Chapter : Software Process
Chapter - Topic Covered
Layered Technology
Software Process Framework
Generic Process Framework Activities
Umbrella Activities
CMMI Level
Overview
What? A software process – as a framework for
the tasks that are required to build high-quality
software.
Who? Managers, software engineers, and
customers.
Why? Provides stability, control, and organization
to an otherwise chaotic activity.
Steps? A handful of activities are common to all
software processes, details vary.
Work product? Programs, documents, and data.
What is software engineering?
Definition :
(1) The application of systematic, disciplined, quantifiable
approach to the development, operation, and maintenance
of software; that is, the application of engineering to
software.(2) The study of approaches as in (1) above
Its a discipline that is concerned with all aspects of software
production.
Software engineers should adopt
Systematic and organized approach to their work
Use appropriate tools and techniques depending on the
problem to be solved
The development constraints and the resources available
Apply Engineering Concepts to developing Software
Challenge for Software Engineers is to produce high quality
software with finite amount of resources & within a predicted
schedule
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. 5
Software Engineering – Layered
Technology
Layered Technology
Tools: CASE preferred
Methods: technical “how to’s”
Process model: the “framework”
A quality focus: the “bedrock”
Layered Technology
A quality Focus
Every organization is rest on its commitment to quality.
Total quality management, Six Sigma, or similar continuous
improvement culture and it is this culture ultimately leads to
development of increasingly more effective approaches to software
engineering.
The bedrock that supports software engineering is a quality focus.
Process:
It’s a foundation layer for software engineering.
It’s define framework for a set of key process areas (KPA) for
effectively manage and deliver quality software in a cost effective
manner
The processes define the tasks to be performed and the order in which
they are to be performed
Layered Technology
Methods:
It provide the technical how-to's for building software.
Methods encompass a broad array of tasks that include requirements
analysis, design, program construction, testing, and support.
There could be more than one technique to perform a task and
different techniques could be used in different situations.
Tools:
Provide automated or semi-automated support for the process,
methods and quality control.
When tools are integrated so that information created by one tool can
be used by another, a system for the support of software development,
called computer-aided software engineering (CASE)
Process framework
Why process :
A process defines who is doing what, when and how to reach a
certain goal.
To build complete software process.
Identified a small number of framework activities that are
applicable to all software projects, regardless of their size or
complexity.
It encompasses a set of umbrella activities that are applicable
across the entire software process.
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 & verification, 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.
Chapter 1 Introduction 10
Process Framework
Software Process Process Framework
Process framework
Umbrella Activities
Umbrella Activities
Framework activities
Framework activity 1
work tasks
work products
milestones & deliverables
QA checkpoints
Framework activity n
A Generic Process Model
12
Process Framework
•Each framework
activities is
populated by a set
for software
engineering actions
– a collection of
related tasks.
• Each action has
individual work task.
Generic Process Framework
Activities-
SDLC (software development life
cycle)
Communication:
Heavy communication with customers, stakeholders, team
Encompasses requirements gathering and related activities
Planning:
Workflow that is to follow
Describe technical task, likely risk, resources will require, work
products to be produced and a work schedule.
Modeling:
Help developer and customer to understand requirements
(Analysis of requirements) & Design of software
Construction
Code generation: either manual or automated or both
Testing – to uncover error in the code.
Deployment:
Delivery to the customer for evaluation
Customer provide feedback
SDLC – Software Development
Life Cycle
These five framework activities can be used to
all software development regardless of the
application domain, size of the project,
complexity of the efforts etc, though the details
will be different in each case.
For many software projects, these framework
activities are applied iteratively as a project
progresses. Each iteration produces a software
increment that provides a subset of overall
software features and functionality.
The Process Model: Adaptability
The framework activities will always
be applied on every project ... BUT
The tasks for each activity will vary
based on:
The type of project (an “entry point” to
the model)
Characteristics of the project
Common sense judgment; concurrence
of the project team
Umbrella Activities
Software project tracking and control
Assessing progress against the project plan.
Take adequate action to maintain schedule.
Formal technical reviews
Assessing software work products in an effort to uncover and remove errors
before goes into next action or activity.
Software quality assurance
Define and conducts the activities required to ensure software quality.
Software configuration management
Manages the effects of change.
Document preparation and production
Help to create work products such as models, documents, logs, form and list.
Reusability management
Define criteria for work product reuse
Mechanisms to achieve reusable components.
Measurement
Define and collects process, project, and product measures
Assist the team in delivering software that meets customer’s needs.
Risk management
Assesses risks that may effect that outcome of project or quality of product
(i.e. software)
Process Assessment and
Improvement
Standard CMMI Assessment Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI)
— provides a five step process assessment model that incorporates five phases:
initiating, diagnosing, establishing, acting and learning.
CMM-Based Appraisal for Internal Process Improvement (CBA IPI)—
provides a diagnostic technique for assessing the relative maturity of a
software organization; uses the SEI CMM as the basis for the assessment
[Dun01]
SPICE—The SPICE (ISO/IEC15504) standard defines a set of
requirements for software process assessment. The intent of the
standard is to assist organizations in developing an objective evaluation
of the efficacy of any defined software process. [ISO08]
ISO 9001:2000 for Software—a generic standard that applies to any
organization that wants to improve the overall quality of the products,
systems, or services that it provides. Therefore, the standard is directly
applicable to software organizations and companies. [Ant06]
19
Capability Maturity Model
Integration (CMMI)
The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has
developed process meta-model to measure
organization different level of process
capability and maturity.
CMMI – developed by SEI
The CMMI defines each process area in terms
of “specific goals” and the “specific practices”
required to achieve these goals.
Specific goals establish the characteristics
that must exist if the activities implied by a
process area are to be effective.
Specific practices refine a goal into a set of
process-related activities.
CMMI Level
Level 0 (Incomplete) –
Process are not perform or not achieve all the goals and objectives
defined by the CMMI for Level I capability.
Level 1 (Performed) – All specific goals are performed as per defined by
CMMI
Level 2 (Managed) –
All level 1 criteria have been satisfied
In addition to Level I;
People doing work have access to adequate resources to get
job done,
Stakeholders are actively involved,
Work tasks and products are monitored, controlled, reviewed,
and evaluated for conformance to process description.
Level 3 (Defined) –
All level 2 criteria have been achieved.
In addition;
management and engineering processes documented
standardized and integrated into organization-wide software
process
CMMI Level (cont.)
Level 4 (Quantitatively Managed) -
All level 3 criteria have been satisfied.
Software process and products are quantitatively understood
Controlled using detailed measures and assessment.
Level 5 (Optimized) –
Continuous process improvement is enabled by quantitative
feedback from the process and testing innovative ideas.
