Introduction to Software

Engineering
Ahmad Salman, PhD
Administration
 3 credit hour course
 2 lectures a week
 Discipline
 Cell phones
 Cross talking
 Monologue?
Distribution
 Mid term
 Final Term
 Quiz
 Assignments/ Class Activity
 Semester Project
 Books
 Ian Sommerville. Software Engineering,
Addison-Wesley,(9th edition)
 Software Engineering: A Practioner's
Approach, Roger Pressman, McGraw-
Hill, 7th Edition.
 Course Web Link

https://junaidaziztech.wordpress.com
 Software engineering
 The economies of ALL developed nations are
dependent on software.
 More and more systems are software
controlled
 Software engineering is concerned with
theories, methods and tools for professional
software development.
 Expenditure on software represents a
significant fraction of GNP in all developed
countries.
 FAQs about software engineering
 What is software?
 What is software engineering?
 What is the difference between software
engineering and computer science?
 What is the difference between software
engineering and system engineering?
 What is a software process?
 What is a software process model?
FAQs about software engineering
 What are the costs of software engineering?
 What are software engineering methods?
 What is CASE (Computer-Aided Software
Engineering)
 What are the attributes of good software?
 What are the key challenges facing software
engineering?
 What is software?
 Computer programs and associated documentation such
as requirements, design models and user manuals.
 Software products may be developed for a particular
customer or may be developed for a general market.
 Software products may be
 Generic - developed to be sold to a range of different
customers
 e.g. PC software such as Excel or Word.
 Custom - developed for a single customer according to
their specification.
 Examples – embedded control systems, air traffic control
software, traffic monitoring systems.
 What is Software engineering?
 Software engineering is an engineering discipline
that is concerned with all aspects of software
production from the early stages of system
specification through to maintaining the system after
it has gone into use.
 Engineering discipline
 Using appropriate theories and methods to solve
problems bearing in mind organizational and
financial constraints.
 All aspects of software production
 Not just technical process of development. Also
project management and the development of
tools, methods etc. to support software production.
 What is the difference between software
engineering and computer science?
 Computer science is concerned with theory and
fundamentals; software engineering is
concerned with the practicalities of developing
and delivering useful software.
 Computer science theories are still insufficient to
act as a solid foundation for software engineering
(unlike e.g. physics and electrical engineering).
 What is the difference between software
engineering and system engineering?
 System engineering is concerned with all aspects
of computer-based systems development
including hardware, software and process
engineering.
 Software engineering is part of this process
concerned with developing the software
infrastructure, control, applications and databases
in the system.
 System engineers are involved in system
specification, architectural design, integration and
deployment.
 What is a software process?
 A set of activities whose goal is the development
or evolution of software.
 Generic activities in all software processes are:
 Specification - what the system should do and
its development constraints
 Development - production of the software
system
 Validation - checking that the software is what
the customer wants
 Evolution - changing the software in response
to changing demands.
 What is a software process
model?
 A simplified representation of a software process,
presented from a specific perspective.
 Examples of process perspectives are
 Workflow perspective - sequence of activities;
 Data-flow perspective - information flow;
 Role/action perspective - who does what.
 Generic process models
 Waterfall;
 Incremental development;
 Component-based software engineering.
 What are the costs of software
engineering?
 Roughly 60% of costs are development costs, 40%
are testing costs. For custom software, evolution
costs often exceed development costs.
 Costs vary depending on the type of system being
developed and the requirements of system
attributes such as performance and system
reliability.
 Distribution of costs depends on the development
model that is used.
Activity cost distribution
 What are software engineering
methods?
 Structured approaches to software development which
include system models, notations, rules, design advice
and process guidance.
 Process guidance
 What activities to follow.
 While all software projects have to be professionally
managed and developed, different techniques are
appropriate for different types of system.
 Games should always be developed using a series of
prototypes
 safety critical control systems require a complete and
analyzable specification to be developed.
 What is CASE (Computer-Aided Software
Engineering)

 Software systems that are intended to provide automated

support for software process activities.
 CASE systems are often used for method support.
 Upper-CASE
 Tools to support the early process activities of
requirements and design;
 Lower-CASE
 Tools to support later activities such as programming,
debugging and testing.
 What are the attributes of good software?
 The software should deliver the required functionality and
performance to the user and should be maintainable,
dependable and acceptable.
 Maintainability
 Software must evolve to meet changing needs;
 Dependability
 Reliability, security, and safety
 Efficiency
 Software should not make wasteful use of system resources
 responsiveness, processing time, memory utilization;
 Acceptability
 Software must accepted by the users for which it was
designed. This means it must be understandable, usable
and compatible with other systems.
 What are the key challenges facing software
engineering?
 Heterogeneity
 Increasingly, systems are required to operate as
distributed systems across networks that include
different types of computer and mobile devices.
 Business and social change
 Business and society are changing incredibly quickly
as emerging economies develop and new technologies
become available. They need to be able to change
their existing software and to rapidly develop new
software.
 Security and trust
 As software is intertwined with all aspects of our lives,
it is essential that we can trust that software.
 What differences has the web made to
software engineering?

