UNIT - I

Conventional Software Management: The waterfall model, conventional software Management performance.
Evolution of Software Economics: Software Economics, pragmatic software cost estimation
Improving Software Economics: Reducing Software product size, improving software processes, improving
team effectiveness, improving automation, Achieving required quality, peer inspections.

1. Conventional software management

Conventional software management practices are sound in theory, but practice is still tied to archaic (outdated)
technology and techniques.
Conventional software economics provides a benchmark of performance for conventional software manage-
ment principles.
The best thing about software is its flexibility: It can be programmed to do almost anything.
The worst thing about software is also its flexibility: The "almost anything" characteristic has made it difficult
to plan, monitors, and control software development.
Three important analyses of the state of the software engineering industry are
1. Software development is still highly unpredictable. Only about 10% of software projects are
delivered successfully within initial budget and schedule estimates.
2. Management discipline is more of a discriminator in success or failure than are technology advances.
3. The level of software scrap and rework is indicative of an immature process.
All three analyses reached the same general conclusion: The success rate for software projects is very low.
The three analyses provide a good introduction to the magnitude of the software problem and the current
norms for conventional software management performance.

1.1 THE WATERFALL MODEL

Most software engineering texts present the waterfall model as the source of the "conventional" software
process.
1.1.1 IN THEORY
It provides an insightful and concise summary of conventional software management
Three main primary points are
1. There are two essential steps common to the development of computer programs: analysis and
coding.
Waterfall Model part 1: The two basic steps to building a program.

Analysis Analysis and coding both involve creative work that

directly contributes to the usefulness of the end product.
Coding
2. In order to manage and control all of the intellectual freedom associated with software development,
one must introduce several other "overhead" steps, including system requirements definition,
software requirements definition, program design, and testing. These steps supplement the analysis
and coding steps. Below Figure illustrates the resulting project profile and the basic steps in
developing a large-scale program.
Requirement

Analysis

Design

Coding
 Testing

Operation
3. The basic framework described in the waterfall model is risky and invites failure. The testing phase
that occurs at the end of the development cycle is the first event for which timing, storage,
input/output transfers, etc., are experienced as distinguished from analyzed. The resulting design
changes are likely to be so disruptive that the software requirements upon which the design is based
are likely violated. Either the requirements must be modified or a substantial design change is
warranted.

Five necessary improvements for waterfall model are:-

1. Program design comes first. Insert a preliminary program design phase between the software
requirements generation phase and the analysis phase. By this technique, the program designer
assures that the software will not fail because of storage, timing, and data flux (continuous
change). As analysis proceeds in the succeeding phase, the program designer must impose on the
analyst the storage, timing, and operational constraints in such a way that he senses the consequences.
If the total resources to be applied are insufficient or if the embryonic(in an early stage of
development) operational design is wrong, it will be recognized at this early stage and the iteration
with requirements and preliminary design can be redone before final design, coding, and test
commences. How is this program design procedure implemented?

The following steps are required:

Begin the design process with program designers, not analysts or programmers.
Design, define, and allocate the data processing modes even at the risk of being wrong. Allocate
processing functions, design the database, allocate execution time, define interfaces and processing
modes with the operating system, describe input and output processing, and define preliminary
operating procedures.
Write an overview document that is understandable, informative, and current so that every worker
on the project can gain an elemental understanding of the system.

2. Document the design. The amount of documentation required on most software programs is quite a lot,
certainly much more than most programmers, analysts, or program designers are willing to do if left to their
own devices. Why do we need so much documentation? (1) Each designer must communicate with interfacing
designers, managers, and possibly customers. (2) During early phases, the documentation is the design. (3) The
real monetary value of documentation is to support later modifications by a separate test team, a separate
maintenance team, and operations personnel who are not software literate.

3. Do it twice. If a computer program is being developed for the first time, arrange matters so that the version
finally delivered to the customer for operational deployment is actually the second version insofar as critical
design/operations are concerned. Note that this is simply the entire process done in miniature, to a time scale
that is relatively small with respect to the overall effort. In the first version, the team must have a special
broad competence where they can quickly sense trouble spots in the design, model them, model alternatives,
forget the straightforward aspects of the design that aren't worth studying at this early point, and, finally,
arrive at an error-free program.

4. Plan, control, and monitor testing. Without question, the biggest user of project resources-manpower,
computer time, and/or management judgment-is the test phase. This is the phase of greatest risk in terms of
cost and schedule. It occurs at the latest point in the schedule, when backup alternatives are least available, if
at all. The previous three recommendations were all aimed at uncovering and solving problems before
entering the test phase. However, even after doing these things, there is still a test phase and there are still
important things to be done, including: (1) employ a team of test specialists who were not responsible for the
 original design; (2) employ visual inspections to spot the obvious errors like dropped minus signs, missing
factors of two, jumps to wrong addresses (do not use the computer to detect this kind of thing, it is too
expensive); (3) test every logic path; (4) employ the final checkout on the target computer.

5. Involve the customer. It is important to involve the customer in a formal way so that he has committed
himself at earlier points before final delivery. There are three points following requirements definition where
the insight, judgment, and commitment of the customer can bolster the development effort. These include a
"preliminary software review" following the preliminary program design step, a sequence of "critical software
design reviews" during program design, and a "final software acceptance review".

1.1.2 IN PRACTICE
Some software projects still practice the conventional software management approach.
It is useful to summarize the characteristics of the conventional process as it has typically been applied,
which is not necessarily as it was intended. Projects destined for trouble frequently exhibit the following
symptoms:

 Protracted integration and late design breakage.

 Late risk resolution.
 Requirements-driven functional decomposition.
 Adversarial (conflict or opposition) stakeholder relationships.
 Focus on documents and review meetings.

Protracted Integration and Late Design Breakage

For a typical development project that used a waterfall model management process, Figure 1-2 illustrates
development progress versus time. Progress is defined as percent coded, that is, demonstrable in its target form.

The following sequence was common:

 Early success via paper designs and thorough (often too thorough) briefings.
 Commitment to code late in the life cycle.
 Integration nightmares (unpleasant experience) due to unforeseen implementation issues and interface
ambiguities.
 Heavy budget and schedule pressure to get the system working.
 Late shoe-homing of no optimal fixes, with no time for redesign.
 A very fragile, unmentionable product delivered late.
In the conventional model, the entire system was designed on paper, then implemented all at once, then
integrated. Table 1-1 provides a typical profile of cost expenditures across the spectrum of software activities.

Late risk resolution A serious issue associated with the waterfall lifecycle was the lack of early risk resolution.
Figure 1.3 illustrates a typical risk profile for conventional waterfall model projects. It includes four distinct
periods of risk exposure, where risk is defined as the probability of missing a cost, schedule, feature, or quality
goal. Early in the life cycle, as the requirements were being specified, the actual risk exposure was highly
unpredictable.
Requirements-Driven Functional Decomposition: This approach depends on specifying requirements com-
pletely and unambiguously before other development activities begin. It naively treats all requirements as
equally important, and depends on those requirements remaining constant over the software development life
cycle. These conditions rarely occur in the real world. Specification of requirements is a difficult and important
part of the software development process.
Another property of the conventional approach is that the requirements were typically specified in a
functional manner. Built into the classic waterfall process was the fundamental assumption that the software
itself was decomposed into functions; requirements were then allocated to the resulting components. This
decomposition was often very different from a decomposition based on object-oriented design and the use of
existing components. Figure 1-4 illustrates the result of requirements-driven approaches: a software structure
that is organized around the requirements specification structure.

Adversarial Stakeholder Relationships:

The conventional process tended to result in adversarial stakeholder relationships, in large part because of the
difficulties of requirements specification and the exchange of information solely through paper documents that
captured engineering information in ad hoc formats.

The following sequence of events was typical for most contractual software efforts:
 1. The contractor prepared a draft contract-deliverable document that captured an intermediate artifact
and delivered it to the customer for approval.
2. The customer was expected to provide comments (typically within 15 to 30 days).
3. The contractor incorporated these comments and submitted (typically within 15 to 30 days) a final
version for approval.
This one-shot review process encouraged high levels of sensitivity on the part of customers and contractors.

Focus on Documents and Review Meetings:

The conventional process focused on producing various documents that attempted to describe the software
product, with insufficient focus on producing tangible increments of the products themselves. Contractors
were driven to produce literally tons of paper to meet milestones and demonstrate progress to stakeholders,
rather than spend their energy on tasks that would reduce risk and produce quality software. Typically,
presenters and the audience reviewed the simple things that they understood rather than the complex and
important issues. Most design reviews therefore resulted in low engineering value and high cost in terms of the
effort and schedule involved in their preparation and conduct. They presented merely a facade of progress.
Table 1-2 summarizes the results of a typical design review.

