentations are maintained to provide information about the software and
its development process. But user documentation explains how the software product
should work and how it should be used to get the desired results.

These documentations may include, software installation procedures, how-to guides,

user-guides, uninstallation method and special references to get more information like
license updation etc.

Software Implementation Challenges

There are some challenges faced by the development team while implementing the software.
Some of them are mentioned below:

 Code-reuse - Programming interfaces of present-day languages are very sophisticated

and are equipped huge library functions. Still, to bring the cost down of end product, the
organization management prefers to re-use the code, which was created earlier for some
other software. There are huge issues faced by programmers for compatibility checks and
deciding how much code to re-use.
 Version Management - Every time a new software is issued to the customer, developers
have to maintain version and configuration related documentation. This documentation
needs to be highly accurate and available on time.
 Target-Host - The software program, which is being developed in the organization,
needs to be designed for host machines at the customers end. But at times, it is impossible
to design a software that works on the target machines.

Software testing
Software Testing is evaluation of the software against requirements gathered from users and
system specifications. Testing is conducted at the phase level in software development life cycle
or at module level in program code. Software testing comprises of Validation and Verification.

Software Validation
Validation is process of examining whether or not the software satisfies the user requirements. It
is carried out at the end of the SDLC. If the software matches requirements for which it was
made, it is validated.
  Validation ensures the product under development is as per the user requirements.
 Validation answers the question – "Are we developing the product which attempts all that
user needs from this software ?".
 Validation emphasizes on user requirements.

Software Verification
Verification is the process of confirming if the software is meeting the business requirements,
and is developed adhering to the proper specifications and methodologies.

 Verification ensures the product being developed is according to design specifications.

 Verification answers the question– "Are we developing this product by firmly following
all design specifications ?"
 Verifications concentrates on the design and system specifications.

Target of the test are -

 Errors - These are actual coding mistakes made by developers. In addition, there is a
difference in output of software and desired output, is considered as an error.
 Fault - When error exists fault occurs. A fault, also known as a bug, is a result of an error
which can cause system to fail.
 Failure - failure is said to be the inability of the system to perform the desired task.
Failure occurs when fault exists in the system.

Manual Vs Automated Testing

Testing can either be done manually or using an automated testing tool:

 Manual - This testing is performed without taking help of automated testing tools. The
software tester prepares test cases for different sections and levels of the code, executes
the tests and reports the result to the manager.

Manual testing is time and resource consuming. The tester needs to confirm whether or
not right test cases are used. Major portion of testing involves manual testing.

 Automated This testing is a testing procedure done with aid of automated testing tools.
The limitations with manual testing can be overcome using automated test tools.

A test needs to check if a webpage can be opened in Internet Explorer. This can be easily done
with manual testing. But to check if the web-server can take the load of 1 million users, it is quite
impossible to test manually.

There are software and hardware tools which helps tester in conducting load testing, stress
testing, regression testing.
Testing Approaches
Tests can be conducted based on two approaches –

 Functionality testing
 Implementation testing

When functionality is being tested without taking the actual implementation in concern it is
known as black-box testing. The other side is known as white-box testing where not only
functionality is tested but the way it is implemented is also analyzed.

Exhaustive tests are the best-desired method for a perfect testing. Every single possible value in
the range of the input and output values is tested. It is not possible to test each and every value in
real world scenario if the range of values is large.

Black-box testing

It is carried out to test functionality of the program. It is also called ‘Behavioral’ testing. The
tester in this case, has a set of input values and respective desired results. On providing input, if
the output matches with the desired results, the program is tested ‘ok’, and problematic
otherwise.

In this testing method, the design and structure of the code are not known to the tester, and
testing engineers and end users conduct this test on the software.

Black-box testing techniques:

 Equivalence class - The input is divided into similar classes. If one element of a class
passes the test, it is assumed that all the class is passed.
 Boundary values - The input is divided into higher and lower end values. If these values
pass the test, it is assumed that all values in between may pass too.
 Cause-effect graphing - In both previous methods, only one input value at a time is
tested. Cause (input) – Effect (output) is a testing technique where combinations of input
values are tested in a systematic way.
 Pair-wise Testing - The behavior of software depends on multiple parameters. In
pairwise testing, the multiple parameters are tested pair-wise for their different values.
  State-based testing - The system changes state on provision of input. These systems are
tested based on their states and input.

White-box testing

It is conducted to test program and its implementation, in order to improve code efficiency or
structure. It is also known as ‘Structural’ testing.

