Software Enginering | Chapter 1

Intro Producing Proffesional Software and Case Studies .

PUNTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY

Faculty of Computer Science/IT
Eng: Adnan Mohamed Hassan

Class : 2021 BSCS Software Engineering

Content: Introduction
Period: 2 hr and 50 minutes
Date: June 4 2023
1
Chapter 1- Introduction

2
 Topics covered

• Professional software development

– What is meant by software engineering.
• Case studies
– An introduction to three examples that are used in later chapters
in the book.

3
 Software engineering

• Software engineering is an engineering branch associated with

development of software product using well-defined scientific
principles, methods and procedures. The outcome of software
engineering is an efficient and reliable software product.
• The economies of ALL developed nations are
dependent on software.
• More and more systems are software
controlled
• Software is more than just a program code. A program is an
executable code, which serves some computational purpose.
Software is considered to be collection of executable programming
code, associated libraries and documentations.

4
 Software costs
• Software costs often dominate computer system costs. The costs of
software on a PC are often greater than the hardware cost.
• Software costs more to maintain than it does to develop. For
systems with a long life, maintenance costs may be several times
development costs.
• Software engineering is concerned with cost-effective software
development.

5
 Software project failure

• Increasing system complexity

– As new software engineering techniques help us to build larger,
more complex systems, the demands change. 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.
• Failure to use software engineering methods
– It is fairly easy to write computer programs without using
software engineering methods and techniques. Many companies
have drifted into software development as their products and
services have evolved. They do not use software engineering
methods in their everyday work. Consequently, their software is
often more expensive and less reliable than it should be.

6
Professional software
development

7
 Frequently asked questions about
software engineering
Question Answer

What is software? Computer programs and associated documentation.

Software products may be developed for a particular
customer or may be developed for a general market.
What are the attributes of good software? Good software should deliver the required functionality
and performance to the user and should be maintainable,
dependable and usable.
What is software engineering? Software engineering is an engineering discipline that is
concerned with all aspects of software production.
What are the fundamental software Software specification, software development, software
engineering activities? validation and software evolution.
What is the difference between software Computer science focuses on theory and fundamentals;
engineering and computer science? software engineering is concerned with the practicalities
of developing and delivering useful software.
What is the difference between software System engineering is concerned with all aspects of
engineering and system engineering? computer-based systems development including
hardware, software and process engineering. Software
engineering is part of this more general process.

8
 Frequently asked questions about
software engineering
Question Answer

What are the key challenges facing Coping with increasing diversity, demands for reduced
software engineering? delivery times and developing trustworthy software.
Whatarethecostsofsoftwar Roughly 60% of software costs are development costs,
e 40% are testing costs. For custom software, evolution
engineering? costs often exceed development costs.
What are the best software engineering While all software projects have to be professionally
techniques and methods? managed and developed, different techniques are
appropriate for different types of system. For example,
games should always be developed using a series of
prototypes whereas safety critical control systems require
a complete and analyzable specification to be
developed. You can’t, therefore, say that one method is
better than another.

What differences has the web made to The web has led to the availability of software services
software engineering? 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.
9
 Software products

• Generic products
– Stand-alone systems that are marketed and sold to any
customer who wishes to buy them.
– Examples – PC software such as graphics programs, project
management tools; CAD software; software for specific markets
such as appointments systems for dentists.
• Customized products
– Software that is commissioned by a specific customer to meet
their own needs.
– Examples – embedded control systems, air traffic control
software, traffic monitoring systems.

10
 Product specification

• Generic products
– The specification of what the software should do is owned by the
software developer and decisions on software change are made
by the developer.
• Customized products
– The specification of what the software should do is owned by the
customer for the software and they make decisions on software
changes that are required.

11
 Essential attributes of good
software
Product characteristic Description

Maintainability Software should be written in such a way so that it can evolve to meet
the changing needs of customers. This is a critical attribute because
software change is an inevitable requirement of a changing business
environment.

Dependability and security Software dependability includes a range of characteristics including

reliability, security and safety. Dependable software should not cause
physical or economic damage in the event of system failure. Malicious
users should not be able to access or damage the system.

Efficiency Software should not make wasteful use of system resources such as
memory and processor cycles. Efficiency therefore includes
responsiveness, processing time, memory utilisation, etc.

Acceptability Software must be acceptable to the type of users for which it is

designed. This means that it must be understandable, usable and
compatible with other systems that they use.

12
 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.

13
 Importance of software engineering
• More and more, individuals and society rely on advanced software
systems.
• We need to be able to produce reliable and trustworthy systems
economically and quickly.
• It is usually cheaper, in the long run, to use software engineering
methods and techniques for software systems rather than just write
the programs as if it was a personal programming project.
• For most types of system, the majority of costs are the costs of
changing the software after it has gone into use.

14
 Software process activities

• Software specification, where customers and engineers define

the software that is to be produced and the constraints on its
operation.
• Software development, where the software is designed
and programmed.
• Software validation, where the software is checked to ensure that
it is what the customer requires.
• Software evolution, where the software is modified to
reflect changing customer and market requirements.

