An Overview of Software Processes And Software Development Models

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Objectives
To introduce the general phases of the software (development) life cycle To describe various generic software process models and their pros and cons

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Software Life Cycle

The phases necessary to develop and maintain a software system. These phases include:
Requirements (Specification) Design Implementation (Coding) Testing (Validation) Maintenance (Evolution)

A software process model is an abstract representation of how these phases can be addressed.
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Requirements
The process of establishing what services are required of the system the constraints on the systems operation and development The what of the software life cycle

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A Generic Requirements Process

Feasibility study Requirements elicitation and analysis

Requirements specification Requirements validation

Feasibility report System models User and system requirements

Requirements document

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Design
The process of converting the system specification (requirements) into a software structure that realizes that specification The how of the software life cycle

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A Generic Software Design Process

Requirements specification Design activities Architectural design Abstract specification Interface design Component design Data structure design Algorithm design

System architecture

Software specification

Interface specification

Component specification Design products

Data structure specification

Algorithm specification

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Implementation
Translating a design into a program and removing errors from that program Programming is a personal activity - there is no generic programming process. Programmers carry out some program testing to discover faults in the program and remove these faults in the debugging process. The activities of design and implementation are closely related and may be interleaved.

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Testing
Verification and validation 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.
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A Generic Testing Process

Unit testing Module testing Sub-system testing System testing Acceptance testing

Component testing
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Integration testing

User testing

System Maintenance
Software is inherently flexible and can change (as opposed to hardware). In the past, there has been a demarcation between development and evolution (maintenance). This is increasingly irrelevant as fewer and fewer systems are completely new. Software engineering should be thought of as an evolutionary process where software is continually changed over its lifetime in response to customer needs.
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Software Process Models

Waterfall model (Royce, 1970) Prototyping Throwaway Evolutionary Incremental development Spiral model (Boehm, 1988)

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Waterfall Model
Requirements Design Implementation Testing Maintenance

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Observations
The phases in waterfall model always occur in the order shown in the figure and they do not overlap The developer must complete each phase before the next phase begins i.e The following phase should not start until the previous phase has finished. This model is named Waterfall Model, because its diagrammatic representation resembles a cascade of waterfalls. In practice, Phases overlap May return to a previous phase Still widely used, especially on very large projects

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Problems Of Waterfall
It is difficult to define all requirements at the beginning of a project. This model is not suitable for accommodating any change. A working version of the system is not seen until late in the projects life It does not scale up well to large projects Real projects are rarely sequential. Due to these weaknesses, the application of the waterfall model should be limited to situations where the requirements and their implementation are well understood.

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Prototyping Model
A disadvantage of waterfall model as discussed in the last section is that working software is not available until late in the process, thus delaying the discovery of serious errors. An alternative to this is to first develop a working prototype of the software instead of developing the actual software. The working prototype is developed as per current available requirements. Basically, it has limited functional capabilities, low reliability, and untested performance

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Prototyping
Requirements Design Design Implementation Implementation Testing Testing Maintenance
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Prototyping Model
The developers use this prototype to refine the requirements and prepare the final specification document. Because the working prototype has been evaluated by the customer, it is reasonable to expect that the resulting specification document will be correct. When the prototype is created, it is reviewed by the customer. Typically this review gives feedback to the developers that helps to remove uncertainties in the requirements of the software, and starts an iteration of refinement in order to further clarify requirements as shown in the figure above.
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Observations
Used for requirements elicitation and validation A working model (prototype) of the final system is developed during requirements Is an iterative process Prototype can be thrown away or evolved into the final system (evolutionary prototyping)

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Prototyping Observation
After finalization of the software requirement and specification (SRS) document, the prototype is discarded and actual system is then developed using the waterfall approach. Thus, it is used as an input to waterfall model and produces maintainable and good quality software. This model requires extensive participation and involvement of the customer, which is not always possible
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Spiral Model
Determine objectives alternatives and constraints Evaluate alternatives identify, resolve risks Risk analysis Risk analysis Risk analysis Prototype 2 Risk analysis Prototype 1 Concept of Operation Prototype 3 Operational protoype

