Lecture 8

Software Processes
In Slight Detail
 Learning Outcome
• A little bit better understanding on the
software process.
• In a bit of detail
• All of the upcoming topics will be
discussed in greater detail in upcoming
lectures.
 I. Software specification
The process of establishing what services are
required and the constraints on the system’s
operation and development

• Requirements engineering process

– Feasibility study
– Requirements elicitation and analysis
– Requirements specification
– Requirements validation
 How Programs Are Usually
Written …

This is how the

The requirements The developers problem is
understood it in This is how the solved now
specification was
that way problem was
defined like this
solved before.

This is how the program is This, in fact, is what the

described by marketing customer wanted … ;-)
That is the program after
department
debugging
The requirements engineering process

Feasibility Requirements
study elicitation and
analysis
Requir ements
specification
Feasibility Requirements
report validation
System
models
User and system
requirements

Requirements
document
 II. Software design and
implementation
The process of converting the system
specification into an executable system
• Software design
– Design a software structure that realises the specification
• Implementation
– Translate this structure into an executable program

• The activities of design and implementation are closely

related and may be inter-leaved
 Design process activities
• Architectural design
• Abstract specification
• Interface design
• Component design
• Data structure design
• Algorithm design
 The software design process
Requirements
specifica
tion

Design acti
vities

Architectur
al Interface Component Data Algorithm
Abstract
design design design structur
e design
specifica
tion
design

Software Data
System Interface Component Algorithm
specifica
tion structure
architectur
e specifica
tion specifica
t ion specifica
tion
specificat ion

Design pr
oducts
 Design methods
Systematic approaches to developing a
software design
• The design is usually documented as a set of graphical
models
• Possible models
– Data-flow model
– Entity-relation-attribute model
– Structural model
– Object models
 Programming and debugging
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 debugging process

Locate Design Repair Re-test

error error repair error program
 III Software validation
• 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
 The testing process
Unit
testing
Module
testing
Sub-system
testing
System
testing
Acceptance
testing

Component Integration testing User

testing testing
 Testing stages
• Unit testing
– Individual components are tested
• Module testing
– Related collections of dependent components are tested
• Sub-system testing
– Modules are integrated into sub-systems and tested. The focus
here should be on interface testing
• System testing
– Testing of the system as a whole. Testing of emergent properties
• Acceptance testing
– Testing with customer data to check that it is acceptable
 Testing phases
Requir ements System System Detailed
specification specification design design

System Sub-system Module and

Acceptance
integration integration unit code
test plan
test plan test plan and tess

Acceptance System Sub-system

Service
test integration test integration test
 IV Software evolution

Software is inherently flexible and can change.

• As requirements change through changing business

circumstances, the software that supports the business must
also evolve and change

• Although there has been a demarcation between development

and evolution (maintenance) this is increasingly irrelevant as
fewer and fewer systems are completely new
 System evolution

Define system Assess existing Propose system Modify

requirements systems changes systems

Existing New
systems system
 Automated process support (CASE)
• Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) is
software to support software development and evolution
processes
• Activity automation
– Graphical editors for system model development
– Data dictionary to manage design entities
– Graphical UI builder for user interface construction
– Debuggers to support program fault finding
– Automated translators to generate new versions of a
program
 Case technology

Case technology has led to significant

improvements in the software process though not
the order of magnitude improvements that were
once predicted
– Software engineering requires creative thought -
this is not readily automatable
– Software engineering is a team activity and, for large
projects, much time is spent in team interactions.
CASE technology does not really support these
 CASE classification
Classification helps us understand the different types
of CASE tools and their support for process activities
• Functional perspective
– Tools are classified according to their specific function
• Process perspective
– Tools are classified according to process activities that are
supported
• Integration perspective
– Tools are classified according to their organisation into integrated
units
Functional tool classification
 CASE integration
• Tools
– Support individual process tasks such as design
consistency checking, text editing, etc.
• Workbenches
– Support a process phase such as specification or
design, Normally include a number of integrated tools
• Environments
– Support all or a substantial part of an entire software
process. Normally include several integrated
workbenches
Tools, workbenches, environments
CASE
technology

Tools Workbenches Environments

File Integrated Process-centred

Editors Compilers
comparators environments environments

Analysis and
Programming Testing
design

Multi-method Single-method General-purpose Language-specific

workbenches workbenches workbenches workbenches
 Key points
• Software processes are the activities involved in
producing and evolving a software system. They
are represented in a software process model
• General activities are specification, design and
implementation, validation and evolution
• Generic process models describe the organisation
of software processes
• Iterative process models describe the software
process as a cycle of activities
 Key points
• Requirements engineering is the process of
developing a software specification
• Design and implementation processes transform the
specification to an executable program
• Validation involves checking that the system meets to
its specification and user needs
• Evolution is concerned with modifying the system
after it is in use
• CASE technology supports software process activities