In this testing method, the design and structure of the code are known to the tester. Programmers
of the code conduct this test on the code.

The below are some White-box testing techniques:

 Control-flow testing - The purpose of the control-flow testing to set up test cases which
covers all statements and branch conditions. The branch conditions are tested for both
being true and false, so that all statements can be covered.
 Data-flow testing - This testing technique emphasis to cover all the data variables
included in the program. It tests where the variables were declared and defined and where
they were used or changed.

Testing Levels
Testing itself may be defined at various levels of SDLC. The testing process runs parallel to
software development. Before jumping on the next stage, a stage is tested, validated and verified.

Testing separately is done just to make sure that there are no hidden bugs or issues left in the
software. Software is tested on various levels -

Unit Testing

While coding, the programmer performs some tests on that unit of program to know if it is error
free. Testing is performed under white-box testing approach. Unit testing helps developers
decide that individual units of the program are working as per requirement and are error free.

Integration Testing
Even if the units of software are working fine individually, there is a need to find out if the units
if integrated together would also work without errors. For example, argument passing and data
updation etc.

System Testing

The software is compiled as product and then it is tested as a whole. This can be accomplished
using one or more of the following tests:

 Functionality testing - Tests all functionalities of the software against the requirement.
 Performance testing - This test proves how efficient the software is. It tests the
effectiveness and average time taken by the software to do desired task. Performance
testing is done by means of load testing and stress testing where the software is put under
high user and data load under various environment conditions.
 Security & Portability - These tests are done when the software is meant to work on
various platforms and accessed by number of persons.

Acceptance Testing

When the software is ready to hand over to the customer it has to go through last phase of testing
where it is tested for user-interaction and response. This is important because even if the
software matches all user requirements and if user does not like the way it appears or works, it
may be rejected.

 Alpha testing - The team of developer themselves perform alpha testing by using the
system as if it is being used in work environment. They try to find out how user would
react to some action in software and how the system should respond to inputs.
 Beta testing - After the software is tested internally, it is handed over to the users to use
it under their production environment only for testing purpose. This is not as yet the
delivered product. Developers expect that users at this stage will bring minute problems,
which were skipped to attend.

Regression Testing

Whenever a software product is updated with new code, feature or functionality, it is tested
thoroughly to detect if there is any negative impact of the added code. This is known as
regression testing.

Testing Documentation
Testing documents are prepared at different stages -

Before Testing

Testing starts with test cases generation. Following documents are needed for reference –
  SRS document - Functional Requirements document
 Test Policy document - This describes how far testing should take place before releasing
the product.
 Test Strategy document - This mentions detail aspects of test team, responsibility
matrix and rights/responsibility of test manager and test engineer.
 Traceability Matrix document - This is SDLC document, which is related to
requirement gathering process. As new requirements come, they are added to this matrix.
These matrices help testers know the source of requirement. They can be traced forward
and backward.

While Being Tested

The following documents may be required while testing is started and is being done:

 Test Case document - This document contains list of tests required to be conducted. It
includes Unit test plan, Integration test plan, System test plan and Acceptance test plan.
 Test description - This document is a detailed description of all test cases and
procedures to execute them.
 Test case report - This document contains test case report as a result of the test.
 Test logs - This document contains test logs for every test case report.

After Testing

The following documents may be generated after testing :

 Test summary - This test summary is collective analysis of all test reports and logs. It
summarizes and concludes if the software is ready to be launched. The software is
released under version control system if it is ready to launch.

Testing vs. Quality Control, Quality Assurance and Audit

We need to understand that software testing is different from software quality assurance,
software quality control and software auditing.

 Software quality assurance - These are software development process monitoring

means, by which it is assured that all the measures are taken as per the standards of
organization. This monitoring is done to make sure that proper software development
methods were followed.
 Software quality control - This is a system to maintain the quality of software product.
It may include functional and non-functional aspects of software product, which enhance
the goodwill of the organization. This system makes sure that the customer is receiving
quality product for their requirement and the product certified as ‘fit for use’.
 Software audit - This is a review of procedure used by the organization to develop the
software. A team of auditors, independent of development team examines the software
process, procedure, requirements and other aspects of SDLC. The purpose of software
 audit is to check that software and its development process, both conform standards, rules
and regulations.