 The web has led to the availability of

software services and the possibility of
developing highly distributed service-
based systems.
 Web-based systems development has
led to important advances in
programming languages and software
reuse.
 Reasons for software failures
 Increasing demands
 Systems have to be built and delivered more quickly; larger, even
more complex systems are required
 systems have to have new capabilities that were previously
thought to be impossible.
 Existing software engineering methods cannot cope and new
software engineering techniques have to be developed
 Lack of SE techniques
 It is relatively easy to write computer programs without using
software engineering methods and techniques
 Consequently, their software is often more expensive and less
reliable than it should be.
 We need better software engineering education and training to
address this problem.
 Software engineering diversity
 There are many different types of software
system and there is no universal set of
software techniques that is applicable to all
of these.
 The software engineering methods and
tools used depend on the type of
application being developed, the
requirements of the customer and the
background of the development team.
 Application types
 Stand-alone applications
 These are application systems that run on a local computer, such
as a PC. They include all necessary functionality and do not need
to be connected to a network.
 Interactive transaction-based applications
 Applications that execute on a remote computer and are accessed
by users from their own PCs or terminals.
 These include web applications such as e-commerce applications.
 Embedded control systems
 These are software control systems that control and manage
hardware devices. Numerically, there are probably more
embedded systems than any other type of system.
 Microwave oven
 Application types
 Batch processing systems
 These are business systems that are designed to process data
in large batches. They process large numbers of individual
inputs to create corresponding outputs.
 phone billing systems, and salary payment systems
 Entertainment systems
 These are systems that are primarily for personal use and which
are intended to entertain the user.
 Computer Games
 Systems for modeling and simulation
 These are systems that are developed by scientists and
engineers to model physical processes or situations.
 Application types
 Data collection systems
 These are systems that collect data from their
environment using a set of sensors and send that
data to other systems for processing.
 Heat sensors
 Systems of systems
 These are systems that are composed of a number
of other software systems.
 Software engineering fundamental principles
 Some fundamental principles apply to all types of
software system, irrespective of the development
techniques used:
1. Systems should be developed using a managed
and understood development process. Of
course, different processes are used for different
types of software.
2. Dependability and performance are important for
all types of system.
3. Understanding and managing the software
specification and requirements (what the
software should do) are important.
4. Where appropriate, you should reuse software
that has already been developed rather than write
new software.
 Software engineering and the web
 The Web is now a platform for running application
and organizations are increasingly developing web-
based systems rather than local systems.
 Web services allow application functionality to be
accessed over the web.
 Cloud computing is an approach to the provision of
computer services where applications run remotely
on the ‘cloud’.
 Users do not buy software buy pay according to
use.
Cloud computing (SaaS)
Cloud computing
 Web software engineering
 Software reuse is the dominant approach for constructing
web-based systems.
 When building these systems, you think about how you
can assemble them from pre-existing software
components and systems.
 Web-based systems should be developed and delivered
incrementally.
 It is now generally recognized that it is impractical to
specify all the requirements for such systems in
advance.
 Key points
 Software engineering is an engineering
discipline that is concerned with all aspects of
software production.
 Essential software product attributes are
maintainability, dependability and security,
efficiency and acceptability.
 The high-level activities of specification,
development, validation and evolution are
part of all software processes.
Key points
 There are many different types of
system and each requires appropriate
software engineering tools and
techniques for their development.
 The fundamental ideas of software
engineering are applicable to all types
of software system.
Software engineering
ethics
 Software engineering ethics
 Software engineering involves wider
responsibilities than simply the application
of technical skills.
 Software engineers must behave in an
honest and ethically responsible way if they
are to be respected as professionals.
 Ethical behaviour is more than simply
upholding the law but involves following a
set of principles that are morally correct.
 Issues of professional
responsibility
 Confidentiality
 Engineers should normally respect the
confidentiality of their employers or clients
irrespective of whether or not a formal
confidentiality agreement has been signed.
 Competence
 Engineers should not misrepresent their level
of competence. They should not knowingly
accept work which is outwith their
competence.
Issues of professional
responsibility
 Intellectual property rights
 Engineers should be aware of local laws governing the use
of intellectual property such as patents, copyright, etc. They
should be careful to ensure that the intellectual property of
employers and clients is protected.
 Computer misuse
 Software engineers should not use their technical skills to
misuse other people’s computers. Computer misuse ranges
from relatively trivial (game playing on an employer’s
machine, say) to extremely serious (dissemination of
viruses).
 Ethical dilemmas
 Disagreement in principle with the
policies of senior management.
 Your employer acts in an unethical way
and releases a safety-critical system
without finishing the testing of the
system.
 Participation in the development of
military weapons systems or nuclear
systems.