Software Processes

Part 1
Topics covered
Software process models
Process activities
Software process
A structured set of activities required to develop a software system.

There are 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.

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.
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.

Software process models
The waterfall model
 Plan-driven model. Separate and distinct phases of specification and
development.

Prototyping and Iterative development

 Repeating cycle of designing, prototyping, testing, and refining multiple
“versions,” or iterations, of a product.

Incremental development
 Specification, development and validation are interleaved. May be plan-driven or
agile.

Reuse-oriented software engineering

 The system is assembled from existing components. May be plan-driven or agile.
Waterfall model
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

 Advantage is that it identifies system requirements long before programming

begins, and that will minimize the changes to the requirements.

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.
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.

 This methodology is suited for smaller projects with deliverables that are easy to
define from the start.
 In those circumstances, the plan-driven nature of the waterfall model helps
coordinate the work.
 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.

In the waterfall model, they are organized in sequence, whereas in incremental
development they are inter-leaved.
Software specification
The process of establishing what services are required and the
constraints on the system’s operation and development.

Requirements engineering process

 Feasibility study
Is it technically and financially feasible to build the system?
 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
The requirements engineering
process
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.
A general model of the design
process
 Design activities
Architectural design, where you identify the overall structure of the system, the
principal components (sometimes called sub-systems or modules), their relationships
and how they are distributed.

Component design, where you take each system component and design how it will
operate.

Interface design, where you define the interfaces between system components.

Database design, where you design the system data structures and how these are to
be represented in a database.
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.

Stages of testing

Component System Acceptance

testing testing testing
Testing stages
Development or 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 are particularly
important.

Acceptance testing
 Testing with customer data to check that the system meets the customer’s needs.
Testing phases in a plan-driven software process
Software Processes
Part 2
 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.
System evolution
Coping with change
Change is inevitable in all large software projects.
 Business changes lead to new and changed system requirements
 New technologies open up new possibilities for improving implementations
 Changing platforms require application changes

Change leads to rework so the costs of change include both rework (e.g. re-
analysing requirements) as well as the costs of implementing new
functionality
Reducing the costs of rework
Change avoidance, where the software process includes activities that can
anticipate possible changes before significant rework is required.
 For example, a prototype system may be developed to show some key
features of the system to customers.

Change tolerance, where the process is designed so that changes can be

accommodated at relatively low cost.
 Usually involves some form of incremental development.
 Proposed changes may be implemented in increments that have not yet
been developed.
 If this is impossible, then only a single increment (a small part of the
system) may have be altered to incorporate the change.
Software prototyping
A prototype is an initial version of a system used to demonstrate concepts
and try out design options.
A prototype can be used in:
 The requirements engineering process to help with requirements elicitation
and validation;

 In design processes to explore options and develop a UI design;

 In the testing process to run back-to-back tests.

Benefits of prototyping
Improved system usability.
A closer match to users’ real needs.
Improved design quality.
Improved maintainability.
Reduced development effort.
The process of prototype development
Prototype development
May be based on rapid prototyping languages or tools
May involve leaving out functionality
 Prototype should focus on areas of the product that are not well-
understood;
 Error checking and recovery may not be included in the prototype;
 Focus on functional rather than non-functional requirements such as
reliability and security
Throw-away prototypes
Prototypes should be discarded after development as they are not a good
basis for a production system:
 It may be impossible to tune the system to meet non-functional
requirements;
 Prototypes are normally undocumented;
 The prototype structure is usually degraded through rapid change;
 The prototype probably will not meet normal organisational quality
standards.
Incremental delivery
Rather than deliver the system as a single delivery, the development and
delivery is broken down into increments with each increment delivering part
of the required functionality.
User requirements are prioritised and the highest priority requirements are
included in early increments.
Once the development of an increment is started, the requirements are
frozen though requirements for later increments can continue to evolve.
Incremental development and
delivery
Incremental development
 Develop the system in increments and evaluate each increment before
proceeding to the development of the next increment;
 Normal approach used in agile methods;
 Evaluation done by user/customer proxy.
Incremental delivery
 Deploy an increment for use by end-users;
 More realistic evaluation about practical use of software;
 Difficult to implement for replacement systems as increments have less
functionality than the system being replaced.
Incremental delivery
Incremental delivery advantages
Customer value can be delivered with each increment so system
functionality is available earlier.
Early increments act as a prototype to help elicit requirements for later
increments.
Lower risk of overall project failure.
The highest priority system services tend to receive the most testing.
Incremental delivery problems
Most systems require a set of basic facilities that are
used by different parts of the system.
 As requirements are not defined in detail until an
increment is to be implemented, it can be hard to identify
common facilities that are needed by all increments.
The essence of iterative processes is that the
specification is developed in conjunction with the software.
 However, this conflicts with the procurement model of
many organizations, where the complete system
specification is part of the system development contract.
Incremental development
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.
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.
Reuse-oriented software
engineering
Based on systematic reuse where systems are integrated from existing
components or COTS (Commercial-off-the-shelf) systems.
Process stages
 Component analysis;
 Requirements modification;
 System design with reuse;
 Development and integration.
Reuse is now the standard approach for building many types of business
system
Reuse-oriented software
engineering
Types of software component
Web services that are developed according to service standards and which
are available for remote invocation.
Collections of objects that are developed as a package to be integrated with
a component framework such as .NET or J2EE.
Stand-alone software systems (COTS) that are configured for use in a
particular environment.
Spiral Model
Spiral Model

Process is represented as a spiral rather sequence of activities with backtracking.