Software maintenance
Software maintenance is widely accepted part of SDLC now a days. It stands for all the
modifications and updations done after the delivery of software product. There are number of
reasons, why modifications are required, some of them are briefly mentioned below:

 Market Conditions - Policies, which changes over the time, such as taxation and newly
introduced constraints like, how to maintain bookkeeping, may trigger need for
modification.
 Client Requirements - Over the time, customer may ask for new features or functions in
the software.
 Host Modifications - If any of the hardware and/or platform (such as operating system)
of the target host changes, software changes are needed to keep adaptability.
 Organization Changes - If there is any business level change at client end, such as
reduction of organization strength, acquiring another company, organization venturing
into new business, need to modify in the original software may arise.

Types of maintenance
In a software lifetime, type of maintenance may vary based on its nature. It may be just a routine
maintenance tasks as some bug discovered by some user or it may be a large event in itself based
on maintenance size or nature. Following are some types of maintenance based on their
characteristics:

 Corrective Maintenance - This includes modifications and updations done in order to

correct or fix problems, which are either discovered by user or concluded by user error
reports.
 Adaptive Maintenance - This includes modifications and updations applied to keep the
software product up-to date and tuned to the ever changing world of technology and
business environment.
 Perfective Maintenance - This includes modifications and updates done in order to keep
the software usable over long period of time. It includes new features, new user
requirements for refining the software and improve its reliability and performance.
 Preventive Maintenance - This includes modifications and updations to prevent future
problems of the software. It aims to attend problems, which are not significant at this
moment but may cause serious issues in future.

Cost of Maintenance
Reports suggest that the cost of maintenance is high. A study on estimating software
maintenance found that the cost of maintenance is as high as 67% of the cost of entire software
process cycle.
On an average, the cost of software maintenance is more than 50% of all SDLC phases. There
are various factors, which trigger maintenance cost go high, such as:

Real-world factors affecting Maintenance Cost

 The standard age of any software is considered up to 10 to 15 years.

 Older softwares, which were meant to work on slow machines with less memory and
storage capacity cannot keep themselves challenging against newly coming enhanced
softwares on modern hardware.
 As technology advances, it becomes costly to maintain old software.
 Most maintenance engineers are newbie and use trial and error method to rectify
problem.
 Often, changes made can easily hurt the original structure of the software, making it hard
for any subsequent changes.
 Changes are often left undocumented which may cause more conflicts in future.

Software-end factors affecting Maintenance Cost

 Structure of Software Program

 Programming Language
 Dependence on external environment
 Staff reliability and availability

Maintenance Activities
IEEE provides a framework for sequential maintenance process activities. It can be used in
iterative manner and can be extended so that customized items and processes can be included.

These activities go hand-in-hand with each of the following phase:

 Identification & Tracing - It involves activities pertaining to identification of

requirement of modification or maintenance. It is generated by user or system may itself
report via logs or error messages.Here, the maintenance type is classified also.
 Analysis - The modification is analyzed for its impact on the system including safety and
security implications. If probable impact is severe, alternative solution is looked for. A
set of required modifications is then materialized into requirement specifications. The
cost of modification/maintenance is analyzed and estimation is concluded.
 Design - New modules, which need to be replaced or modified, are designed against
requirement specifications set in the previous stage. Test cases are created for validation
and verification.
 Implementation - The new modules are coded with the help of structured design created
in the design step.Every programmer is expected to do unit testing in parallel.
 System Testing - Integration testing is done among newly created modules. Integration
testing is also carried out between new modules and the system. Finally the system is
tested as a whole, following regressive testing procedures.
 Acceptance Testing - After testing the system internally, it is tested for acceptance with
the help of users. If at this state, user complaints some issues they are addressed or noted
to address in next iteration.
  Delivery - After acceptance test, the system is deployed all over the organization either
by small update package or fresh installation of the system. The final testing takes place
at client end after the software is delivered.

Training facility is provided if required, in addition to the hard copy of user manual.

 Maintenance management - Configuration management is an essential part of system

maintenance. It is aided with version control tools to control versions, semi-version or
patch management.

Software Re-engineering
When we need to update the software to keep it to the current market, without impacting its
functionality, it is called software re-engineering. It is a thorough process where the design of
software is changed and programs are re-written.

Legacy software cannot keep tuning with the latest technology available in the market. As the
hardware become obsolete, updating of software becomes a headache. Even if software grows
old with time, its functionality does not.

For example, initially Unix was developed in assembly language. When language C came into
existence, Unix was re-engineered in C, because working in assembly language was difficult.

Other than this, sometimes programmers notice that few parts of software need more
maintenance than others and they also need re-engineering.