1.2 CONVENTIONAL SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE

Barry Boehm's "Industrial Software Metrics Top 10 List” is a good, objective characterization of the state of
software development.
1. Finding and fixing a software problem after delivery costs 100 times more than finding and fixing the
problem in early design phases.
2. You can compress software development schedules 25% of nominal, but no more.
3. For every $1 you spend on development, you will spend $2 on maintenance.
4. Software development and maintenance costs are primarily a function of the number of source lines
of code.
5. Variations among people account for the biggest differences in software productivity.
6. The overall ratio of software to hardware costs is still growing. In 1955 it was 15:85; in 1985, 85:15.
7. Only about 15% of software development effort is devoted to programming.
8. Software systems and products typically cost 3 times as much per SLOC as individual software
programs. Software-system products (i.e., system of systems) cost 9 times as much.
 9. Walkthroughs catch 60% of the errors
10. 80% of the contribution comes from 20% of the contributors.

2.Evolution of Software Economics

2.1 SOFTWARE ECONOMICS

Most software cost models can be abstracted into a function of five basic parameters: size, process, personnel,
environment, and required quality.
1. The size of the end product (in human-generated components), which is typically quantified in terms
of the number of source instructions or the number of function points required to develop the
required functionality
2. The process used to produce the end product, in particular the ability of the process to avoid non-
value-adding activities (rework, bureaucratic delays, communications overhead)
3. The capabilities of software engineering personnel, and particularly their experience with the
computer science issues and the applications domain issues of the project
4. The environment, which is made up of the tools and techniques available to support efficient
software development and to automate the process
5. The required quality of the product, including its features, performance, reliability, and adaptability

The relationships among these parameters and the estimated cost can be written as follows:

Effort = (Personnel) (Environment) (Quality) ( Sizeprocess)

One important aspect of software economics (as represented within today's software cost models) is that
the relationship between effort and size exhibits a diseconomy of scale. The diseconomy of scale of software
development is a result of the process exponent being greater than 1.0. Contrary to most manufacturing
processes, the more software you build, the more expensive it is per unit item.
Figure 2-1 shows three generations of basic technology advancement in tools, components, and processes.
The required levels of quality and personnel are assumed to be constant. The ordinate of the graph refers to
software unit costs (pick your favorite: per SLOC, per function point, per component) realized by an
organization.
The three generations of software development are defined as follows:

1) Conventional: 1960s and 1970s, craftsmanship. Organizations used custom tools, custom processes,
and virtually all custom components built in primitive languages. Project performance was highly
predictable in that cost, schedule, and quality objectives were almost always underachieved.
2) Transition: 1980s and 1990s, software engineering. Organiz:1tions used more-repeatable processes and off-
the-shelf tools, and mostly (>70%) custom components built in higher level languages. Some of the
 components (<30%) were available as commercial products, including the operating system, database
management system, networking, and graphical user interface.
3) Modern practices: 2000 and later, software production. This book's philosophy is rooted in the
use of managed and measured processes, integrated automation environments, and mostly
(70%) off-the-shelf components. Perhaps as few as 30% of the components need to be custom
built
Technologies for environment automation, size reduction, and process improvement are not independent of
one another. In each new era, the key is complementary growth in all technologies. For example, the process
advances could not be used successfully without new component technologies and increased tool automation.

Organizations are achieving better economies of scale in successive technology eras-with very large projects
(systems of systems), long-lived products, and lines of business comprising multiple similar projects. Figure 2-2
provides an overview of how a return on investment (ROI) profile can be achieved in subsequent efforts across
life cycles of various domains.

2.2 PRAGMATIC SOFTWARE COST ESTIMATION

One critical problem in software cost estimation is a lack of well-documented case studies of projects that used
an iterative development approach. Software industry has inconsistently defined metrics or atomic units of
measure, the data from actual projects are highly suspect in terms of consistency and comparability. It is hard
enough to collect a homogeneous set of project data within one organization; it is extremely difficult to homog-
enize data across different organizations with different processes, languages, domains, and so on.
There have been many debates among developers and vendors of software cost estimation models and tools.
Three topics of these debates are of particular interest here:

1. Which cost estimation model to use?

2. Whether to measure software size in source lines of code or function points.
3. What constitutes a good estimate?
There are several popular cost estimation models (such as COCOMO, CHECKPOINT, ESTIMACS,
KnowledgePlan, Price-S, ProQMS, SEER, SLIM, SOFTCOST, and SPQR/20), CO COMO is also one of the
most open and well-documented cost estimation models. The general accuracy of conventional cost models
(such as COCOMO) has been described as "within 20% of actuals, 70% of the time."
Most real-world use of cost models is bottom-up (substantiating a target cost) rather than top-down
(estimating the "should" cost). Figure 2-3 illustrates the predominant practice: The software project manager
defines the target cost of the software, and then manipulates the parameters and sizing until the target cost can
be justified. The rationale for the target cost maybe to win a proposal, to solicit customer funding, to attain
internal corporate funding, or to achieve some other goal.
The process described in Figure 2-3 is not all bad. In fact, it is absolutely necessary to analyze the cost risks and
understand the sensitivities and trade-offs objectively. It forces the software project manager to examine the
risks associated with achieving the target costs and to discuss this information with other stakeholders.
A good software cost estimate has the following attributes:
 It is conceived and supported by the project manager, architecture team, development team, and test
team accountable for performing the work.
 It is accepted by all stakeholders as ambitious but realizable.
 It is based on a well-defined software cost model with a credible basis.
 It is based on a database of relevant project experience that includes similar processes, similar
technologies, similar environments, similar quality requirements, and similar people.
 It is defined in enough detail so that its key risk areas are understood and the probability of success is
objectively assessed.
Extrapolating from a good estimate, an ideal estimate would be derived from a mature cost model with an
experience base that reflects multiple similar projects done by the same team with the same mature processes
and tools.

3. Improving Software Economics

Five basic parameters of the software cost model are
1.Reducing the size or complexity of what needs to be developed.
2. Improving the development process.
3. Using more-skilled personnel and better teams (not necessarily the same thing).
4. Using better environments (tools to automate the process).
5. Trading off or backing off on quality thresholds.
These parameters are given in priority order for most software domains. Table 3-1 lists some of the
technology developments, process improvement efforts, and management approaches targeted at
improving the economics of software development and integration.

3.1 REDUCING SOFTWARE PRODUCT SIZE

The most significant way to improve affordability and return on investment (ROI) is usually to produce a
product that achieves the design goals with the minimum amount of human-generated source material.
Component-based development is introduced as the general term for reducing the "source" language size to
achieve a software solution.
Reuse, object-oriented technology, automatic code production, and higher order programming languages are all
focused on achieving a given system with fewer lines of human-specified source directives (statements).
size reduction is the primary motivation behind improvements in higher order languages (such as C++, Ada 95,
Java, Visual Basic), automatic code generators (CASE tools, visual modeling tools, GUI builders), reuse of
commercial components (operating systems, windowing environments, database management systems,
middleware, networks), and object-oriented technologies (Unified Modeling Language, visual modeling tools,
architecture frameworks).
The reduction is defined in terms of human-generated source material. In general, when size-reducing
technologies are used, they reduce the number of human-generated source lines.

3.1.1 LANGUAGES
Universal function points (UFPs1) are useful estimators for language-independent, early life-cycle estimates.
The basic units of function points are external user inputs, external outputs, internal logical data groups,
external data interfaces, and external inquiries. SLOC metrics are useful estimators for software after a
candidate solution is formulated and an implementation language is known. Substantial data have been
documented relating SLOC to function points. Some of these results are shown in Table 3-2.
Languages expressiveness of some of today’s popular languages
LANGUAGES SLOC per UFP

1
Function point metrics provide a standardized method for measuring the various functions of a software application.
The basic units of function points are external user inputs, external outputs, internal logical data groups, external data interfaces, and
external inquiries.
 Assembly 320
C 128
FORTAN77 105
COBOL85 91
Ada83 71
C++ 56
Ada95 55
Java 55
Visual Basic 35
Table 3-2

3.1.2 OBJECT-ORIENTED METHODS AND VISUAL MODELING

Object-oriented technology is not germane to most of the software management topics discussed here, and
books on object-oriented technology abound. Object-oriented programming languages appear to benefit both
software productivity and software quality. The fundamental impact of object-oriented technology is in
reducing the overall size of what needs to be developed.
People like drawing pictures to explain something to others or to themselves. When they do it for software
system design, they call these pictures diagrams or diagrammatic models and the very notation for them a
modeling language.
These are interesting examples of the interrelationships among the dimensions of improving software eco-
nomics.

