Lecture # 5

An overview of software
engineering
Software engineering fundamentals
(CSC-2073)

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 Mentcare:Apatientinformationsystemformentalhealthcare(Acase study)

– A patient information system to support mental health care is a medical information system that maintains
information about patients suffering from mental health problems and the treatments that they have received.

– Most mental health patients do not require dedicated hospital treatment but need to attend specialist clinics regularly
where they can meet a doctor who has detailed knowledge of their problems.

– These clinics are not just run-in hospitals to make it easier for patients to attend; they may also be held in local medical
practices or community centers.

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 Mentcare

– Mentcare is an information system that is intended for use in clinics.

– It uses a centralized database of patient information but has also been designed to run on a PC so that it may be
accessed and used from sites that do not have secure network connectivity.

– When the local systems have secure network access, they use patient information in the database, but they can
download and use local copies of patient records when they are disconnected.

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 Mentcare Goals

– To generate management information that allows health service managers to assess performance against local and
government targets.

– To provide medical staff with timely information to support the treatment of patients.

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 The organization of the Mentcare system

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 Key features of the Mentcare system

Individual care management

– Clinicians can create patient records, edit the information in the system, view patient history, etc. The system supports
data summaries so that doctors can quickly learn about the critical problems and treatments that have been prescribed.

Patient monitoring
– The system monitors the records of patients involved in treatment and issues warnings if possible problems are
detected.

Administrative reporting
– The system generates monthly management reports showing the number of patients treated at each clinic, the
number of patients who have entered and left the care system, the number of patients sectioned, the drugs prescribed,
and their costs, etc.

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 Key features of the Mentcare system

Privacy
– It is essential that patient information is confidential and is never disclosed to anyone apart from authorized medical
staff and the patient.

Safety
– Some mental illnesses cause patients to become suicidal or a danger to others. The system should warn medical staff
about potentially suicidal or dangerous patients.
– The system must be available when needed; otherwise, safety may be compromised, and it may be impossible to
prescribe the correct medication to patients.

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 Wilderness weatherstation

– The government of a country with large areas of wilderness decides to deploy several hundred weather stations in
remote areas.

– Weather stations collect data from instruments that measure temperature and pressure, sunshine, rainfall, wind speed,
and wind direction.
 The weather station includes several instruments that measure weather parameters such as wind speed and direction, ground and air
temperatures, barometric pressure, and rainfall over 24 hours. Each of these instruments is controlled by a software system thattakes
parameter readings periodically and manages the data collected from the instruments.

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 The weatherstation’s environment

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 Weatherinformation system

The weather station system

– This is responsible for collecting weather data, processing some initial data, and transmitting it to the data management
system.

The data management and archiving system

– This system collects data from all wilderness weather stations, processes data processing and analysis, and archives the
data.

The station maintenance system

– This system can communicate by satellite with all wilderness weather stations to monitor the health of these systems
and provide reports of problems.

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 Additionalsoftware functionality

– Monitor the instruments, power, and communication hardware and report faults to the management system.

– Manage the system power, ensuring that batteries are charged whenever the environmental conditions permit and
that generators are shut down in potentially damaging weather conditions, such as high wind.

– Support dynamic reconfiguration, where parts of the software are replaced with new versions and where backup
instruments are switched into the system in the event of system failure.

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 iLearn:Adigital learning environment

– A digital learning environment is a framework in which a set of general-purpose and specially designed tools for
learning may be embedded, plus a bunch of applications that are geared to the needs of the learners using the system.

– The tools included in each version of the environment are chosen by teachers and learners to suit their specific needs.

– These can be general spreadsheets and learning management applications such as a Virtual Learning Environment
(VLE) to manage homework submissions and assessments, games, and simulations.

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 Service-oriented systems

– The system is a service-oriented system with all system components considered to be replaceable services.

– This allows the system to be updated incrementally as new services become available.

– It also makes it possible to rapidly configure the system to create environment versions for different groups, such as
young children who cannot read, senior students, etc.

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 iLearn services

– Utility services that provide basic application-independent functionality and may be used by other services in the
system.

– Application services that provide specific applications such as email, conferencing, photo sharing, etc., and access to
explicit educational content such as scientific films or historical resources.

– Configuration services that are used to adapt the environment with a specific set of application services and do define
how benefits are shared between students, teachers, and their parents.

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 iLearn architecture

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 iLearn service integration

– Integrated services are services that offer an API (application programming interface) that other services can access
through that API. Direct service-to-service communication is, therefore, possible.

– Independent services are accessed through a browser interface and operate independently of other benefits.
Information can only be shared with other services through explicit user actions such as copy and paste; re-
authentication may be required for each independent service.

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 Key points

– Software engineering is an engineering discipline 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.

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 Key points

– There are many different types of systems, and each requires appropriate software engineering tools and techniques
for their development.

– The fundamental ideas of software engineering apply to all types of software systems. Software engineers have
responsibilities to the engineering profession and society and should not simply be concerned with technical issues.

– Professional societies publish codes of conduct that set out the standards of behavior expected of their members.

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 Thanks

Any question ?

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O R G A N I C S CO M P A N Y
 Reference

1. Sommerville, I. (2016). Software Engineering GE. Pearson Australia Pty Limited.

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O R G A N I C S CO M P A N Y