UNIT-1-INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

2MARKS
1. What is SE?
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, scientific approach to the
development, operation and maintenance of software.
OR
Software Engineering is a discipline whose aim is to produce fault free software that satisfies the
user’s needs and that is delivered on time and within budget.
2. Define feasibility study in a software project development.
Feasibility study is to determine whether the project is financially and technically feasible or not, to
develop the product.
3. Explain why the spiral life cycle model is considered to be a Meta model.
Because it combines all features of prototyping model, evolutionary and iterative waterfall model. Hence
this model is also called meta model.
4. Define software.
A software product consists of the program code along with all the associated documents, such as the
requirements specification documents, the design documents, the test documents, and the operating
procedures, user manuals and operational manuals, etc.
Software = Program + Documentation + Operating Procedures
5. What is SDLC?
A software life cycle model (also called process model) is a descriptive and diagrammatic representation of
the software life cycle.
It is used to development of a large software product in a systematic, well-defined, and cost-effective way.
6. What is phase containment of error?
The principle of detecting errors as close to its point of introduction as possible. This is known as Phase
Containment of Errors.
7. What is maintenance?
It is the process of modifying or updating a software product after it has been delivered to the
customer.
8. Mention the different types of software maintenance.
a. corrective maintenance
b. perfective maintenance
c. adaptive maintenance
9. Diff. between verification and validation.

Verification Validation

The verifying process includes checking It is a dynamic mechanism of testing

documents, design, code, and program. and validating the actual product

It does not involve executing the code It always involves executing the code

Verification uses methods like reviews, It uses methods like Black Box Testing, White
walkthroughs, inspections, and desk- checking Box Testing, and non-functional testing
etc.

It finds bugs early in the development cycle It can find bugs that the verification process
can not catch
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5&7 MARKS
1. What do you mean by software model (SDLC)? Explain the different phases of SDLC in
brief.
– A software life cycle model (also called process model) is a descriptive and diagrammatic
representation of the software life cycle.
– It is used to help the development of a large software product in a systematic, well-defined, and cost-
effective way.
– It goes through a series of phases from start to end. This process is called the Software-Development
Life-Cycle.
– The software development life-cycle consists of several phases.
– These are:
 Feasibility Study
 Requirements Analysis and Specification
 Design
 Coding and Unit Testing
 Integration and System Testing, and
 Maintenance
Above phases are same as mention in waterfall model.

2. What is classical waterfall model? Explain the different phases of classical waterfall model
with suitable diagram.
– The waterfall model is a very common and traditional SDLC model or software process model.
– This model is known as the waterfall model, because this is cascade from one phase to another phase.
– As the figure shows, the phases are cascade in nature, where
the output of one phase is the input to the next one. Each
phase performs a set of activities.
– All other life cycle models are essentially derived from the
classical waterfall model.
– Classical waterfall model has the following phases.
 Feasibility Study
 Requirements Analysis and Specification
 Design
 Coding and Unit Testing
 Integration and System Testing, and
 Maintenance
Feasibility study:
The main aim of feasibility study is to determine whether
the project is financially and technically feasible or not, to develop
the product.
– In this phase, they (team members) study or discuss
different aspects of project like resources required, cost, time for development etc.
– At the end of this phase, a report called a feasibility study is prepared by a group of software engineers.
Requirements analysis and specification:
The aim of this phase is to understand the exact requirements of the customer and to document them
properly. This phase consists of two distinct activities, namely
 Requirements gathering and analysis, and
 Requirements specification.
– The goal of the requirements gathering activity is to collect all the related information from the customer.
– The final document is known as the software requirement specification (SRS) document.
Design:
The goal of the design phase is to transform the requirements specified in the SRS document into a
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structure that is suitable for implementation by using some programming language.

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– Two distinctly different approaches are available:

  ArchitecturalDesign approach.
 DetailedDesign approach.
– Output:
o Design Document
o Test Plan
Coding and unit testing:
– The purpose of this phase (sometimes called the implementation phase) is to translate the software design
into source code.
– The end of this phase, each unit module is tested against each unit test plan.
– Output of this phase is:
o Program code or source code
o Unit test report
Integration and System Testing:
– Integration of different modules is undertaken once they have been coded and unit tested.
– During the integration and system testing phase, the modules are integrated.
– System testing usually consists of three different kinds of testing activities:-
o α – testing: It is the system testing performed by the development team.
o β – Testing: It is the system testing performed by a friendly set of customers.
o Acceptance testing: It is the system testing performed by the customer himself after the product
delivery to determine whether to accept or reject the delivered product.
– Output:
o Final test report
o Total product
Maintenance:
– The product is ready and it is delivered to the client.
– The relative effort of development of a typical software product to its maintenance effort is roughly in the
40:60 ratio.
– Maintenance involves performing any one or more of the following three kinds of activities:
o corrective maintenance
o perfective maintenance
o adaptive maintenance
Advantages of Waterfall Model
– It is simple, systematic, sequential, a linear model.
– Relatively easy to understand and manage.
– It has proper documentation.
Disadvantages of waterfall model:
– It is difficult to define all requirements at the beginning of a project.
– This model is not suitable for accommodating any change.
– It does not suitable to large projects.
– We cannot go backward in the SDLC.
– There is no risk analysis.