1. An object-oriented model of the problem and its solution encourages a common vocabulary between
the end users of a system and its developers, thus creating a shared understanding of the problem
being solved.
2. The use of continuous integration creates opportunities to recognize risk early and make incremental
corrections without destabilizing the entire development effort.
3. An object-oriented architecture provides a clear separation of concerns among disparate elements of a
system, creating firewalls that prevent a change in one part of the system from rending the fabric of
the entire architecture.

Booch also summarized five characteristics of a successful object-oriented project.

1. A ruthless focus on the development of a system that provides a well understood collection of essential
minimal characteristics.
2. The existence of a culture that is centered on results, encourages communication, and yet is not afraid
to fail.
3. The effective use of object-oriented modeling.
4. The existence of a strong architectural vision.
5. The application of a well-managed iterative and incremental development life cycle.

3.1.3 REUSE
Reusing existing components and building reusable components have been natural software engineering
activities since the earliest improvements in programming languages. With reuse in order to minimize
development costs while achieving all the other required attributes of performance, feature set, and quality. Try
to treat reuse as a mundane part of achieving a return on investment.
Most truly reusable components of value are transitioned to commercial products supported by
organizations with the following characteristics:

 They have an economic motivation for continued support.

 They take ownership of improving product quality, adding new features, and transitioning to new
technologies.
 They have a sufficiently broad customer base to be profitable.
The cost of developing a reusable component is not trivial. Figure 3-1 examines the economic trade-offs. The
steep initial curve illustrates the economic obstacle to developing reusable components.
Reuse is an important discipline that has an impact on the efficiency of all workflows and the quality of most
artifacts.

3.1.4 COMMERCIAL COMPONENTS

A common approach being pursued today in many domains is to maximize integration of commercial
components and off-the-shelf products. While the use of commercial components is certainly desirable as a
means of reducing custom development, it has not proven to be straightforward in practice. Table 3-3 identifies
some of the advantages and disadvantages of using commercial components.

3.2 IMPROVING SOFTWARE PROCESSES

Process is an overloaded term. Three distinct process perspectives are.

 Metaprocess: an organization's policies, procedures, and practices for pursuing a software-intensive

line of business. The focus of this process is on organizational economics, long-term strategies, and
 software ROI.
 Macroprocess: a project's policies, procedures, and practices for producing a complete software
product within certain cost, schedule, and quality constraints. The focus of the macro process is on
creating an adequate instance of the Meta process for a specific set of constraints.
 Microprocess: a project team's policies, procedures, and practices for achieving an artifact of the
software process. The focus of the micro process is on achieving an intermediate product baseline
with adequate quality and adequate functionality as economically and rapidly as practical.
Although these three levels of process overlap somewhat, they have different objectives, audiences, metrics,
concerns, and time scales as shown in Table 3-4

In a perfect software engineering world with an immaculate problem description, an obvious solution space, a
development team of experienced geniuses, adequate resources, and stakeholders with common goals, we
could execute a software development process in one iteration with almost no scrap and rework. Because we
work in an imperfect world, however, we need to manage engineering activities so that scrap and rework
profiles do not have an impact on the win conditions of any stakeholder. This should be the underlying
premise for most process improvements.

3.3 IMPROVING TEAM EFFECTIVENESS

Teamwork is much more important than the sum of the individuals. With software teams, a project manager
needs to configure a balance of solid talent with highly skilled people in the leverage positions. Some maxims
of team management include the following:
 A well-managed project can succeed with a nominal engineering team.
 A mismanaged project will almost never succeed, even with an expert team of engineers.
 A well-architected system can be built by a nominal team of software builders.
 A poorly architected system will flounder even with an expert team of builders.

Boehm five staffing principles are

1. The principle of top talent: Use better and fewer people
2. The principle of job matching: Fit the tasks to the skills and motivation of the people available.
3. The principle of career progression: An organization does best in the long run by helping its people
to self-actualize.
4. The principle of team balance: Select people who will complement and harmonize with one another
5. The principle of phase-out: Keeping a misfit on the team doesn't benefit anyone

Software project managers need many leadership qualities in order to enhance team effectiveness. The
following are some crucial attributes of successful software project managers that deserve much more attention:

1. Hiring skills. Few decisions are as important as hiring decisions. Placing the right person in the right
job seems obvious but is surprisingly hard to achieve.
2. Customer-interface skill. Avoiding adversarial relationships among stakeholders is a prerequisite for
success.
Decision-making skill. The jillion books written about management have failed to provide a clear
definition of this attribute. We all know a good leader when we run into one, and decision-making
skill seems obvious despite its intangible definition.
Team-building skill. Teamwork requires that a manager establish trust, motivate progress, exploit
eccentric prima donnas, transition average people into top performers, eliminate misfits, and
consolidate diverse opinions into a team direction.
Selling skill. Successful project managers must sell all stakeholders (including themselves) on decisions
and priorities, sell candidates on job positions, sell changes to the status quo in the face of resistance, and
sell achievements against objectives. In practice, selling requires continuous negotiation, compromise,
and empathy

3.4 IMPROVING AUTOMATION THROUGH SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS

The tools and environment used in the software process generally have a linear effect on the productivity
of the process. Planning tools, requirements management tools, visual modeling tools, compilers, editors,
debuggers, quality assurance analysis tools, test tools, and user interfaces provide crucial automation support
for evolving the software engineering artifacts. Above all, configuration management environments provide the
foundation for executing and instrument the process. At first order, the isolated impact of tools and automation
generally allows improvements of 20% to 40% in effort. However, tools and environments must be viewed as
the primary delivery vehicle for process automation and improvement, so their impact can be much higher.
Automation of the design process provides payback in quality, the ability to estimate costs and
schedules, and overall productivity using a smaller team.
Round-trip engineering describe the key capability of environments that support iterative development. As we
have moved into maintaining different information repositories for the engineering artifacts, we need
automation support to ensure efficient and error-free transition of data from one artifact to another. Forward
engineering is the automation of one engineering artifact from another, more abstract representation. For
example, compilers and linkers have provided automated transition of source code into executable code.
Reverse engineering is the generation or modification of a more abstract representation from an existing artifact
(for example, creating a .visual design model from a source code representation).
Economic improvements associated with tools and environments. It is common for tool vendors to make rela-
tively accurate individual assessments of life-cycle activities to support claims about the potential economic
impact of their tools. For example, it is easy to find statements such as the following from companies in a
particular tool.
 Requirements analysis and evolution activities consume 40% of life-cycle costs.
 Software design activities have an impact on more than 50% of the resources.
 Coding and unit testing activities consume about 50% of software development effort and schedule.
 Test activities can consume as much as 50% of a project's resources.
 Configuration control and change management are critical activities that can consume as much as
25% of resources on a large-scale project.
 Documentation activities can consume more than 30% of project engineering resources.
 Project management, business administration, and progress assessment can consume as much as 30%
of project budgets.

3.5 ACHIEVING REQUIRED QUALITY

Software best practices are derived from the development process and technologies. Table 3-5 summarizes
some dimensions of quality improvement.
 Key practices that improve overall software quality include the following:
 Focusing on driving requirements and critical use cases early in the life cycle, focusing on
requirements completeness and traceability late in the life cycle, and focusing throughout the life cycle
on a balance between requirements evolution, design evolution, and plan evolution
 Using metrics and indicators to measure the progress and quality of an architecture as it evolves from
a high-level prototype into a fully compliant product
 Providing integrated life-cycle environments that support early and continuous configuration control,
change management, rigorous design methods, document automation, and regression test automation
 Using visual modeling and higher level languages that support architectural control, abstraction,
reliable programming, reuse, and self-documentation
 Early and continuous insight into performance issues through demonstration-based evaluations

Conventional development processes stressed early sizing and timing estimates of computer program
resource utilization. However, the typical chronology of events in performance assessment was as follows

 Project inception. The proposed design was asserted to be low risk with adequate performance
margin.
 Initial design review. Optimistic assessments of adequate design margin were based mostly on paper
analysis or rough simulation of the critical threads. In most cases, the actual application algorithms
and database sizes were fairly well understood.
 Mid-life-cycle design review. The assessments started whittling away at the margin, as early
benchmarks and initial tests began exposing the optimism inherent in earlier estimates.
 Integration and test. Serious performance problems were uncovered, necessitating fundamental
changes in the architecture. The underlying infrastructure was usually the scapegoat, but the real
culprit was immature use of the infrastructure, immature architectural solutions, or poorly understood
early design trade-offs.