Each loop in the spiral represents a phase process.
No fixed phases such as specification or loops in the spiral are chosen depending
required.
Risks are explicitly assessed and resolved throughout the process.
Rapid Application Development
What is RAD (Rapid Application Development) Model?

RAD or Rapid Application Development process is an adoption of the

waterfall model; it targets at developing software in a short span of time.

RAD follow the iterative RAD model has following phases

 Business Modeling
 Data Modeling
 Process Modeling
 Application Generation
 Testing and Turnover
Business Modeling
 On basis of the flow of information and distribution between various
business channels, the product is designed
Data Modeling
 The information collected from business modeling is refined into a set of
data objects that are significant for the business
Process Modeling
 The data object that is declared in the data modeling phase is transformed
to achieve the information flow necessary to implement a business function
Contd…
Application Generation
 Automated tools are used for the construction of the software, to convert
process and data models into prototypes
Testing and Turnover
 As prototypes are individually tested during every iteration, the overall
testing time is reduced in RAD.
When to use RAD Methodology?
When a system needs to be produced in a short span of time (2-3 months)
When the requirements are known
When the user will be involved all through the life cycle
When technical risk is less
When there is a necessity to create a system that can be modularized in 2-3
months of time
When a budget is high enough to afford designers for modeling along with
the cost of automated tools for code generation
Advantages of RAD
Flexible and adaptable to changes
It is useful when you have to reduce the overall project risk
Due to code generators and code reuse, there is a reduction of manual
coding
Due to prototyping in nature, there is a possibility of lesser defects
Each phase in RAD delivers highest priority functionality to client
With less people, productivity can be increased in short time
Disadvantages of RAD
It can't be used for smaller projects
When technical risk is high, it is not suitable
If developers are not committed to delivering software on time, RAD projects
can fail
Reduced features due to time boxing, where features are pushed to a later
version to finish a release in short period
Progress and problems accustomed are hard to track as such there is no
documentation to demonstrate what has been done
Requires highly skilled designers or developers
Unified Process
State of the art process, by learning from the history
of previous software development processes.
Unified Process
Integrating two seemingly contradicting insights:
 Definitive activities and deliverables as in the Waterfall
Model.
 Iterative and incremental processes.
A project is split into several phases:
 Each phase is split into several iterations.
 Each iteration consists of the traditional process activities,
known as workflow.
Each workflow places different emphasis on the activities
depending on the current iteration.

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 Unified Process: 4 Phases
Inception:
 Plan the project.
 Evaluate risk.
Elaboration:
 Understand problem domain.
 Design system architecture.
 Plan development.
Construction:
 Design, programming and test.
Transition:

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 Moving system from developer to user environment.
 Acceptance testing, release of full system.
RUP and UP
UP is more of a philosophy of how to run development projects.

RUP is Rational Unified Process

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Rational Corporate Introduction
Background Introduction
Products Introduction:
1) Requirements & analysis
Rational Suite® AnalystStudio
2) Visual modeling & development
Rational Suite® DevelopmentStudio
3)Automated Testing
Rational Suite® TestStudio®
4)Project Management
Rational Unified Process®
5)Configurable Process
RUP

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UML and RUP
UML: international standard for object-oriented modeling.
RUP uses UML to prepare blueprints of the software

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RUP view I

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RUP good practice
Develop software iteratively
 Plan increments based on customer priorities and deliver highest priority
increments first.
Manage requirements
 Explicitly document customer requirements and keep track of changes to
these requirements.
Use component-based architectures
 Organize the system architecture as a set of reusable components.
RUP good practice
Visually model software
 Use graphical UML models to present static and dynamic views of the
software.

Verify software quality

 Ensure that the software meet’s organizational quality standards.

Control changes to software

 Manage software changes using a change management system and
configuration management tools.
Agile Software Development
Agile software development is a conceptual framework for software
engineering that promotes development iterations throughout the life-cycle of
the project.

Software developed during one unit of time is referred to as an iteration,

which may last from one to four weeks.

Agile methods also emphasize working software as the primary measure of

progress
Agile Software Development
Characteristics of Agile Software Development
-- Light Weighted methodology
-- Small to medium sized teams
-- vague and/or changing requirements
-- vague and/or changing techniques
-- Simple design
-- Minimal system into production
Agile Manifesto
Key Principles of Agile
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive
advantage.
Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter
timescale.
Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the
job done.
The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face
conversation.
Working software is the primary measure of progress.
Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a
constant pace indefinitely.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
Simplicity--the art of maximizing the amount of work not done--is essential.
The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Existing Agile Methods
Extreme Programming (“XP”)

Agile Unified Process

Scrum
Extreme Programming
Most prominent Agile Software development method.

Prescribes a set of daily stakeholder practices.

“Extreme” levels of practicing leads to more responsive software.

Changes are more realistic, natural, inescapable.

Agile Unified Process
AUP is a simplified version of RUP

Phases of AUP
 Inception
 Elaboration
 Construction
 Transition
Disciplines of AUP
 Model
 Implementation
 Test
 Deployment
 Configuration Management
 Project Management
 Environment
Scrum
 It is an Agile S/w development method for project management

Characteristics:
Prioritized work is done.
Completion of backlog items
Progress is explained
Agile Software Development
Scrum
 It is an Agile S/w development method for project management

Characteristics:
Prioritized work is done.
Completion of backlog items
Progress is explained
Agile Software Development