Chapter 2 – Software Processes
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Topics covered
Software process models
Process activities
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The software process
A structured set of activities required to develop a
software system.
Many different software processes but all involve:
Specification – defining what the system should do;
Design and implementation – defining the organization of the
system and implementing the system;
Validation – checking that it does what the customer wants;
Evolution – changing the system in response to changing
customer needs.
A software process model is an abstract representation
of a process. It presents a description of a process from
some particular perspective.
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Software process descriptions
When we describe and discuss processes, we usually
talk about the activities in these processes such as
specifying a data model, designing a user interface, etc.
and the ordering of these activities.
Process descriptions may also include:
Products, which are the outcomes of a process activity;
Roles, which reflect the responsibilities of the people involved in
the process;
Pre- and post-conditions, which are statements that are true
before and after a process activity has been enacted or a
product produced.
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Plan-driven and agile processes
Plan-driven processes are processes where all of the
process activities are planned in advance and progress
is measured against this plan.
In agile processes, planning is incremental and it is
easier to change the process to reflect changing
customer requirements.
In practice, most practical processes include elements of
both plan-driven and agile approaches.
There are no right or wrong software processes.
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Software process models
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Software process models
The waterfall model
Plan-driven model. Separate and distinct phases of specification
and development.
Incremental development
Specification, development and validation are interleaved. May
be plan-driven or agile.
Integration and configuration
The system is assembled from existing configurable
components. May be plan-driven or agile.
In practice, most large systems are developed using a
process that incorporates elements from all of these
models.
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The waterfall model
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Waterfall model phases
There are separate identified phases in the waterfall
model:
Requirements analysis and definition
System and software design
Implementation and unit testing
Integration and system testing
Operation and maintenance
The main drawback of the waterfall model is the difficulty
of accommodating change after the process is underway.
In principle, a phase has to be complete before moving
onto the next phase.
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Waterfall model problems
Inflexible partitioning of the project into distinct stages
makes it difficult to respond to changing customer
requirements.
Therefore, this model is only appropriate when the requirements
are well-understood and changes will be fairly limited during the
design process.
Few business systems have stable requirements.
The waterfall model is mostly used for large systems
engineering projects where a system is developed at
several sites.
In those circumstances, the plan-driven nature of the waterfall
model helps coordinate the work.
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Incremental development
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Incremental development benefits
The cost of accommodating changing customer
requirements is reduced.
The amount of analysis and documentation that has to be
redone is much less than is required with the waterfall model.
It is easier to get customer feedback on the development
work that has been done.
Customers can comment on demonstrations of the software and
see how much has been implemented.
More rapid delivery and deployment of useful software to
the customer is possible.
Customers are able to use and gain value from the software
earlier than is possible with a waterfall process.
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Incremental development problems
The process is not visible.
Managers need regular deliverables to measure progress. If
systems are developed quickly, it is not cost-effective to produce
documents that reflect every version of the system.
System structure tends to degrade as new increments
are added.
Unless time and money is spent on refactoring to improve the
software, regular change tends to corrupt its structure.
Incorporating further software changes becomes increasingly
difficult and costly.
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Integration and configuration
Based on software reuse where systems are integrated
from existing components or application systems
(sometimes called COTS -Commercial-off-the-shelf)
systems).
Reused elements may be configured to adapt their
behaviour and functionality to a user’s requirements
Reuse is now the standard approach for building many
types of business system
Reuse covered in more depth in Chapter 15.
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Types of reusable software
Stand-alone application systems (sometimes called
COTS) that are configured for use in a particular
environment.
Collections of objects that are developed as a package
to be integrated with a component framework such as
.NET or J2EE.
Web services that are developed according to service
standards and which are available for remote invocation.
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Reuse-oriented software engineering
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Key process stages
Requirements specification
Software discovery and evaluation
Requirements refinement
Application system configuration
Component adaptation and integration
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Advantages and disadvantages
Reduced costs and risks as less software is developed
from scratch
Faster delivery and deployment of system
But requirements compromises are inevitable so system
may not meet real needs of users
Loss of control over evolution of reused system elements
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Process activities
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Process activities
Real software processes are inter-leaved sequences of
technical, collaborative and managerial activities with the
overall goal of specifying, designing, implementing and
testing a software system.
The four basic process activities of specification,
development, validation and evolution are organized
differently in different development processes.
For example, in the waterfall model, they are organized
in sequence, whereas in incremental development they
are interleaved.
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The requirements engineering process
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Software specification
The process of establishing what services are required
and the constraints on the system’s operation and
development.
Requirements engineering process
Requirements elicitation and analysis
• What do the system stakeholders require or expect from the system?
Requirements specification
• Defining the requirements in detail
Requirements validation
• Checking the validity of the requirements
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Software design and implementation
The process of converting the system specification into
an executable system.
Software design
Design a software structure that realises the specification;
Implementation
Translate this structure into an executable program;
The activities of design and implementation are closely
related and may be inter-leaved.
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A general model of the design process
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Design activities
Architectural design, where you identify the overall
structure of the system, the principal components
(subsystems or modules), their relationships and how
they are distributed.
Database design, where you design the system data
structures and how these are to be represented in a
database.
Interface design, where you define the interfaces
between system components.
Component selection and design, where you search for
reusable components. If unavailable, you design how it
will operate.
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System implementation
The software is implemented either by developing a
program or programs or by configuring an application
system.
Design and implementation are interleaved activities for
most types of software system.
Programming is an individual activity with no standard
process.
Debugging is the activity of finding program faults and
correcting these faults.
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Software validation
Verification and validation (V & V) is intended to show
that a system conforms to its specification and meets the
requirements of the system customer.
Involves checking and review processes and system
testing.
System testing involves executing the system with test
cases that are derived from the specification of the real
data to be processed by the system.
Testing is the most commonly used V & V activity.
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Stages of testing
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Testing stages
Component testing
Individual components are tested independently;
Components may be functions or objects or coherent groupings
of these entities.
System testing
Testing of the system as a whole. Testing of emergent properties
is particularly important.
Customer testing
Testing with customer data to check that the system meets the
customer’s needs.
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Testing phases in a plan-driven software
process (V-model)
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Software evolution
Software is inherently flexible and can change.
As requirements change through changing business
circumstances, the software that supports the business
must also evolve and change.
Although there has been a demarcation between
development and evolution (maintenance) this is
increasingly irrelevant as fewer and fewer systems are
completely new.
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System evolution
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Key points
Software processes are the activities involved in
producing a software system. Software process models
are abstract representations of these processes.
General process models describe the organization of
software processes.
Examples of these general models include the ‘waterfall’ model,
incremental development, and reuse-oriented development.
Requirements engineering is the process of developing a
software specification.
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Key points
Design and implementation processes are concerned
with transforming a requirements specification into an
executable software system.
Software validation is the process of checking that the
system conforms to its specification and that it meets the
real needs of the users of the system.
Software evolution takes place when you change
existing software systems to meet new requirements.
The software must evolve to remain useful.
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