3.6 PEER INSPECTIONS: A PRAGMATIC VIEW

Peer inspections are frequently over hyped as the key aspect of a quality system. In my experience, peer reviews
are valuable as secondary mechanisms, but they are rarely significant contributors to quality compared with the
following primary quality mechanisms and indicators, which should be emphasized in the management process:

 Transitioning engineering information from one artifact set to another, thereby assessing the consistency,
feasibility, understandability, and technology constraints inherent in the engineering artifacts
 Major milestone demonstrations that force the artifacts to be assessed against tangible criteria in the
context of relevant use cases
 Environment tools (compilers, debuggers, analyzers, automated test suites) that ensure representation
rigor, consistency, completeness, and change control
 Life-cycle testing for detailed insight into critical trade-offs, acceptance criteria, and requirements
compliance
 Change management metrics for objective insight into multiple-perspective change trends and
convergence or divergence from quality and progress goals
Inspections are also a good vehicle for holding authors accountable for quality products. All authors of
software and documentation should have their products scrutinized as a natural by-product of the process.
Therefore, the coverage of inspections should be across all authors rather than across all components.

===THE END===
 Software Project Management
UNIT – II
The old way and the new: The principles of conventional software Engineering, principles of modern
software management, transitioning to an iterative process.
Life cycle phases: Engineering and production stages, inception, Elaboration, construction, transition
phases.
Artifacts of the process: The artifact sets, Management artifacts, Engineering artifacts, programmatic
artifacts.
4. THE OLD WAY AND THE NEW
4.1 THE PRINCIPLES OF CONVENTIONAL SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
1.Make quality #1. Quality must be quantified and mechanisms put into place to motivate its achievement
2.High-quality software is possible. Techniques that have been demonstrated to increase quality include
involving the customer, prototyping, simplifying design, conducting inspections, and hiring the best people
3.Give products to customers early. No matter how hard you try to learn users' needs during the requirements
phase, the most effective way to determine real needs is to give users a product and let them play with it
4.Determine the problem before writing the requirements. When faced with what they believe is a problem,
most engineers rush to offer a solution. Before you try to solve a problem, be sure to explore all the alternatives
and don't be blinded by the obvious solution
5.Evaluate design alternatives. After the requirements are agreed upon, you must examine a variety of
architectures and algorithms. You certainly do not want to use” architecture" simply because it was used in the
requirements specification.
6.Use an appropriate process model. Each project must select a process that makes ·the most sense for that
project on the basis of corporate culture, willingness to take risks, application area, volatility of requirements,
and the extent to which requirements are well understood.
7.Use different languages for different phases. Our industry's eternal thirst for simple solutions to complex
problems has driven many to declare that the best development method is one that uses the same notation
throughout the life cycle.
8.Minimize intellectual distance. To minimize intellectual distance, the software's structure should be as close
as possible to the real-world structure
9.Put techniques before tools. An undisciplined software engineer with a tool becomes a dangerous,
undisciplined software engineer
10.Get it right before you make it faster. It is far easier to make a working program run faster than it is to
make a fast program work. Don't worry about optimization during initial coding
11.Inspect code. Inspecting the detailed design and code is a much better way to find errors than testing
12.Good management is more important than good technology. Good management motivates people to do
their best, but there are no universal "right" styles of management.
13.People are the key to success. Highly skilled people with appropriate experience, talent, and training are
key.
14.Follow with care. Just because everybody is doing something does not make it right for you. It may be
right, but you must carefully assess its applicability to your environment.
15.Take responsibility. When a bridge collapses we ask, "What did the engineers do wrong?" Even when
software fails, we rarely ask this. The fact is that in any engineering discipline, the best methods can be used to
produce awful designs, and the most antiquated methods to produce elegant designs.
16.Understand the customer's priorities. It is possible the customer would tolerate 90% of the functionality
delivered late if they could have 10% of it on time.
17.The more they see, the more they need. The more functionality (or performance) you provide a user, the
more functionality (or performance) the user wants.
18. Plan to throw one away. One of the most important critical success factors is whether or not a product is
entirely new. Such brand-new applications, architectures, interfaces, or algorithms rarely work the first
time.
19. Design for change. The architectures, components, and specification techniques you use must
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accommodate change.
20. Design without documentation is not design. I have often heard software engineers say, "I have finished
the design. All that is left is the documentation. "
21. Use tools, but be realistic. Software tools make their users more efficient.
22. Avoid tricks. Many programmers love to create programs with tricks constructs that perform a function
correctly, but in an obscure way. Show the world how smart you are by avoiding tricky code
23. Encapsulate. Information-hiding is a simple, proven concept that results in software that is easier to
test and much easier to maintain.
24. Use coupling and cohesion. Coupling and cohesion are the best ways to measure software's inherent
maintainability and adaptability
25. Use the McCabe complexity measure. Although there are many metrics available to report the inherent
complexity of software, none is as intuitive and easy to use as Tom McCabe's
26.Don't test your own software. Software developers should never be the primary testers of their own
software.
27.Analyze causes for errors. It is far more cost-effective to reduce the effect of an error by preventing it than
it is to find and fix it. One way to do this is to analyze the causes of errors as they are detected
28.Realize that software's entropy increases. Any software system that undergoes continuous change will
grow in complexity and will become more and more disorganized
29.People and time are not interchangeable. Measuring a project solely by person-months makes little sense
30.Expect excellence. Your employees will do much better if you have high expectations for them.

4.2 THE PRINCIPLES OF MODERN SOFTWARE MANAGEMENT

Top 10 principles of modern software management are. (The first five, which are the main themes of my definition of an
iterative process, are summarized in Figure 4-1.)

Base the process on an architecture-first approach. This requires that a demonstrable balance be
achieved among the driving requirements, the architecturally significant design decisions, and the life-
cycle plans before the resources are committed for full-scale development.
Establish an iterative life-cycle process that confronts risk early. With today's sophisticated software
systems, it is not possible to define the entire problem, design the entire solution, build the software,
and then test the end product in sequence. Instead, an iterative process that refines the problem
understanding, an effective solution, and an effective plan over several iterations encourages a balanced
treatment of all stakeholder objectives. Major risks must be addressed early to increase predictability
and avoid expensive downstream scrap and rework.
Transition design methods to emphasize component-based development. Moving from a line-of-code
mentality to a component-based mentality is necessary to reduce the amount of human-generated source
code and custom development.

4. Establish a change management environment. The dynamics of iterative development,

including concurrent workflows by different teams working on shared artifacts, necessitates
objectively controlled baselines.

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5. Enhance change freedom through tools that support round-trip engineering. Round-trip
engineering is the environment support necessary to automate and synchronize
engineering information in different formats(such as requirements specifications, design models,
source code, executable code, test cases).
6. Capture design artifacts in rigorous, model-based notation. A model based approach (such as
UML) supports the evolution of semantically rich graphical and textual design notations.
7. Instrument the process for objective quality control and progress assessment. Life-cycle
assessment of the progress and the quality of all intermediate products must be integrated into the process.
8. Use a demonstration-based approach to assess intermediate artifacts.
9. Plan intermediate releases in groups of usage scenarios with evolving levels of detail. It is
essential that the software management process drive toward early and continuous demonstrations
within the operational context of the system, namely its use cases.
10. Establish a configurable process that is economically scalable. No single process is suitable
for all software developments.

Table 4-1 maps top 10 risks of the conventional process to the key attributes and principles of a modern
process

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4.3 TRANSITIONING TO AN ITERATIVE PROCESS

Modern software development processes have moved away from the conventional waterfall model, in which
each stage of the development process is dependent on completion of the previous stage.
The economic benefits inherent in transitioning from the conventional waterfall model to an iterative
development process are significant but difficult to quantify. As one benchmark of the expected economic
impact of process improvement, consider the process exponent parameters of the COCOMO II model.
(Appendix B provides more detail on the COCOMO model) This exponent can range from 1.01 (virtually no
diseconomy of scale) to 1.26 (significant diseconomy of scale). The parameters that govern the value of the
process exponent are application precedentedness, process flexibility, architecture risk resolution, team
cohesion, and software process maturity.
The following paragraphs map the process exponent parameters of CO COMO II to my top 10
principles of a modern process.