15
 General issues that affect software
• 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.

16
 General issues that affect software

• Security and trust

– As software is intertwined with all aspects of our lives, it is
essential that we can trust that software.
• Scale
– Software has to be developed across a very wide range of scales,
from very small embedded systems in portable or wearable
devices through to Internet-scale, cloud-based systems that serve
a global community.

17
 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.

18
 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.

19
 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.
• Entertainment systems
– These are systems that are primarily for personal use and which
are intended to entertain the user.
• Systems for modeling and simulation
– These are systems that are developed by scientists and
engineers to model physical processes or situations, which
include many, separate, interacting objects.

20
 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.
• Systems of systems
– These are systems that are composed of a number of other
software systems.

21
 Software engineering
fundamentals
• Some fundamental principles apply to all types of software system,
irrespective of the development techniques used:
– Systems should be developed using a managed and understood
development process. Of course, different processes are used
for different types of software.
– Dependability and performance are important for all types of
system.
– Understanding and managing the software specification and
requirements (what the software should do) are important.
– Where appropriate, you should reuse software that has already
been developed rather than write new software.

22
 Internet software engineering

• The Web is now a platform for running application and organizations

are increasingly developing web-based systems rather than local
systems.
• Web services (discussed in Chapter 19) 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.

23
 Web-based software engineering

• Web-based systems are complex distributed systems but the

fundamental principles of software engineering discussed previously
are as applicable to them as they are to any other types of system.
• The fundamental ideas of software engineering apply to web-based
software in the same way that they apply to other types of software
system.

24
 Web software engineering

• Software reuse
– 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.
• Incremental and agile development
– 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.

25
 Web software engineering

• Service-oriented systems
– Software may be implemented using service-oriented software
engineering, where the software components are stand-alone
web services.
• Rich interfaces
– Interface development technologies such as AJAX and HTML5
have emerged that support the creation of rich interfaces within a
web browser.

26
Case studies

27
 Case studies

• A personal insulin pump

– An embedded system in an insulin pump used by diabetics to
maintain blood glucose control.
• A mental health case patient management system
– Mentcare. A system used to maintain records of people receiving
care for mental health problems.
• A wilderness weather station
– A data collection system that collects data about weather
conditions in remote areas.
• iLearn: a digital learning environment
– A system to support learning in schools

28
 Insulin pump
hardware architecture

29
Activity model of the
insulin pump

30
 Essential high-level
requirements
• The system shall be available to deliver insulin when required.
• The system shall perform reliably and deliver the correct amount of
insulin to counteract the current level of blood sugar.
• The system must therefore be designed and implemented to ensure
that the system always meets these requirements.

31
 Mentcare

• Mentcare is an information system that is intended for use in clinics.

• It makes use of a centralized database of patient information but has
also been designed to run on a PC, so that it may be accessed and
used from sites that do not have secure network connectivity.
• When the local systems have secure network access, they use
patient information in the database but they can download and use
local copies of patient records when they are disconnected.

32
 Mentcare
goals
• To generate management information that allows health service
managers to assess performance against local and government
targets.
• To provide medical staff with timely information to support the
treatment of patients.

33
 Key features of the Mentcare system
• Individual care management
– Clinicians can create records for patients, edit the information in
the system, view patient history, etc. The system supports data
summaries so that doctors can quickly learn about the key
problems and treatments that have been prescribed.
• Patient monitoring
– The system monitors the records of patients that are involved in
treatment and issues warnings if possible problems are detected.
• Administrative reporting
– The system generates monthly management reports showing the
number of patients treated at each clinic, the number of patients
who have entered and left the care system, number of patients
sectioned, the drugs prescribed and their costs, etc.

34
The organization of the
Mentcare system

35
 Wilderness weather station

• The government of a country with large areas of wilderness decides

to deploy several hundred weather stations in remote areas.
• Weather stations collect data from a set of instruments that measure
temperature and pressure, sunshine, rainfall, wind speed and wind
direction.
– The weather station includes a number of instruments that
measure weather parameters such as the wind speed and
direction, the ground and air temperatures, the barometric
pressure and the rainfall over a 24-hour period. Each of these
instruments is controlled by a software system that takes
parameter readings periodically and manages the data collected
from the instruments.
•

36
The weather station’s
environment

37
 iLearn: A digital learning environment

• A digital learning environment is a framework in which a set of

general-purpose and specially designed tools for learning may be
embedded plus a set of applications that are geared to the needs of
the learners using the system.
• The tools included in each version of the environment are chosen by
teachers and learners to suit their specific needs.
– These can be general applications such as spreadsheets,
learning management applications such as a Virtual Learning
Environment (VLE) to manage homework submission and
assessment, games and simulations.

38
iLearn architecture

39
 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.
• The fundamental notions of software engineering are universally
applicable to all types of system development.

40
 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 engineers have responsibilities to the engineering
profession and society. They should not simply be concerned with
technical issues.
• Professional societies publish codes of conduct which set out the
standards of behaviour expected of their members.

41
END THANKS

42