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CSC-321 Software Construction: Metaphors

The document discusses the use of metaphors in understanding software construction. It provides examples of common metaphors like writing, farming, and construction. The construction metaphor is discussed in depth and similarities are drawn between building a physical structure and developing software. Key points are that metaphors are heuristics rather than strict processes, and can provide insights by relating software development to familiar activities like building. The construction metaphor in particular highlights that preparation and planning increase with project size.

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FURQAN NASIR
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82 views

CSC-321 Software Construction: Metaphors

The document discusses the use of metaphors in understanding software construction. It provides examples of common metaphors like writing, farming, and construction. The construction metaphor is discussed in depth and similarities are drawn between building a physical structure and developing software. Key points are that metaphors are heuristics rather than strict processes, and can provide insights by relating software development to familiar activities like building. The construction metaphor in particular highlights that preparation and planning increase with project size.

Uploaded by

FURQAN NASIR
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CSC-321

Software Construction

Chapter 2:
Metaphors
Importance of Metaphors

• Important developments often arise out of analogies. By


comparing a topic you understand poorly to something similar
you understand better, you can come up with insights that result
in a better understanding of the less-familiar topic
• The chemist Kekulé had a dream in which he saw a snake grasp
its tail in its mouth. When he awoke, he realized that a molecular
structure based on a similar ring shape would account for the
properties of benzene.
• Metaphors contribute to a greater understanding of software-
development issues in the same way that they contribute to a
greater understanding of scientific questions.
• Earth-centered model to sun centered model… ?
• Bachman compared this to change in computer programming in
the early 1970s. When Bachman made the comparison in 1973,
data processing was changing from a computer-centered view of
information systems to a database-centered view.
How to Use Software Metaphors
• A metaphor serves more as a heuristic than it does as an
algorithm.
• An algorithm is a set of well-defined instructions for carrying out
a particular task
• A heuristic is a technique that helps you look for an answer.
Heuristic is an algorithm in a clown suit. It’s less predictable, it’s
more fun, and it comes without a 30-day money-back guarantee.
• An algorithm for driving to someone’s house vs. heuristic for
getting to someone’s house…?
• The main difference between the two is the level of indirection
from the solution.
How do you use software metaphors?
• Use them to give you insight into your programming problems
and processes. Use them to help you think about your
programming activities and to help you imagine better ways of
doing things.
Common Software Metaphors
Software Penmanship: Writing Code
• The writing metaphor suggests that developing a program is like
writing a casual letter—you sit down with pen, ink, and paper and
write it from start to finish.
• It doesn’t require any formal planning, and you figure out what
you want to say as you go.
• For an individual’s work or for small-scale projects, the letter-
writing metaphor works adequately, but for other purposes it
doesn’t describe software development fully.
• Writing is usually a one person activity…
• When you finish writing a letter, you stuff it into an envelope and
mail it. You can’t change it anymore…
• In writing, a high premium is placed on originality…
in software  REUSE
• Throw away a bad writing… In software:  system might cost as
much as a 10-story building
Common Software Metaphors Cont’d
Software Farming: Growing a System
• Creating software as something like planting seeds and growing
crops.
• The weakness in the software-farming metaphor is its suggestion
that you don’t have any direct control over how the software
develops.
Software Oyster Farming: System Accretion
• Accretion (Nasho-numa) means any growth or increase in size by
a gradual external addition or inclusion. Accretion describes the
way an oyster makes a pearl, by gradually adding small amounts
of calcium carbonate.
• It means that you have to learn how to add to your software
systems a small amount at a time.
• The image of an oyster forming a pearl is a good way to visualize
incremental development, or accretion.
Common Software Metaphors Cont’d
Software Construction: Building Software
• Building software implies various stages of planning, preparation,
and execution that vary in kind and degree depending on what’s
being built.
• If you’re building a simple structure  a doghouse

• This loose approach is appropriate for small software projects too,


if you use the wrong design for 1000 lines of code, you can start
over completely without losing much.
Common Software Metaphors Cont’d
Software Construction: Building Software (Cont’d)
• If you’re building a house, the building process is a more
complicated, and so are the consequences of poor design
• First you have to decide what kind of house you want to build—
analogous in software development to problem definition
• Then you and an architect have to come up with a general design
and get it approved. This is similar to software architectural
design.
• You draw detailed blueprints and hire a contractor. This is similar
to detailed software design.
• You prepare the building site, lay a foundation, frame the house,
put siding and a roof on it, and plumb and wire it. This is similar
to software construction
• And so on…
• Greater complexity and size imply greater consequences in both
activities. Change in any one of them is expensive and the main
cost component in both cases is  people’s time.
Common Software Metaphors Cont’d
Software Construction: Building Software (Cont’d)
What other parallels do the two activities share?
• In building a house, you won’t try to build things you can buy
already built
• In building a software system you might also use prebuilt libraries
of container classes, scientific functions, user interface classes
• However, If you’re building a fancy house with first-class
furnishings… ?
• In building, you’d use different levels of planning, design, and
quality assurance if you’re building a warehouse or a shopping
mall than if you’re building a medical center or a nuclear reactor.
• Making changes in the software brings up another parallel with
building construction. To move a wall six inches costs more if the
wall is load-bearing than if it’s merely a partition between rooms.
• Similarly, making structural changes in a program costs more
than adding or deleting peripheral features.
Common Software Metaphors Cont’d
Software Construction: Building Software (Cont’d)
• The penalty for failure in an extremely large structure is severe,
the structure has to be over-engineered.
• When the Empire State Building was built, each delivery truck had
a 15-minute margin in which to make its delivery. If a truck
wasn’t in place at the right time, the whole project was delayed.
• Likewise, for extremely large software projects, planning of a
higher order is needed than for projects that are merely large.
• The requirements specification for a 1,000,000 line of code
system would typically be about 4,000-5,000 pages long and the
design documentation can easily be two or three times as
extensive as the requirements.
• Forty million lines of code in windows 7… ?
• Many terms common in software development derive from the
building metaphor: software architecture, construction, tearing
code apart.
Key Points

• Metaphors are heuristics, not algorithms. As


such, they tend to be a little sloppy.
• Metaphors help you understand the software-
development process by relating it to other
activities you already know about.
• Some metaphors are better than others.
• Treating software construction as similar to
building construction suggests that careful
preparation is needed and illuminates the
difference between large and small projects.

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