 Application precedentedness. Domain experience is a critical factor in understanding how to plan and
execute a software development project. For unprecedented systems, one of the key goals is to confront
risks and establish early precedents, even if they are incomplete or experimental. This is one of the
primary reasons that the software industry has moved to an iterative life-cycle process. Early iterations
in the life cycle establish precedents from which the product, the process, and the plans can be elab-
orated in evolving levels of detail.
 Process flexibility. Development of modern software is characterized by such a broad solution space
and so many interrelated concerns that there is a paramount need for continuous incorporation of
changes. These changes may be inherent in the problem understanding, the solution space, or the plans.
Project artifacts must be supported by efficient change management commensurate with project
needs. A configurable process that allows a common framework to be adapted across a range of
projects is necessary to achieve a software return on investment.
 Architecture risk resolution. Architecture-first development is a crucial theme underlying a
successful iterative development process. A project team develops and stabilizes architecture before
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developing all the components that make up the entire suite of applications components. An
architecture-first and component-based development approach forces the infrastructure, common
mechanisms, and control mechanisms to be elaborated early in the life cycle and drives all component
make/buy decisions into the architecture process.
 Team cohesion. Successful teams are cohesive, and cohesive teams are successful. Successful teams
and cohesive teams share common objectives and priorities. Advances in technology (such as
programming languages, UML, and visual modeling) have enabled more rigorous and understandable
notations for communicating software engineering information, particularly in the requirements and
design artifacts that previously were ad hoc and based completely on paper exchange. These model-
based formats have also enabled the round-trip engineering support needed to establish change
freedom sufficient for evolving design representations.
 Software process maturity. The Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (CMM)
is a well-accepted benchmark for software process assessment. One of key themes is that truly mature
processes are enabled through an integrated environment that provides the appropriate level of automa-
tion to instrument the process for objective quality control.

Important questions

Explain briefly Waterfall model. Also explain Conventional s/w management performance?
1.

2. Define Software Economics. Also explain Pragmatic s/w cost estimation?

3. Explain Important trends in improving Software economics?

4. Explain five staffing principal offered by Boehm. Also explain Peer Inspections?

5.. Explain principles of conventional software engineering?

Explain briefly principles of modern software management

6.

5. Life cycle phases

Characteristic of a successful software development process is the well-defined separation between "research
and development" activities and "production" activities. Most unsuccessful projects exhibit one of the
following characteristics:
 An overemphasis on research and development
 An overemphasis on production.
Successful modern projects-and even successful projects developed under the conventional process-tend to
have a very well-defined project milestone when there is a noticeable transition from a research attitude to a
production attitude. Earlier phases focus on achieving functionality. Later phases revolve around achieving a
product that can be shipped to a customer, with explicit attention to robustness, performance, and finish.
A modern software development process must be defined to support the following:
 Evolution of the plans, requirements, and architecture, together with well defined synchronization
points
 Risk management and objective measures of progress and quality
 Evolution of system capabilities through demonstrations of increasing functionality

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5.1 ENGINEERING AND PRODUCTION STAGES

To achieve economies of scale and higher returns on investment, we must move toward a software
manufacturing process driven by technological improvements in process automation and component-based
development. Two stages of the life cycle are:
1. The engineering stage, driven by less predictable but smaller teams doing design and synthesis
activities
2. The production stage, driven by more predictable but larger teams doing construction, test, and
deployment activities

The transition between engineering and production is a crucial event for the various stakeholders. The
production plan has been agreed upon, and there is a good enough understanding of the problem and the
solution that all stakeholders can make a firm commitment to go ahead with production.
Engineering stage is decomposed into two distinct phases, inception and elaboration, and the production
stage into construction and transition. These four phases of the life-cycle process are loosely mapped to the
conceptual framework of the spiral model as shown in Figure 5-1

5.2 INCEPTION PHASE

The overriding goal of the inception phase is to achieve concurrence among stakeholders on the life-cycle
objectives for the project.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
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 Establishing the project's software scope and boundary conditions, including an operational
concept, acceptance criteria, and a clear understanding of what is and is not intended to be in the
product
 Discriminating the critical use cases of the system and the primary scenarios of operation that will
drive the major design trade-offs
 Demonstrating at least one candidate architecture against some of the primary scenanos
 Estimating the cost and schedule for the entire project (including detailed estimates for the
elaboration phase)
 Estimating potential risks (sources of unpredictability)

ESSENTIAL ACTMTIES
 Formulating the scope of the project. The information repository should be sufficient to define the
problem space and derive the acceptance criteria for the end product.
 Synthesizing the architecture. An information repository is created that is sufficient to demonstrate
the feasibility of at least one candidate architecture and an, initial baseline of make/buy decisions
so that the cost, schedule, and resource estimates can be derived.
 Planning and preparing a business case. Alternatives for risk management, staffing, iteration plans,
and cost/schedule/profitability trade-offs are evaluated.
PRIMARY EVALUATION CRITERIA
 Do all stakeholders concur on the scope definition and cost and schedule estimates?
 Are requirements understood, as evidenced by the fidelity of the critical use cases?
 Are the cost and schedule estimates, priorities, risks, and development processes credible?
 Do the depth and breadth of an architecture prototype demonstrate the preceding criteria? (The
primary value of prototyping candidate architecture is to provide a vehicle for understanding the
scope and assessing the credibility of the development group in solving the particular technical
problem.)
 Are actual resource expenditures versus planned expenditures acceptable

5.2 ELABORATION PHASE

At the end of this phase, the "engineering" is considered complete. The elaboration phase activities must
ensure that the architecture, requirements, and plans are stable enough, and the risks sufficiently mitigated,
that the cost and schedule for the completion of the development can be predicted within an acceptable
range. During the elaboration phase, an executable architecture prototype is built in one or more iterations,
depending on the scope, size, & risk.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
 Baselining the architecture as rapidly as practical (establishing a configuration-managed snapshot in
which all changes are rationalized, tracked, and maintained)
 Baselining the vision
 Baselining a high-fidelity plan for the construction phase
 Demonstrating that the baseline architecture will support the vision at a reasonable cost in a reasonable
time

ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES
 Elaborating the vision.
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 Elaborating the process and infrastructure.
 Elaborating the architecture and selecting components.

PRIMARY EVALUATION CRITERIA

 Is the vision stable?
 Is the architecture stable?
 Does the executable demonstration show that the major risk elements have been addressed and credibly
resolved?
 Is the construction phase plan of sufficient fidelity, and is it backed up with a credible basis of
estimate?
 Do all stakeholders agree that the current vision can be met if the current plan is executed to develop
the complete system in the context of the current architecture?
 Are actual resource expenditures versus planned expenditures acceptable?

5.4 CONSTRUCTION PHASE

During the construction phase, all remaining components and application features are integrated into the application,
and all features are thoroughly tested. Newly developed software is integrated where required. The construction phase
represents a production process, in which emphasis is placed on managing resources and controlling operations to optimize
costs, schedules, and quality.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
 Minimizing development costs by optimizing resources and avoiding unnecessary scrap and
rework
 Achieving adequate quality as rapidly as practical
 Achieving useful versions (alpha, beta, and other test releases) as rapidly as practical

ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES
 Resource management, control, and process optimization
 Complete component development and testing against evaluation criteria
 Assessment of product releases against acceptance criteria of the vision

PRIMARY EVALUATION CRITERIA

 Is this product baseline mature enough to be deployed in the user community? (Existing defects are
not obstacles to achieving the purpose of the next release.)
 Is this product baseline stable enough to be deployed in the user community? (Pending changes are
not obstacles to achieving the purpose of the next release.)
 Are the stakeholders ready for transition to the user community?
 Are actual resource expenditures versus planned expenditures acceptable?

5.5 TRANSITION PHASE

The transition phase is entered when a baseline is mature enough to be deployed in the end-user domain.
This typically requires that a usable subset of the system has been achieved with acceptable quality levels
and user documentation so that transition to the user will provide positive results. This phase could include
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any of the following activities:

1. Beta testing to validate the new system against user expectations

2. Beta testing and parallel operation relative to a legacy system it is replacing
3. Conversion of operational databases
4. Training of users and maintainers
The transition phase concludes when the deployment baseline has achieved the complete vision.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
 Achieving user self-supportability
 Achieving stakeholder concurrence that deployment baselines are complete and consistent with the
evaluation criteria of the vision
 Achieving final product baselines as rapidly and cost-effectively as practical

ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES
 Synchronization and integration of concurrent construction increments into consistent deployment
baselines
 Deployment-specific engineering (cutover, commercial packaging and production, sales rollout kit
development, field personnel training)
 Assessment of deployment baselines against the complete vision and acceptance criteria in the
requirements set

EVALUATION CRITERIA
 Is the user satisfied?
 Are actual resource expenditures versus planned expenditures acceptable?