3. Explain iterative waterfall model with suitable diagram.

– It starts with feasibility study and ends with deployment (maintenance) with the cyclic interactions in
between phases.
– i.e. it provide feedback paths from every phase to its preceding or previous phases.
– The feedback paths allow for correction of the errors committed during a phase.
– The principle of detecting errors as close to its point of introduction as possible. This is known as “Phase
Containment of Errors”.
– To achieve this review is done after completion of each phase.
– Classical waterfall model has the following phases.
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  Feasibility Study
 Requirements Analysis and Specification
 Design
 Coding and Unit Testing
 Integration and System Testing, and
 Maintenance
Feasibility study:
The main aim of feasibility study is
to determine whether the project is
financially and technically feasible or not,
to develop the product.
– In this phase, they (team members)
study or discuss different aspects of
project like resources required, cost,
time for development etc.
– At the end of this phase, a report
called a feasibility study is prepared
by a group of software engineers.
Requirements analysis and specification:
The aim of this phase is to
understand the exact requirements of the customer and to document them properly. This phase consists of two
distinct activities, namely
 Requirements gathering and analysis, and
 Requirements specification.
– The goal of the requirements gathering activity is to collect all the related information from the customer.
– The final document is known as the software requirement specification (SRS) document.
Design:
The goal of the design phase is to transform the requirements specified in the SRS document into a
structure that is suitable for implementation by using some programming language.
– Two distinctly different approaches are available:
 ArchitecturalDesign approach.
 DetailedDesign approach.
– Output:
o Design Document
o Test Plan
Coding and unit testing:
– The purpose of this phase (sometimes called the implementation phase) is to translate the software design
into source code.
– The end of this phase, each unit module is tested against each unit test plan.
– Output of this phase is:
o Program code or source code
o Unit test report

Integration and System Testing:

– Integration of different modules is undertaken once they have been coded and unit tested.
– During the integration and system testing phase, the modules are integrated.
– System testing usually consists of three different kinds of testing activities:-
o α – testing: It is the system testing performed by the development team.
o β – Testing: It is the system testing performed by a friendly set of customers.
o Acceptance testing: It is the system testing performed by the customer himself after the product
delivery to determine whether to accept or reject the delivered product.
– Output:
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o Final test report

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o Total product
Maintenance:
– The product is ready and it is delivered to the client.
– The relative effort of development of a typical software product to its maintenance effort is roughly in the
40:60 ratio.

4. What is prototype model? Explain this model with suitable diagram.

– A prototype is a toy implementation of the
system.
– A prototype usually exhibits limited functional
capabilities, low reliability, and inefficient
performance.
– It uses dummy functions.
– A prototype is the partial version of the actual
system.
Where to use Prototype Model:
A prototype of the actual product is preferred in
situations such as:
o User requirements are not complete.
o Technical issues are not clear.
The prototyping model of software is shown in fig:

The phases of this model are:

Requirement Gathering:
– In this first initial requirements, functionalities
for the product are gathered.

Quick Design:
– A quick design is carried out and a prototype is build.
– A new plan is created from gathered requirements for the prototype to be built.

Prototype creation:
– Based on the design issues the trial product is created.

Customer Evaluation:
– The developed prototype is submitted to the customer for evaluation.
– Based on the customer feedback we may go for development or again go for the redesign as per customer
demand.

Prototype refinement:
– Based on the information.
The code for the prototype is usually thrown away, but the experience gained while developing the prototype
helps for actual development. The rest of the phases for development are similar to the waterfall model.

Advantages of Prototyping Models:

– Suitable for large systems.
– Customer communication is available.
– Quality of software is good.
– It helps to identifying the requirements.

Limitations of Prototyping Model:

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– It is very difficult to predict how the system will work after development.
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– This model is time consuming.

 5. Explain features of spiral model with suitable diagram.
– The spiral model, originally proposed by Barry Boehm.
– Main objective is to analyze the risks involved in the software project.
– Combines the features of prototyping model, evolutionary and iterative waterfall model. Hence this model
is also called meta model.
– The diagrammatic representation of this model appears like a spiral with many loops. The exact number of
loops in the spiral is not fixed.
– Each loop of the spiral represents a phase of the software process.
– For example, the innermost loop might be concerned with feasibility study. The next loop with
requirements specification, the next one with design, and so on.
– Each phase in this model is split into four sectors (or quadrants) as shown in fig. The following activities
are carried out during each phase of a spiral model.

First quadrant (Objective Setting)

o During the first quadrant, it determines objectives, alternatives &constraints.

Second Quadrant (Risk Assessment and

Reduction)
o A detailed analysis is carried out for each
identified project risk.
o Steps are taken to reduce the risks.

Third Quadrant (Development and Validation)

o Develop and validate the next level of the
product after resolving the identified risks.

Fourth Quadrant (Review and Planning)

o Review the results achieved so far with the
customer and plan the next iteration around
the spiral.
o Progressively more complete version of the
software gets built with each iteration around
the spiral.

Advantages
– For large, complex and expensive projects.
– If the software associated with risk.
– Re-evaluation after each step
– Estimation of budget and schedule gets realistic as the work progresses.

Disadvantages
– Assessment of project risks and its resolution is not an easy task.
– Difficult to estimate budget and schedule in the beginning.
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