Week 2:

Software Processes
Nguyễn Thị Minh Tuyền
 Topics covered
1. Software process models
2. Process activities
3. Coping with change
4. Boehm’s spriral and RUP

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 Definitions
£ What is a process?
£ Four activities that are fundamental to software
engineering?
£ What is process model?

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 The software process
£ A structured set of activities required to develop a
software system.
£ 4 fundamental activities:
p Specification – defining what the system should do;
p Design and implementation – defining the organization of the
system and implementing the system;
p Validation – checking that it does what the customer wants;
p Evolution – changing the system in response to changing
customer needs.
£ A software process model
p Is an abstract representation of a process.
p 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
p the activities in these processes such as specifying a
data model, designing a user interface, etc. and
p the ordering of these activities.
£ Process descriptions may also include:
p Products, which are the outcomes of a process activity;
p Roles, which reflect the responsibilities of the people
involved in the process;
p Pre- and post-conditions, which are statements that
are true before and after a process activity has been
- predictive & adaptive
enacted or a product produced. 5
- incremental vs iterative
 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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 Topics covered
1. Software process models
2. Process activities
3. Coping with change
4. Boehm’s spriral and RUP

7
 Software process models
- is an abstract representation of a process.
- presents a description of a process from some particular perspective

£ The waterfall model straightforward + logical + efficience vs. inflexible + customer cannot take
benefit off match few business sys have stable requirements + dev
have exp do with same requirements
p Plan-driven model. Separate and distinct phases of
specification and development.
changeable + adapt customers' requirement vs. invisible +

£ Incremental development vulnerability

- analysis + docu has to be redone is much less than waterfall
- can see how much completed -> release product early
p Specification, development and validation are
interleaved. May be plan-driven or agile. reduced cost, risk + faster delivery
and deployment vs. requirements
compromises are inevitable + loss of
£ Reuse-oriented software engineering control over evolution

p 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. Hybrid model 8
 The waterfall model
Requirements
definition

System and
software design

Implementation
and unit testing

Integration and
system testing

Operation and
maintenance

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 Waterfall model phases
£ 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.
p Only appropriate when the requirements are well-understood
and changes will be fairly limited during the design process.
p Few business systems have stable requirements.
£ Mostly used for large systems engineering projects
where a system is developed at several sites.
p The plan-driven nature of the waterfall model helps coordinate
the work.

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£ An important variant of the waterfall model is
formal system development
p Use a mathematical model to specify a system.
p Use mathematical transformations that preserve its
consistency, into executable code.
p Mathematical transformations are correct: a program
generated in this way is consistent with its specification.
£ Formal development processes (B method for
example) are suited to the development of
systems that have stringent safety, reliability, or
security requirements.
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 Incremental development

Concurrent
activities

Initial
Specification version

Outline Intermediate
description Development versions

Final
Validation version

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 Incremental development benefits

£ The cost of accommodating changing customer

requirements is reduced.
p 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.
p 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.
p 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.
p 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.
p 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 systematic reuse where systems are integrated
from existing components or 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

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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

Application system Configure

Software available application
discovery system

Requirements Requirements
specification refinement Adapt
components
Software Integrate
evaluation Components system
available Develop new
components
ask customer be4 put reused code into
proj

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 Advantages and drawbacks
£ Advantages
p Reduced costs and risks as less software is
developed from scratch
p Faster delivery and deployment of system
£ Drawbacks
p requirements compromises are inevitable
¡ this may lead to a system that does not meet the real needs
of users.
p Loss of control over evolution of reused system
elements

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 Topics covered
1. Software process models
2. Process activities
3. Coping with change
4. Boehm’s spriral and RUP

20
 Process activities
£ Real software processes are interleaved 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:
p In the waterfall model, they are organized in sequence,
p In incremental development, they are interleaved.