6. Artifacts of the process

6.1 THE ARTIFACT SETS

To make the development of a complete software system manageable, distinct collections of information are
organized into artifact sets. Artifact represents cohesive information that typically is developed and reviewed
as a single entity.
Life-cycle software artifacts are organized into five distinct sets that are roughly partitioned by the
underlying language of the set: management (ad hoc textual formats), requirements (organized text and
models of the problem space), design (models of the solution space), implementation (human-readable
programming language and associated source files), and deployment (machine-process able languages and
associated files). The artifact sets are shown in Figure 6-1.

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6.1.1 THE MANAGEMENT SET

The management set captures the artifacts associated with process planning and execution. These
artifacts use ad hoc notations, including text, graphics, or whatever representation is required to capture
the "contracts" among project personnel (project management, architects, developers, testers, marketers,
administrators), among stakeholders (funding authority, user, software project manager, organization
manager, regulatory agency), and between project personnel and stakeholders. Specific artifacts
included in this set are the work breakdown structure (activity breakdown and financial tracking
mechanism), the business case (cost, schedule, profit expectations), the release specifications (scope,
plan, objectives for release baselines), the software development plan (project process instance), the
release descriptions (results of release baselines), the status assessments (periodic snapshots of project
progress), the software change orders (descriptions of discrete baseline changes), the deployment docu-
ments (cutover plan, training course, sales rollout kit), and the environment (hardware and software
tools, process automation, & documentation).
Management set artifacts are evaluated, assessed, and measured through a combination of the following:
 Relevant stakeholder review
 Analysis of changes between the current version of the artifact and previous versions
 Major milestone demonstrations of the balance among all artifacts and, in particular, the accuracy
of the business case and vision artifacts

6.1.2 THE ENGINEERING SETS

The engineering sets consist of the requirements set, the design set, the implementation set, and the
deployment set.

Requirements Set
Requirements artifacts are evaluated, assessed, and measured through a combination of the following:

 Analysis of consistency with the release specifications of the management set

 Analysis of consistency between the vision and the requirements models
 Mapping against the design, implementation, and deployment sets to evaluate the consistency and
completeness and the semantic balance between information in the different sets
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 Analysis of changes between the current version of requirements artifacts and previous versions
(scrap, rework, and defect elimination trends)
 Subjective review of other dimensions of quality

Design Set
UML notation is used to engineer the design models for the solution. The design set contains varying
levels of abstraction that represent the components of the solution space (their identities, attributes, static
relationships, dynamic interactions). The design set is evaluated, assessed, and measured through a
combination of the following:
 Analysis of the internal consistency and quality of the design model
 Analysis of consistency with the requirements models
 Translation into implementation and deployment sets and notations (for example, traceability,
source code generation, compilation, linking) to evaluate the consistency and completeness and the
semantic balance between information in the sets
 Analysis of changes between the current version of the design model and previous versions (scrap,
rework, and defect elimination trends)
 Subjective review of other dimensions of quality
Implementation set
The implementation set includes source code (programming language notations) that represents the tangible
implementations of components (their form, interface, and dependency relationships)
Implementation sets are human-readable formats that are evaluated, assessed, and measured through a
combination of the following:
 Analysis of consistency with the design models
 Translation into deployment set notations (for example, compilation and linking) to evaluate the
consistency and completeness among artifact sets
 Assessment of component source or executable files against relevant evaluation criteria through
inspection, analysis, demonstration, or testing
 Execution of stand-alone component test cases that automatically compare expected results with
actual results
 Analysis of changes between the current version of the implementation set and previous versions
(scrap, rework, and defect elimination trends)
 Subjective review of other dimensions of quality

Deployment Set
The deployment set includes user deliverables and machine language notations, executable software, and the
build scripts, installation scripts, and executable target specific data necessary to use the product in its target
environment.
Deployment sets are evaluated, assessed, and measured through a combination of the following:

 Testing against the usage scenarios and quality attributes defined in the requirements set to evaluate
the consistency and completeness and the~ semantic balance between information in the two sets
 Testing the partitioning, replication, and allocation strategies in mapping components of the
implementation set to physical resources of the deployment system (platform type, number,
network topology)
 Testing against the defined usage scenarios in the user manual such as installation, user-oriented
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dynamic reconfiguration, mainstream usage, and anomaly management
 Analysis of changes between the current version of the deployment set and previous versions
(defect elimination trends, performance changes)
 Subjective review of other dimensions of quality
Each artifact set is the predominant development focus of one phase of the life cycle; the other sets take on
check and balance roles. As illustrated in Figure 6-2, each phase has a predominant focus: Requirements are
the focus of the inception phase; design, the elaboration phase; implementation, the construction phase; and
deployment, the transition phase. The management artifacts also evolve, but at a fairly constant level across
the life cycle.
Most of today's software development tools map closely to one of the five artifact sets.
1. Management: scheduling, workflow, defect tracking, change management,
documentation, spreadsheet, resource management, and presentation tools
2. Requirements: requirements management tools
3. Design: visual modeling tools
4. Implementation: compiler/debugger tools, code analysis tools, test coverage analysis tools, and test
management tools
5. Deployment: test coverage and test automation tools, network management tools, commercial
components (operating systems, GUIs, RDBMS, networks, middleware), and installation tools.

Implementation Set versus Deployment Set

The separation of the implementation set (source code) from the deployment set (executable code) is
important because there are very different concerns with each set. The structure of the information delivered
to the user (and typically the test organization) is very different from the structure of the source code
information. Engineering decisions that have an impact on the quality of the deployment set but are relatively
incomprehensible in the design and implementation sets include the following:
 Dynamically reconfigurable parameters (buffer sizes, color palettes, number of servers, number of
simultaneous clients, data files, run-time parameters)
 Effects of compiler/link optimizations (such as space optimization versus speed optimization)
 Performance under certain allocation strategies (centralized versus distributed, primary and
shadow threads, dynamic load balancing, hot backup versus checkpoint/rollback)
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 Virtual machine constraints (file descriptors, garbage collection, heap size, maximum record size,
disk file rotations)
 Process-level concurrency issues (deadlock and race conditions)
 Platform-specific differences in performance or behavior

6.1.3 ARTIFACT EVOLUTION OVER THE LIFE CYCLE

Each state of development represents a certain amount of precision in the final system description.
Early in the life cycle, precision is low and the representation is generally high. Eventually, the precision of
representation is high and everything is specified in full detail. Each phase of development focuses on a
particular artifact set. At the end of each phase, the overall system state will have progressed on all sets, as
illustrated in Figure 6-3.

The inception phase focuses mainly on critical requirements usually with a secondary focus on an initial
deployment view. During the elaboration phase, there is much greater depth in requirements, much more
breadth in the design set, and further work on implementation and deployment issues. The main focus of the
construction phase is design and implementation. The main focus of the transition phase is on achieving
consistency and completeness of the deployment set in the context of the other sets.

6.1.4 TEST ARTIFACTS

 The test artifacts must be developed concurrently with the product from inception through
deployment. Thus, testing is a full-life-cycle activity, not a late life-cycle activity.
 The test artifacts are communicated, engineered, and developed within the same artifact sets as the
developed product.
 The test artifacts are implemented in programmable and repeatable formats (as software
programs).
 The test artifacts are documented in the same way that the product is documented.
 Developers of the test artifacts use the same tools, techniques, and training as the software
engineers developing the product.
Test artifact subsets are highly project-specific, the following example clarifies the relationship between test
artifacts and the other artifact sets. Consider a project to perform seismic data processing for the purpose of
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oil exploration. This system has three fundamental subsystems: (1) a sensor subsystem that captures raw
seismic data in real time and delivers these data to (2) a technical operations subsystem that converts raw
data into an organized database and manages queries to this database from (3) a display subsystem that
allows workstation operators to examine seismic data in human-readable form. Such a system would result
in the following test artifacts:

 Management set. The release specifications and release descriptions capture the objectives,
evaluation criteria, and results of an intermediate milestone. These artifacts are the test plans and
test results negotiated among internal project teams. The software change orders capture test
results (defects, testability changes, requirements ambiguities, enhancements) and the closure
criteria associated with making a discrete change to a baseline.
 Requirements set. The system-level use cases capture the operational concept for the system and
the acceptance test case descriptions, including the expected behavior of the system and its quality
attributes. The entire requirement set is a test artifact because it is the basis of all assessment
activities across the life cycle.
 Design set. A test model for nondeliverable components needed to test the product baselines is
captured in the design set. These components include such design set artifacts as a seismic event
simulation for creating realistic sensor data; a "virtual operator" that can support unattended, after-
hours test cases; specific instrumentation suites for early demonstration of resource usage;
transaction rates or response times; and use case test drivers and component stand-alone test
drivers.
 Implementation set. Self-documenting source code representations for test components and test
drivers provide the equivalent of test procedures and test scripts. These source files may also
include human-readable data files representing certain statically defined data sets that are explicit
test source files. Output files from test drivers provide the equivalent of test reports.
 Deployment set. Executable versions of test components, test drivers, and data files are provided.

