2 - Software Processes
2 - Software Processes
Software Processes
There are many different kinds of software processes, but each and every one of them involve these four
types of fundamental activities:
Plan-driven processes are processes where all of the process activities are planned in advance and progress
is measured against this plan. In agile processes, planning is incremental and it is easier to change the
process to reflect changing customer requirements. In practice, most practical processes include elements of
both plan-driven and agile approaches.
In practice, most large systems are developed using a process that incorporates elements from all of these
models.
The main drawback of the waterfall model is the difficulty of accommodating change after the process is
underway. In principle, a phase has to be complete before moving onto the next phase. Waterfall model
problems include:
This approach is based on systematic reuse where systems are integrated from existing components or COTS
(Commercial-off-the-shelf) systems. Process stages include:
Component analysis;
Requirements modification;
System design with reuse;
Development and integration.
Reuse is now the standard approach for building many types of business system.
Web services that are developed according to service standards and which are available for remote
invocation.
Collections of objects that are developed as a package to be integrated with a component framework
such as .NET or J2EE.
Stand-alone commercial-off-the-shelf systems (COTS) that are configured for use in a particular
environment.
The four basic process activities of specification, development, validation and evolution are organized
differently in different development processes. In the waterfall model, they are organized in sequence,
whereas in incremental development they are interleaved.
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: is it technically and financially feasible to build the system?
Requirements elicitation and analysis: what do the system stakeholders require or expect
from the system?
Requirements specification: defining the requirements in detail
Requirements validation: checking the validity of the requirements
The activities of design and implementation are closely related and may be interleaved.
Design activities include:
Architectural design: identify the overall structure of the system, the principal components
(sometimes called sub-systems or modules), their relationships and how they are distributed.
Interface design: define the interfaces between system components.
Component design: take each system component and design how it will operate.
Database design: design the system data structures and how these are to be represented in a
database.
Software validation
Verification and validation (V & V) is intended to show that a system conforms to its specification and
meets the requirements of the system customer.
Validation: are we building the right product (what the customer wants)?
Verification: are we building the product right?
V & V 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.
Testing is the most commonly used V & V activity and includes the following stages:
Development or component testing: individual components are tested independently;
components may be functions or objects or coherent groupings of these entities.
System testing: testing of the system as a whole, testing of emergent properties is particularly
important.
Acceptance testing: testing with customer data to check that the system meets the customer's
needs.
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.
Change avoidance
The software process includes activities that can anticipate possible changes before significant rework
is required. For example, a prototype system may be developed to show some key features of the
system to customers.
Change tolerance
The process is designed so that changes can be accommodated at relatively low cost. This normally
involves some form of incremental development. Proposed changes may be implemented in
increments that have not yet been developed. If this is impossible, then only a single increment (a
small part of the system) may have be altered to incorporate the change.
Software prototyping
A prototype is an initial version of a system used to demonstrate concepts and try out design options. A
prototype can be used in:
The requirements engineering process to help with requirements elicitation and validation;
In design processes to explore options and develop a UI design;
In the testing process to run back-to-back tests.
Benefits of prototyping:
Prototypes may be based on rapid prototyping languages or tools. They may involve leaving out
functionality:
Prototype should focus on areas of the product that are not well-understood;
Error checking and recovery may not be included in the prototype;
Focus on functional rather than non-functional requirements such as reliability and security.
Prototypes should be discarded after development as they are not a good basis for a production system:
Incremental development/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 prioritized
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 can continue to
evolve.
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.
Process improvement
Many software companies have turned to software process improvement as a way of enhancing the quality of
their software, reducing costs or accelerating their development processes. Process improvement means
understanding existing processes and changing these processes to increase product quality and/or reduce
costs and development time.
Measure one or more attributes of the software process or product. These measurements forms a
baseline that help decide if process improvements have been effective.
Analyze the current process and identify any bottlenecks.
Change the process to address some of the identified process weaknesses. These are introduced and
the cycle resumes to collect data about the effectiveness of the changes.
Process measurement