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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
p Feasibility study: Is it technically and financially feasible to
build the system?
p Requirements elicitation and analysis: What do the system
stakeholders require or expect from the system?
p Requirements specification: Defining the requirements in
detail
p Requirements validation: Checking the validity of the
requirements

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The requirements engineering process

Requirements
Feasibility
elicitation and
study
analysis
Requirements
specification

Feasibility Requirements
report validation

System
models
User and system
requirements

Requirements
document

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 Software design and implementation
£ The process of converting the system specification into an
executable system.
£ Software design
p Design a software structure that realises the specification;
£ Implementation
p 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

Design inputs

Platform Requirements Data

information specification description

Design activities

Architectural Interface Component

design design design

Database design

Design outputs

System Database Interface Component

architecture specification specification specification

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 Design activities
£ Architectural design, where you identify
p the overall structure of the system,
p the principal components, their relationships and how they are
distributed.
£ Interface design
p define the interfaces between system components.
£ Component selection and design
p where you search for reusable components. If unavailable, you
design how it will operate.
£ Database design
p design the system data structures and how these are to be
represented in a database.

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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

Component Acceptance
System testing
testing testing

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 Testing stages
£ Development or component testing
p Individual components are tested independently;
p Components may be functions or objects or
coherent groupings of these entities.
£ System testing
p Testing of the system as a whole. Testing of
emergent properties is particularly important.
£ Acceptance testing
p 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

Requirements System System Detailed

specification specification design design

System Sub-system Module and

Acceptance
integration integration unit code
test plan and test
test plan test plan

Acceptance System Sub-system

Service
test integration test integration test

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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 this is increasingly irrelevant
as fewer and fewer systems are completely new.

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 System evolution

Define system Assess existing Propose system Modify

requirements systems changes systems

Existing New
systems system

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 Topics covered
1. Software process models
2. Process activities
3. Coping with change
4. Boehm’s spriral and RUP

34
 Coping with change

£ Change is inevitable in all large software

projects.
p Business changes lead to new and changed
system requirements
p New technologies open up new possibilities for
improving implementations
p Changing platforms require application changes
£ Change leads to rework so the costs of
change include both rework as well as the
costs of implementing new functionality

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 Reducing the costs of rework
£ Change anticipation (Change avoidance)
p The software process includes activities that can
anticipate possible changes before significant rework
is required.
p Example: a prototype system may be developed to
show some key features of the system to customers.
£ Change tolerance
p The process is designed so that changes can be
accommodated at relatively low cost.
p This involves some form of incremental development.

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 Coping with changing requirements
£ System prototyping
p A version of the system or part of the system is
developed quickly to check the customer’s requirements
and the feasibility of design decisions.
p This approach supports change anticipation.
£ Incremental delivery
p System increments are delivered to the customer for
comment and experimentation.
p This supports both change avoidance and change
tolerance.

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 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:
p The requirements engineering process to help with
requirements elicitation and validation;
p In design processes to explore options and develop a UI
design;
p In the testing process to run back-to-back tests.

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 Benefits of prototyping
£ Improved system usability.
£ A closer match to users’ real needs.
£ Improved design quality.
£ Improved maintainability.
£ Reduced development effort.

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The process of prototype development

Establish Define
prototype prototype Develop Evaluate
objectives functionality prototype prototype

Prototyping Outline Executable Evaluation

plan definition prototype report

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 Prototype development
£ May be based on rapid prototyping languages or
tools
£ May involve leaving out functionality
p Prototype should focus on areas of the product that are
not well-understood;
p Error checking and recovery may not be included in the
prototype;
p Focus on functional rather than non-functional
requirements such as reliability and security

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 Throwaway prototypes
shouldn't reuse because:

£ Prototypes should be discarded after development

as they are not a good basis for a production
system:
p It may be impossible to tune the system to meet non-
functional requirements;
p Prototypes are normally undocumented;
p The prototype structure is usually degraded through
rapid change;
p The prototype probably will not meet normal
organisational quality standards.

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 Incremental 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.

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 Incremental development and delivery
£ Incremental development
p Develop the system in increments and evaluate each
increment before proceeding to the development of the
next increment;
p Normal approach used in agile methods;
p Evaluation done by user/customer proxy.
£ Incremental delivery
p Deploy an increment for use by end-users;
p More realistic evaluation about practical use of software;
p Difficult to implement for replacement systems as
increments have less functionality than the system being
replaced. 44
 Incremental delivery

Define outline Assign requirements Design system Develop system

requirements to increments architecture increment

System
incomplete?
Validate Integrate Validate Deploy
increment increment system increment

System
complete?
Final
system

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 Incremental delivery benefits
£ 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.