6.2 MANAGEMENT ARTIFACTS

The management set includes several artifacts that capture intermediate results and ancillary
information necessary to document the product/process legacy, maintain the product, improve the
product, and improve the process.
Business Case
The business case artifact provides all the information necessary to determine whether the project is
worth investing in. It details the expected revenue, expected cost, technical and management plans, and
backup data necessary to demonstrate the risks and realism of the plans. The main purpose is to
transform the vision into economic terms so that an organization can make an accurate ROI assessment.
The financial forecasts are evolutionary, updated with more accurate forecasts as the life cycle
progresses. Figure 6-4 provides a default outline for a business case.
Software Development Plan
The software development plan (SDP) elaborates the process framework into a fully detailed plan. Two
indications of a useful SDP are periodic updating (it is not stagnant shelfware) and understanding and
acceptance by managers and practitioners alike. Figure 6-5 provides a default outline for a software
development plan.

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Work Breakdown Structure

Work breakdown structure (WBS) is the vehicle for budgeting and collecting costs. To monitor and control a
project's financial performance, the software project man1ger must have insight into project costs and how
they are expended. The structure of cost accountability is a serious project planning constraint.

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Software Change Order Database
Managing change is one of the fundamental primitives of an iterative development process. With greater
change freedom, a project can iterate more productively. This flexibility increases the content, quality, and
number of iterations that a project can achieve within a given schedule. Change freedom has been achieved
in practice through automation, and today's iterative development environments carry the burden of change
management. Organizational processes that depend on manual change management techniques have
encountered major inefficiencies.

Release Specifications
The scope, plan, and objective evaluation criteria for each baseline release are derived from the vision
statement as well as many other sources (make/buy analyses, risk management concerns, architectural
considerations, shots in the dark, implementation constraints, quality thresholds). These artifacts are intended
to evolve along with the process, achieving greater fidelity as the life cycle progresses and requirements
understanding matures. Figure 6-6 provides a default outline for a release specification

Release Descriptions
Release description documents describe the results of each release, including performance against each of
the evaluation criteria in the corresponding release specification. Release baselines should be accompanied
by a release description document that describes the evaluation criteria for that configuration baseline and
provides substantiation (through demonstration, testing, inspection, or analysis) that each criterion has been
addressed in an acceptable manner. Figure 6-7 provides a default outline for a release description.
Status Assessments
Status assessments provide periodic snapshots of project health and status, including the software project
manager's risk assessment, quality indicators, and management indicators. Typical status assessments should
include a review of resources, personnel staffing, financial data (cost and revenue), top 10 risks, technical
progress (metrics snapshots), major milestone plans and results, total project or product scope & action items

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Environment
An important emphasis of a modern approach is to define the development and maintenance environment as
a first-class artifact of the process. A robust, integrated development environment must support automation
of the development process. This environment should include requirements management, visual modeling,
document automation, host and target programming tools, automated regression testing, and continuous and
integrated change management, and feature and defect tracking.

Deployment
A deployment document can take many forms. Depending on the project, it could include several document
subsets for transitioning the product into operational status. In big contractual efforts in which the system is
delivered to a separate maintenance organization, deployment artifacts may include computer system
operations manuals, software installation manuals, plans and procedures for cutover (from a legacy system),
site surveys, and so forth. For commercial software products, deployment artifacts may include marketing
plans, sales rollout kits, and training courses.

Management Artifact Sequences

In each phase of the life cycle, new artifacts are produced and previously developed artifacts are updated to
incorporate lessons learned and to capture further depth and breadth of the solution. Figure 6-8 identifies a
typical sequence of artifacts across the life-cycle phases.

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6.3 ENGINEERING ARTIFACTS
Most of the engineering artifacts are captured in rigorous engineering notations such as UML, programming
languages, or executable machine codes. Three engineering artifacts are explicitly intended for more general
review, and they deserve further elaboration .

Vision Document
The vision document provides a complete vision for the software system under development and. supports
the contract between the funding authority and the development organization. A project vision is meant to be
changeable as understanding evolves of the requirements, architecture, plans, and technology. A good vision
document should change slowly. Figure 6-9 provides a default outline for a vision document.

Architecture Description

The architecture description provides an organized view of the software architecture under development. It
is extracted largely from the design model and includes views of the design, implementation, and
deployment sets sufficient to understand how the operational concept of the requirements set will be
achieved. The breadth of the architecture description will vary from project to project depending on many
factors. Figure 6-10 provides a default outline for an architecture description.

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Software User Manual
The software user manual provides the user with the reference documentation necessary to support the
delivered software. Although content is highly variable across application domains, the user manual should
include installation procedures, usage procedures and guidance, operational constraints, and a user interface
description, at a minimum. For software products with a user interface, this manual should be developed
early in the life cycle because it is a necessary mechanism for communicating and stabilizing an important
subset of requirements. The user manual should be written by members of the test team, who are more likely
to understand the user's perspective than the development team.

6.4 PRAGMATIC ARTIFACTS

People want to review information but don't understand the language of the artifact. Many interested
reviewers of a particular artifact will resist having to learn the engineering language in which the artifact is
written. It is not uncommon to find people (such as veteran software managers, veteran quality assurance
specialists, or an auditing authority from a regulatory agency) who react as follows: "I'm not going to learn
UML, but I want to review the design of this software, so give me a separate description such as some
flowcharts and text that I can understand."
People want to review the information but don't have access to the tools. It is not very common for the
development organization to be fully tooled; it is extremely rare that the/other stakeholders have any
capability to review the engineering artifacts on-line. Consequently, organizations are forced to exchange
paper documents. Standardized formats (such as UML, spreadsheets, Visual Basic, C++, and Ada 95),
visualization tools, and the Web are rapidly making it economically feasible for all stakeholders to exchange
information electronically.
Human-readable engineering artifacts should use rigorous notations that are complete, consistent,
and used in a self-documenting manner. Properly spelled English words should be used for all identifiers
and descriptions. Acronyms and abbreviations should be used only where they are well accepted jargon in
the context of the component's usage. Readability should be emphasized and the use of proper English words
should be required in all engineering artifacts. This practice enables understandable representations, browse
able formats (paperless review), more-rigorous notations, and reduced error rates.
Useful documentation is self-defining: It is documentation that gets used.
Paper is tangible; electronic artifacts are too easy to change. On-line and Web-based artifacts can be
changed easily and are viewed with more skepticism because of their inherent volatility.

Unit – III Important questions

1. Explain briefly two stages of the life cycle engineering and production.
2. Explain different phases of the life cycle process?
Explain the goal of Inception phase, Elaboration phase, Construction phase and
3.
Transition phase.
4. Explain the overview of the artifact set
Write a short note on
5.
(a) Management Artifacts (b) Engineering Artifacts (c) Pragmatic Artifacts

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 UNIT - III
Model based software architectures: A Management perspective and technical perspective.
Work Flows of the process: Software process workflows, Iteration workflows.
Check Points of The process
7. Model based software architecture
7.1 ARCHITECTURE: A MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE
The most critical technical product of a software project is its architecture: the infrastructure,
control, and data interfaces that permit software components to cooperate as a system and
software designers to cooperate efficiently as a team. When the communications media
include multiple languages and intergroup literacy varies, the communications problem can
become extremely complex and even unsolvable. If a software development team is to be
successful, the inter project communications, as captured in the software architecture, must
be both accurate and precise
From a management perspective, there are three different aspects of architecture.
1. An architecture (the intangible design concept) is the design of a software system
this includes all engineering necessary to specify a complete bill of materials.
2. An architecture baseline (the tangible artifacts) is a slice of information across the
engineering artifact sets sufficient to satisfy all stakeholders that the vision
(function and quality) can be achieved within the parameters of the business case
(cost, profit, time, technology, and people).
3. An architecture description (a human-readable representation of an architecture,
which is one of the components of an architecture baseline) is an organized subset
of information extracted from the design set model(s). The architecture
description communicates how the intangible concept is realized in the tangible
artifacts.
The number of views and the level of detail in each view can vary widely.
The importance of software architecture and its close linkage with modern software
development processes can be summarized as follows:
 Achieving a stable software architecture represents a significant project milestone
at which the critical make/buy decisions should have been resolved.
 Architecture representations provide a basis for balancing the trade-offs between
the problem space (requirements and constraints) and the solution space (the
operational product).
 The architecture and process encapsulate many of the important (high-payoff or
high-risk) communications among individuals, teams, organizations, and
stakeholders.
 Poor architectures and immature processes are often given as reasons for project
failures.
 A mature process, an understanding of the primary requirements, and a
demonstrable architecture are important prerequisites for predictable planning.
 Architecture development and process definition are the intellectual steps that map
the problem to a solution without violating the constraints; they require human
innovation and cannot be automated.

