Software Construction

Lecture No. 02
By

RAFIA HASSAN

Prerequisites & Design

 CONTENTS

• Importance of Prerequisites
• Determine the Kind of Software You’re
Working On
• Amount of Time to Spend on Upstream
Prerequisites
• Design in Construction

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 Measure Twice, Cut Once: Upstream
Prerequisites

• As with building construction, much of the success or failure of the

project has already been determined before construction begins.

• So you should have good preparation.

• Metaphor: Measure Twice, Cut Once ???

• Measure twice, cut once is highly relevant to the construction part

of software development, which can account for as much as 65
percent of the total project costs.

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 Importance of Prerequisites
• A common denominator of programmers who build high-
quality software is their use of high-quality practices. Such
practices emphasize:

• quality at the beginning

• quality at the middle
• quality at the end of a project

“Paying attention to quality is also the best way to improve

productivity”.
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 Do Prerequisites Apply to Modern
Software Projects?
• Some people have asserted that upstream
activities such as architecture, design, and
project planning aren’t useful on modern
software projects.

• Data from the 1970s to the present day clearly

indicates that projects will run best if
appropriate preparation activities are done
before construction begins in earnest.
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 Goal of Preparation
• The overarching goal of preparation is risk
reduction: a good project planner clears major
risks out of the way as early as possible

• Most common projects risks in software

development are poor requirements and poor
project planning

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 Causes of Incomplete Preparation

• Developers do not have the expertise to carry

out their assignments

• Programmers do know how to perform

upstream activities

• Managers are notoriously unsympathetic to

programmers
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 Cost of Fixing Defects

The data in the Table shown above states that, for example, an
architecture defect that costs $1000 to fix when the architecture is being
created can cost $15,000 to fix during system test.
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Phase in Which a Defect Is Detected

The cost to fix a defect rises dramatically as the time

from when it’s introduced to when it’s detected
increases. 10
Determine the Kind of Software You’re
Working On

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Determine the Kind of Software You’re
Working On

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Determine the Kind of Software You’re
Working On

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Determine the Kind of Software You’re
Working On

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Determine the Kind of Software You’re
Working On

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Amount of Time to Spend on Upstream
Prerequisites
• The amount of time you spend on
prerequisites will depend on your project
type.

• Generally, a well-run project devotes about 10

to 20 percent of its effort and about 20 to 30
percent of its schedule to requirements,
architecture, and up-front planning.

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KEY CONSTRUCTION

DECISIONS

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 Choice of Programming Language
• The programming language in which the system
will be implemented should be of great interest.

• Studies have shown that the programming-

language choice affects productivity and code
quality in several ways.

• Programmers are more productive using a familiar

language than an unfamiliar one.
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 Choice of Programming Language
• Data from the Cocomo II estimation model shows
that programmers working in a language they’ve
used for three years or more are about 30 percent
more productive than programmers with
equivalent experience who are new to a language.

• An earlier study at IBM found that programmers

who had extensive experience with a programming
language were more than three times as
productive as those with minimal experience
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 Reading Assignment
• Language Descriptions
• Selection of Major Construction Practices

(Chap 4. “Key Construction Decisions” of Code

Complete).

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Choice of Programming Language

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Design in Construction

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 Design in Construction

• The phrase “software design” means the conception,

invention, or contrivance of a scheme for turning a
specification for a computer program into an operational
program.
•
Design is the activity that links requirements to coding and
debugging.
•
A good top-level design provides a structure that can safely
contain multiple lower level designs.

• Good design is useful on small projects and indispensable on

large projects. 23
24
 Design Challenges: Sloppiness

• How much is enough? Design is sloppy because it’s hard

to know when your design is “good enough.” How much
design should be done with a formal design notation,
and how much should be left to be done at the
keyboard?

• Non-determinism: What should be the outcome? 3

designer, 3 different but acceptable designs

• Process is heuristic not an algorithm. Things to try that

sometimes work
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Key Design Concepts: Managing
Complexity

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Key Design Concepts: Managing
Complexity

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 Key Design Concepts: Desirable
Characteristics

• Minimal Complexity
• Ease of maintenance
• Minimal connectedness
• Extensibility
• Reusability
• High fan-in
• Low to medium fan-out
• Portability
• Leanness

Read book to understand the definitions 28

Key Design Concepts: Levels of Design

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30
 Key Points
• Software’s Primary Technical Imperative is managing complexity.
This is greatly aided by a design focus on simplicity.

• Simplicity is achieved in two general ways: minimizing the

amount of essential complexity that anyone’s brain has to deal
with at any one time, and keeping accidental complexity from
proliferating needlessly.

• Design is heuristic. Dogmatic adherence to any single

methodology hurts creativity and hurts your programs.

• Good design is iterative; the more design possibilities you try, the
better your final design will be. 31
 References
Steve McConnell, “Code Complete: A Practical
Handbook of Software Construction”, Second
Edition.
• Chap # 4
• Chap # 5

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