Chapter 2 : Software Processes
FUNDAMENTALS OF SOFTWARE
ENGINEERING
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Part 1: Topics covered
Software process models
Process activities
Plan-driven vs Agile processes
Requirements Engineering
Design activities
Software Testing
Software evolution
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The software process
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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
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.
Reuse-oriented software engineering
The system is assembled from existing 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
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Waterfall model problems
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Incremental development
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Incremental development benefits
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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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Reuse-oriented software engineering
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Reuse-oriented software engineering
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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.
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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. In the
waterfall model, they are organized in sequence,
whereas in incremental development they are inter-
leaved.
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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
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
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The requirements engineering process
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A general model of the design process
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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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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.
Interface design, where you define the interfaces
between system components.
Component design, where you take each system
component and design how it will operate.
Database design, where you design the system data
structures and how these are to be represented in a
database.
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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
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 is
particularly important.
Acceptance 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
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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.
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Key points
Requirements engineering is the process of developing a
software specification.
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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