Re-Engineering Process
  Decide what to re-engineer. Is it whole software or a part of it?
 Perform Reverse Engineering, in order to obtain specifications of existing software.
 Restructure Program if required. For example, changing function-oriented programs
into object-oriented programs.
 Re-structure data as required.
 Apply Forward engineering concepts in order to get re-engineered software.

There are few important terms used in Software re-engineering

Reverse Engineering

It is a process to achieve system specification by thoroughly analyzing, understanding the

existing system. This process can be seen as reverse SDLC model, i.e. we try to get higher
abstraction level by analyzing lower abstraction levels.

An existing system is previously implemented design, about which we know nothing. Designers
then do reverse engineering by looking at the code and try to get the design. With design in hand,
they try to conclude the specifications. Thus, going in reverse from code to system specification.

Program Restructuring

It is a process to re-structure and re-construct the existing software. It is all about re-arranging
the source code, either in same programming language or from one programming language to a
different one. Restructuring can have either source code-restructuring and data-restructuring or
both.

Re-structuring does not impact the functionality of the software but enhance reliability and
maintainability. Program components, which cause errors very frequently can be changed, or
updated with re-structuring.

The dependability of software on obsolete hardware platform can be removed via re-structuring.

Forward Engineering

Forward engineering is a process of obtaining desired software from the specifications in hand
which were brought down by means of reverse engineering. It assumes that there was some
software engineering already done in the past.

Forward engineering is same as software engineering process with only one difference – it is
carried out always after reverse engineering.
Component reusability
A component is a part of software program code, which executes an independent task in the
system. It can be a small module or sub-system itself.

Example

The login procedures used on the web can be considered as components, printing system in
software can be seen as a component of the software.

Components have high cohesion of functionality and lower rate of coupling, i.e. they work
independently and can perform tasks without depending on other modules.

In OOP, the objects are designed are very specific to their concern and have fewer chances to be
used in some other software.

In modular programming, the modules are coded to perform specific tasks which can be used
across number of other software programs.

There is a whole new vertical, which is based on re-use of software component, and is known as
Component Based Software Engineering (CBSE).

Re-use can be done at various levels

 Application level - Where an entire application is used as sub-system of new software.

 Component level - Where sub-system of an application is used.
 Modules level - Where functional modules are re-used.

Software components provide interfaces, which can be used to establish communication

among different components.

Reuse Process
Two kinds of method can be adopted: either by keeping requirements same and adjusting
components or by keeping components same and modifying requirements.

 Requirement Specification - The functional and non-functional requirements are

specified, which a software product must comply to, with the help of existing system,
user input or both.
 Design - This is also a standard SDLC process step, where requirements are defined in
terms of software parlance. Basic architecture of system as a whole and its sub-systems
are created.
 Specify Components - By studying the software design, the designers segregate the
entire system into smaller components or sub-systems. One complete software design
turns into a collection of a huge set of components working together.
 Search Suitable Components - The software component repository is referred by
designers to search for the matching component, on the basis of functionality and
intended software requirements..
 Incorporate Components - All matched components are packed together to shape them
as complete software.
 Revision questions
Q.What is computer software?

A. Computer software is a complete package, which includes software program, its

documentation and user guide on how to use the software.

Q.Can you differentiate computer software and computer program?

A. A computer program is piece of programming code which performs a well defined task where
as software includes programming code, its documentation and user guide.

Q.What is software engineering?

A. Software engineering is an engineering branch associated with software system development.

Q.When you know programming, what is the need to learn software engineering concepts?

A. A person who knows how to build a wall may not be good at building an entire house.
Likewise, a person who can write programs may not have knowledge of other concepts of
Software Engineering. The software engineering concepts guide programmers on how to assess
requirements of end user, design the algorithms before actual coding starts, create programs by
coding, testing the code and its documentation.

Q.What is software process or Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)?

A.Software Development Life Cycle, or software process is the systematic development of

software by following every stage in the development process namely, Requirement Gathering,
System Analysis, Design, Coding, Testing, Maintenance and Documentation in that order.

Q.What are SDLC models available?

A. There are several SDLC models available such as Waterfall Model, Iterative Model, Spiral
model, V-model and Big-bang Model etc.

Q.What are various phases of SDLC?

A. The generic phases of SDLC are: Requirement Gathering, System Analysis and Design,
Coding, Testing and implementation. The phases depend upon the model we choose to develop
software.

Q.Which SDLC model is the best?