REVIEW Requirements plan Life-cycle plan

Simulations, models, benchmarks S/W requirements

Product design

Development plan Integration and test plan

Requirement validation Design V&V

Detailed design

Code Unit test

Plan next phase

Integration test Acceptance test Develop, verify Service next-level product

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Spiral Model
The problem with the traditional software process models is that they do not deal sufficiently with the uncertainty, which is inherent to software projects. Important software projects have failed because project risk were neglected and nobody was prepared when something unforeseen happened Barry Boehm recognized this and tried to incorporate the project risk factor into a life cycle model. The result is the spiral model, which was presented in 1986

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Spiral Model
The radial dimension of the model represents the cumulative costs. Each path around the spiral is indicative of increased cost The angular dimensions represents the progress made in completing each cycle. Each loop of the spiral from X-axis clockwise through 360 degree represents one phase. One space is split roughly into four sectors of major activities : Planning: Determination of objectives, alternatives and constraints
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Spiral Model
Risk analysis: Analyze alternatives and attempts to identify and resolve the risk involved Development: Product development and testing product Assessment: Customer evaluation During the first phase, planning is performed, risks are analyzed, prototypes are built, and customers evaluate the prototype. During the second phase, a more refined prototype is built, requirements are documented and validated, and customers are involved in assessing the new prototype. By the time third phase begins, risks are known and a somewhat more traditional development approach is taken

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Spiral Model
The focus is identification of problems and classification of these into different levels of risks, the aim being to eliminate high-risk problems before they threaten the software operation or cost An important feature of the spiral model is that each phase is completed with a review by the people concerned with the project. The advantage of this model is the wide range of options to accommodate the good features of other life cycle models.

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Observations
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. Uses prototyping
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Incremental Development Model

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Incremental Development Model

This model has the same phases as the waterfall model, but with fewer restrictions. Generally the phases occur in the same order as in the waterfall model, but these may be conducted in several cycles. A useable product is released at the end of the each cycle, with each release providing additional functionality

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Incremental Development Model

Iterative and Incremental development is a cyclic software development process developed in response to the weaknesses of the waterfall model. It starts with an initial planning and ends with deployment with the cyclic interaction in between. The basic idea behind iterative enhancement is to develop a software system incrementally, allowing the developer to take advantage of what was being learned during the development of earlier, incremental, deliverable versions of the system. Learning comes from both the development and use of the system, where possible..
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Incremental Development Model

Key steps in the process were to start with a simple implementation of a subset of the software requirements and iteratively enhance the evolving sequence of versions until the full system is implemented. At each iteration, design modifications are made and new functional capabilities are added.

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Incremental Development Model

The aim of waterfall model and prototyping models is the delivery of a complex, operational and good quality product. In contrast, this model does deliver an operational quality product at each release, but one that satisfies only a subset of the customers requirement. The complete product is divided into releases, and the developer delivers the product release by release
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Evolutionary Model
Evolutionary development model resembles iterative enhancement model. The same phases as defined for the waterfall model occur here in a cyclical fashion. This model differs from iterative enhancement model in the sense that this does not require a useable product at the end of each cycle. In evolutionary development model, requirements are implemented by category rather than by priority.

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Evolutionary Model
For example, in a simple database application, one cycle might implement the graphical user interface (GUI); another file manipulation; another queries; and another updates. All four cycles must complete before there is working product available. GUI allows the user interact with the system; file manipulation allows data to be saved and retrieved; queries allow users to get data out of the system; and updates allow users to put data into system. With any one these parts missing, the system would be unusable.

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Evolutionary Model
In contrast, an iterative enhancement model would start by developing a very simplistic, but usable database. On the completion of each cycle, the system would become more sophisticated. It, would, however, provide all the critical functionality by the end of the first cycle. Evolutionary development and iterative enhancement are somewhat interchangeable. Evolutionary development should be used when it is not necessary to provide a minimal version of the system quickly

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Evolutionary Model
This model is useful for projects using new technology that is not well understood. This is also used for complex projects where all functionality must be delivered at one time, but the requirements are unstable or not well understood at the beginning.

Alexander and Maiden explain the Evolutionary model for systems engineering:
In essence, it consists of a sequence of successive versions of a product evolving over time, with feedback from version (n) into version (n + 1). Inside each version cycle, we see the in the small system engineering activities embedded.

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