An Introduction to Software Engineering

Software engineering
The economies of ALL developed nations are dependent on software More and more systems are software controlled Software engineering is concerned with theories, methods and tools for professional software development

Software costs
Software costs often dominate 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

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 Software products may be
Generic - developed to be sold to a range of different customers Bespoke (custom) - developed for a single customer according to their specification

What are the attributes of good software?

The software should deliver the required functionality and performance to the user and should be maintainable, dependable and acceptable. Maintainability
Software must evolve to meet changing needs;

Dependability
Software must be trustworthy;

Efficiency
Software should not make wasteful use of system resources;

Acceptability
Software must accepted by the users for which it was designed. This means it must be understandable, usable and compatible with other systems.

What is software engineering?

Software engineering is an engineering discipline which is concerned with all aspects of software production Software engineers should adopt a systematic and organised approach to their work and use appropriate tools and techniques depending on the problem to be solved, the development constraints and the

What is the difference between software engineering and computer science? Computer science is concerned with theory and fundamentals; software engineering is concerned with the practicalities of developing and delivering useful software Computer science theories are currently insufficient to act as a complete underpinning for software engineering

What is the difference between software engineering and system engineering? System engineering is concerned with all aspects of computer-based systems development including hardware, software and process engineering. Software engineering is part of this process System engineers are involved in system specification, architectural design, integration and deployment

What is a software process?

A set of activities whose goal is the development or evolution of software Generic activities in all software processes are:
Specification - what the system should do and its development constraints Development - production of the software system Validation - checking that the software is what the customer wants Evolution - changing the software in response to changing demands

What is a software process model?

A simplified representation of a software process, presented from a specific perspective Examples of process perspectives are
Workflow perspective - sequence of activities Data-flow perspective - information flow Role/action perspective - who does what

Generic process models

Waterfall Evolutionary development Formal transformation Integration from reusable components

Waterfall model
Requ i em en ts r defi n i tion System an d software design Im pl em ention ta an d u n i t testin g In teg ration an d system testi n g Operation an d m ai n ten an ce

Waterfall model phases

Requirements analysis and definition System and software design Implementation and unit testing Integration and system testing Operation and maintenance The main drawback of the waterfall model is the difficulty of accommodating change after the process is underway. One phase has to be complete before moving onto

Waterfall model problems

Inflexible partitioning of the project into distinct stages makes it difficult to respond to changing customer requirements. Therefore, this model is only appropriate when the requirements are well-understood and changes will be fairly limited during the design process. Few business systems have stable requirements. The waterfall model is mostly used for large systems engineering projects where a system is developed at several sites.

Process iteration
System requirements ALWAYS evolve in the course of a project so process iteration where earlier stages are reworked is always part of the process for large systems. Iteration can be applied to any of the generic process models. Two (related) approaches
Incremental delivery; Spiral development.

Incremental delivery
Rather than deliver the system as a single 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

Incremental development

Defi n e ou tl i n e r equ i r em en ts

Assi gn r equ i r em en ts Desi gn sy stem to i n cr em en ts a r i tectu r ch e

Dev el op sy stem i n cr en t em

Va l i da te i n cr en t em

I n teg rate i n cr en t em

Va l i da te sy stem Fin al sy stem

Sy stem i n com pl ete

Incremental development advantages

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.

Spiral development
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

Spiral model of the software process

Deter mine objecti ves, alternatives and constraints Risk analysis Risk analysis Risk analysis Prototype 2 Risk analysis Prototype 1 Concept of Oper ation Oper ational protoype Evaluate alternatives, identify, resolve risks

Prototype 3

REVIEW Requir ements plan Life-cycle plan

Simulations, models, benchmar ks S/W requir ements

Product design

Development plan Integration and test plan

Requir ement validation Design V&V Acceptance test Service

Detailed design Code

Unit test Integration test Develop , verify next-le pr oduct vel

Plan ne xt phase

Spiral model sectors

Objective setting Specific objectives for the phase are identified. Risk assessment and reduction Risks are assessed and activities put in place to reduce the key risks. Development and validation A development model for the system is chosen which can be any of the generic models. Planning The project is reviewed and the next

The debugging process

L ocae t er r r o

Desi gn er or epa i r r r

Repa i r er or r

Re-test progra m

Essential attributes of good software

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.

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.

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.

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.