A. SDLC Models are adopted as per requirements of development process. It may very software-
to-software to ensuring which model is suitable.
We can select the best SDLC model if following answers are satisfied -

 Is SDLC suitable for selected technology to implement the software ?

 Is SDLC appropriate for client’s requirements and priorities ?
 Is SDLC model suitable for size and complexity of the software ?
 Is the SDLC model suitable for type of projects and engineering we do ?
 Is the SDLC appropriate for the geographically co-located or dispersed developers ?

Q.What is software project management?

A. Software project management is process of managing all activities like time, cost and quality
management involved in software development.

Q.Who is software project manager?

A. A software project manager is a person who undertakes the responsibility of carrying out the
software project.

Q.What does software project manager do?

A. Software project manager is engaged with software management activities. He is responsible

for project planning, monitoring the progress, communication among stakeholders, managing
risks and resources, smooth execution of development and delivering the project within time,
cost and quality contraints.

Q.What is software scope?

A. Software scope is a well-defined boundary, which encompasses all the activities that are done
to develop and deliver the software product.

The software scope clearly defines all functionalities and artifacts to be delivered as a part of the
software. The scope identifies what the product will do and what it will not do, what the end
product will contain and what it will not contain.

Q.What is project estimation?

A. It is a process to estimate various aspects of software product in order to calculate the cost of
development in terms of efforts, time and resources. This estimation can be derived from past
experience, by consulting experts or by using pre-defined formulas.

Q.How can we derive the size of software product?

A. Size of software product can be calculated using either of two methods -

 Counting the lines of delivered code

 Counting delivered function points
Q.What are function points?

A. Function points are the various features provided by the software product. It is considered as a
unit of measurement for software size.

Q.What are software project estimation techniques available?

A. There are many estimation techniques available.The most widely used are -

 Decomposition technique (Counting Lines of Code and Function Points)

 Empirical technique (Putnam and COCOMO).

Q.What is baseline?

A. Baseline is a measurement that defines completeness of a phase. After all activities associated
with a particular phase are accomplished, the phase is complete and acts as a baseline for next
phase.

Q.What is Software configuration management?

A. Software Configuration management is a process of tracking and controlling the changes in

software in terms of the requirements, design, functions and development of the product.

Q.What is change control?

A. Change control is function of configuration management, which ensures that all changes
made to software system are consistent and made as per organizational rules and regulations.

Q.How can you measure project execution?

A. We can measure project execution by means of Activity Monitoring, Status Reports and
Milestone Checklists.

Q.Mention some project management tools.

A. There are various project management tools used as per the requirements of software project
and organization policies. They include Gantt Chart, PERT Chart, Resource Histogram, Critical
Path Analysis, Status Reports, Milestone Checklists etc.

Q.What are software requirements?

A. Software requirements are functional description of proposed software system. Requirements

are assumed to be the description of target system, its functionalities and features. Requirements
convey the expectations of users from the system.

Q.What is feasibility study?

A. It is a measure to assess how practical and beneficial the software project development will be
for an organization. The software analyzer conducts a thorough study to understand economic,
technical and operational feasibility of the project.

 Economic - Resource transportation, cost for training, cost of additional utilities and
tools and overall estimation of costs and benefits of the project.
 Technical - Is it possible to develop this system ? Assessing suitability of machine(s) and
operating system(s) on which software will execute, existing developers’ knowledge and
skills, training, utilities or tools for project.
 Operational - Can the organization adjust smoothly to the changes done as per the
demand of project ? Is the problem worth solving ?

Q.How can you gather requirements?

A. Requirements can be gathered from users via interviews, surveys, task analysis,
brainstorming, domain analysis, prototyping, studying existing usable version of software, and
by observation.

Q.What is SRS?

A. SRS or Software Requirement Specification is a document produced at the time of

requirement gathering process. It can be also seen as a process of refining requirements and
documenting them.

Q.What are functional requirements?

A. Functional requirements are functional features and specifications expected by users from the
proposed software product.

Q.What are non-functional requirements?

A. Non-functional requirements are implicit and are related to security, performance, look and
feel of user interface, interoperability, cost etc.

Q.What is software measure?

A. Software Measures can be understood as a process of quantifying and symbolizing various

attributes and aspects of software.

Q.What is software metric?

A. Software Metrics provide measures for various aspects of software process and software
product. They are divided into –

 Requirement metrics : Length requirements, completeness

 Product metrics :Lines of Code, Object oriented metrics, design and test metrics
  Process metrics: Evaluate and track budget, schedule, human resource.