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 Incremental delivery problems

£ Most systems require a set of basic facilities that are

used by different parts of the system.
p 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.
p However, this conflicts with the procurement model of many
organizations, where the complete system specification is part
of the system development contract.

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 Topics covered
1. Software process models
2. Process activities
3. Coping with change
4. Boehm’s spriral and RUP

48
 Boehm’s spiral model
£ Process is represented as a spiral rather than as a
sequence of activities with backtracking.
£ Each loop in the spiral represents a phase in the
process.
£ No fixed phases such as specification or design -
loops in the spiral are chosen depending on what
is required.
£ Risks are explicitly assessed and resolved
throughout the process.

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Boehm’s spiral model of the software
process
Determine objectives,
Evaluate alternatives,
alternatives and
identify, resolve risks
constraints Risk
analysis
Risk
analysis
Risk
analysis Opera-
Prototype 3 tional
Prototype 2 protoype
Risk
REVIEW analysis Proto-
type 1
Requirements plan Simulations, models, benchmarks
Life-cycle plan Concept of
Operation S/W
requirements Product
design Detailed
Requirement design
Development
plan validation Code

Design Unit test

Integration
and test plan V&V Integration
Plan next phase test
Acceptance
Service test Develop, verify
next-level product 50
 Spiral model sectors
£ Objective setting
p Specific objectives for the phase are identified.
£ Risk assessment and reduction
p Risks are assessed and activities put in place to
reduce the key risks.
£ Development and validation
p A development model for the system is chosen
which can be any of the generic models.
£ Planning
p The project is reviewed and the next phase of the
spiral is planned.
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 Spiral model usage
£ Spiral model has been very influential in helping
people think about iteration in software processes
and introducing the risk-driven approach to
development.
£ In practice, however, the model is rarely used as
published for practical software development.

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The Rational Unified Process
 The Rational Unified Process
£ A modern generic process derived from the work
on the UML and associated process.
£ Brings together aspects of the 3 generic process
models discussed previously.
£ Normally described from 3 perspectives
p A dynamic perspective that shows phases over time;
p A static perspective that shows process activities;
p A practive perspective that suggests good practice.

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 Phases in the Rational Unified
Process

Phase iteration

Inception Elaboration Construction Transition

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 RUP phases
£ Inception
p Establish the business case for the system.
£ Elaboration
p Develop an understanding of the problem domain and
the system architecture.
£ Construction
p System design, programming and testing.
£ Transition
p Deploy the system in its operating environment.

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 RUP iteration
£ In-phase iteration
p Each phase is iterative with results developed
incrementally.
£ Cross-phase iteration
p As shown by the loop in the RUP model, the whole set
of phases may be enacted incrementally.

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Source : http://www.ibm.com 58
 Static workflows in the Rational
Unified Process
Workflow Description
Business modelling The business processes are modelled using
business use cases.
Requirements Actors who interact with the system are identified
and use cases are developed to model the system
requirements.
Analysis and design A design model is created and documented using
architectural models, component models, object
models and sequence models.
Implementation The components in the system are implemented
and structured into implementation sub-systems.
Automatic code generation from design models
helps accelerate this process.
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 Static workflows in the Rational
Unified Process
Workflow Description
Testing Testing is an iterative process that is carried out in
conjunction with implementation. System testing
follows the completion of the implementation.
Deployment A product release is created, distributed to users and
installed in their workplace.
Configuration and This supporting workflow managed changes to the
change
management
Project This supporting workflow manages the system
management development
Environment This workflow is concerned with making appropriate
software tools available to the software development
team. 60
 RUP good practice
£ Develop software iteratively
p Plan increments based on customer priorities and
deliver highest priority increments first.
£ Manage requirements
p Explicitly document customer requirements and keep
track of changes to these requirements.
£ Use component-based architectures
p Organize the system architecture as a set of reusable
components.

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 RUP good practice
£ Visually model software
p Use graphical UML models to present static and
dynamic views of the software.
£ Verify software quality
p Ensure that the software meet’s organizational quality
standards.
£ Control changes to software
p Manage software changes using a change management
system and configuration management tools.

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Questions?

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