Q.What is modularization?

A. Modularization is a technique to divide a software system into multiple discreet modules,

which are expected to carry out task(s) independently.

Q.What is concurrency and how it is achieved in software?

A. Concurrency is the tendency of events or actions to happen simultaneously. In software, when

two or more processes execute simultaneously, they are called concurrent processes.

Example

While you initiate print command and printing starts, you can open a new application.

Concurrency, is implemented by splitting the software into multiple independent units of

execution namely processes and threads, and executing them in parallel.

Q.What is cohesion?

A. Cohesion is a measure that defines the degree of intra-dependability among the elements of
the module.

Q.What is coupling?

A. Coupling is a measure that defines the level of inter-dependability among modules of a

program.

Q.Mentions some software analysis & design tools?

A. These can be: DFDs (Data Flow Diagrams), Structured Charts, Structured English, Data
Dictionary, HIPO (Hierarchical Input Process Output) diagrams, ER (Entity Relationship)
Diagrams and Decision tables.

Q.What is level-0 DFD?

A. Highest abstraction level DFD is known as Level 0 DFD also called a context level DFD,
which depicts the entire information system as one diagram concealing all the underlying details.

Q.What is the difference between structured English and Pseudo Code?

A. Structured English is native English language used to write the structure of a program module
by using programming language keywords, whereas, Pseudo Code is more close to programming
language and uses native English language words or sentences to write parts of code.
Q.What is data dictionary?

A. Data dictionary is referred to as meta-data. Meaning, it is a repository of data about data. Data
dictionary is used to organize the names and their references used in system such as objects and
files along with their naming conventions.

Q.What is structured design?

A. Structured design is a conceptualization of problem into several well-organized elements of

solution. It is concern with the solution design and based on ‘divide and conquer’ strategy.

Q.What is the difference between function oriented and object oriented design?

A. Function-oriented design is comprised of many smaller sub-systems known as functions. Each

function is capable of performing significant task in the system. Object oriented design works
around the real world objects (entities), their classes (categories) and methods operating on
objects (functions).

Q.Briefly define top-down and bottom-up design model.

A. Top-down model starts with generalized view of system and decomposes it to more specific
ones, whereas bottom-up model starts with most specific and basic components first and keeps
composing the components to get higher level of abstraction.

Q.What is the basis of Halstead’s complexity measure?

A. Halstead’s complexity measure depends up on the actual implementation of the program and
it considers tokens used in the program as basis of measure.

Q.Mention the formula to calculate Cyclomatic complexity of a program?

A. Cyclomatic complexity uses graph theory’s formula: V(G) = e – n + 2

Q.What is functional programming?

A. Functional programming is style of programming language, which uses the concepts of

mathematical function. It provides means of computation as mathematical functions, which
produces results irrespective of program state.

Q.Differentiate validation and verification?

A. Validation checks if the product is made as per user requirements whereas verification checks
if proper steps are followed to develop the product.

Validation confirms the right product and verification confirms if the product is built in a right
way.
Q.What is black-box and white-box testing?

A. Black-box testing checks if the desired outputs are produced when valid input values are
given. It does not verify the actual implementation of the program.

White-box testing not only checks for desired and valid output when valid input is provided but
also it checks if the code is implemented correctly.

Criteria Black Box Testing White Box Testing

Knowledge of software program, design and
No Yes
structure essential
Knowledge of Software Implementation essential No Yes
Software Testing
Who conducts this test on software Software Developer
Employee
Requirements Design and structure
baseline reference for tester
specifications details

Q.Quality assurance vs. Quality Control?

A. Quality Assurance monitors to check if proper process is followed while software developing
the software.

Quality Control deals with maintaining the quality of software product.

Q.What are various types of software maintenance?

A. Maintenance types are: corrective, adaptive, perfective and preventive.

 Corrective

Removing errors spotted by users

 Adaptive

tackling the changes in the hardware and software environment where the software works

 Perfective maintenance

implementing changes in existing or new requirements of user

 Preventive maintenance

taking appropriate measures to avoid future problems

Q.What is software re-engineering?

A. Software re-engineering is process to upgrade the technology on which the software is built
without changing the functionality of the software. This is done in order to keep the software
tuned with the latest technology.

Q.What are CASE tools?

A. CASE stands for Computer Aided Software Engineering. CASE tools are set of automated
software application programs, which are used to support, accelerate and smoothen the SDLC
activities.