7.2 ARCHITECTURE: A TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE

An architecture framework is defined in terms of views that are abstractions of the UML
models in the design set. The design model includes the full breadth and depth of
information. An architecture view is an abstraction of the design model; it contains only the
architecturally significant information. Most real-world systems require four views: design,
process, component, and deployment. The purposes of these views are as follows:
 Design: describes architecturally significant structures and functions of the design
model
 Process: describes concurrency and control thread relationships among the design,
component, and deployment views
 Component: describes the structure of the implementation set
 Deployment: describes the structure of the deployment set
Figure 7-1 summarizes the artifacts of the design set, including the architecture views and
architecture description.
The requirements model addresses the behavior of the system as seen by its end users,
analysts, and testers. This view is modeled statically using use case and class diagrams, and
dynamically using sequence, collaboration, state chart, and activity diagrams.
 The use case view describes how the system's critical (architecturally significant)
use cases are realized by elements of the design model. It is modeled statically
using use case diagrams, and dynamically using any of the UML behavioral
diagrams.
 The design view describes the architecturally significant elements of the design
model. This view, an abstraction of the design model, addresses the basic structure
and functionality of the solution. It is modeled statically using class and object
diagrams, and dynamically using any of the UML behavioral diagrams.
 The process view addresses the run-time collaboration issues involved in executing
the architecture on a distributed deployment model, including the logical software
network topology (allocation to processes and threads of control), interprocess
communication, and state management. This view is modeled statically using
deployment diagrams, and dynamically using any of the UML behavioral
diagrams.
 The component view describes the architecturally significant elements of the
implementation set. This view, an abstraction of the design model, addresses the
software source code realization of the system from the perspective of the project's
integrators and developers, especially with regard to releases and configuration
management. It is modeled statically using component diagrams, and dynamically
using any of the UML behavioral diagrams.
 The deployment view addresses the executable realization of the system, including
the allocation of logical processes in the distribution view (the logical software
topology) to physical resources of the deployment network (the physical system
topology). It is modeled statically using deployment diagrams, and dynamically
using any of the UML behavioral diagrams.
Generally, an architecture baseline should include the following:
 Requirements: critical use cases, system-level quality objectives, and priority
relationships among features and qualities
 Design: names, attributes, structures, behaviors, groupings, and relationships of
significant classes and components
 Implementation: source component inventory and bill of materials (number, name,
purpose, cost) of all primitive components
 Deployment: executable components sufficient to demonstrate the critical use
cases and the risk associated with achieving the system qualities
8. Workflow of the process
8.1 SOFTWARE PROCESS WORKFLOWS
The term WORKFLOWS is used to mean a thread of cohesive and mostly sequential activi-
ties. Workflows are mapped to product artifacts There are seven top-level workflows:
1. Management workflow: controlling the process and ensuring win conditions for all
stakeholders
2. Environment workflow: automating the process and evolving the maintenance
environment
3. Requirements workflow: analyzing the problem space and evolving the
requirements artifacts
4. Design workflow: modeling the solution and evolving the architecture and design
artifacts
5. Implementation workflow: programming the components and evolving the
implementation and deployment artifacts
6. Assessment workflow: assessing the trends in process and product quality
7. Deployment workflow: transitioning the end products to the user
Figure 8-1 illustrates the relative levels of effort expected across the phases in each of the
top-level workflows.

Table 8-1 shows the allocation of artifacts and the emphasis of each workflow in each of the
life-cycle phases of inception, elaboration, construction, and transition.
8.2 ITERATION WORKFLOWS
Iteration consists of a loosely sequential set of activities in various proportions, depending on
where the iteration is located in the development cycle. Each iteration is defined in terms of a
set of allocated usage scenarios. An individual iteration's workflow, illustrated in Figure 8-2,
generally includes the following sequence:
 Management: iteration planning to determine the content of the release and develop
the detailed plan for the iteration; assignment of work packages, or tasks, to the
development team
 Environment: evolving the software change order database to reflect all new
baselines and changes to existing baselines for all product, test, and environment
components

 Requirements: analyzing the baseline plan, the baseline architecture, and the
baseline requirements set artifacts to fully elaborate the use cases to be
demonstrated at the end of this iteration and their evaluation criteria; updating any
requirements set artifacts to reflect changes necessitated by results of this
iteration's engineering activities
 Design: evolving the baseline architecture and the baseline design set artifacts to
elaborate fully the design model and test model components necessary to
demonstrate against the evaluation criteria allocated to this iteration; updating
design set artifacts to reflect changes necessitated by the results of this iteration's
engineering activities
 Implementation: developing or acquiring any new components, and enhancing or
modifying any existing components, to demonstrate the evaluation criteria
allocated to this iteration; integrating and testing all new and modified
components with existing baselines (previous versions)
  Assessment: evaluating the results of the iteration, including compliance with the
allocated evaluation criteria and the quality of the current baselines; identifying
any rework required and determining whether it should be performed before
deployment of this release or allocated to the next release; assessing results to
improve the basis of the subsequent iteration's plan
 Deployment: transitioning the release either to an external organization (such as a
user, independent verification and validation contractor, or regulatory agency) or
to internal closure by conducting a post-mortem so that lessons learned can be
captured and reflected in the next iteration
Iterations in the inception and elaboration phases focus on management. Requirements, and
design activities. Iterations in the construction phase focus on design, implementation, and
assessment. Iterations in the transition phase focus on assessment and deployment. Figure 8-
3 shows the emphasis on different activities across the life cycle. An iteration represents the
state of the overall architecture and the complete deliverable system. An increment
represents the current progress that will be combined with the preceding iteration to from the
next iteration. Figure 8-4, an example of a simple development life cycle, illustrates the
differences between iterations and increments.
9. Checkpoints of the process
Three types of joint management reviews are conducted throughout the process:

1. Major milestones. These system wide events are held at the end of each
development phase. They provide visibility to system wide issues, synchronize
the management and engineering perspectives, and verify that the aims of the
phase have been achieved.
2. Minor milestones. These iteration-focused events are conducted to review the
content of an iteration in detail and to authorize continued work.
3. Status assessments. These periodic events provide management with frequent and
regular insight into the progress being made.

Each of the four phases-inception, elaboration, construction, and transition consists of one or
more iterations and concludes with a major milestone when a planned technical capability is
produced in demonstrable form. An iteration represents a cycle of activities for which there is
a well-defined intermediate result-a minor milestone-captured with two artifacts: a release
specification (the evaluation criteria and plan) and a release description (the results). Major
milestones at the end of each phase use formal, stakeholder-approved evaluation criteria and
release descriptions; minor milestones use informal, development-team-controlled versions of
these artifacts.
Figure 9-1 illustrates a typical sequence of project checkpoints for a relatively large project.

9.1 MAJOR MILESTONES

The four major milestones occur at the transition points between life-cycle phases. They can
be used in many different process models, including the conventional waterfall model. In an
iterative model, the major milestones are used to achieve concurrence among all stakeholders
on the current state of the project. Different stakeholders have very different concerns:
  Customers: schedule and budget estimates, feasibility, risk assessment,
requirements understanding, progress, product line compatibility
 Users: consistency with requirements and usage scenarios, potential for
accommodating growth, quality attributes
 Architects and systems engineers: product line compatibility, requirements changes,
trade-off analyses, completeness and consistency, balance among risk, quality, and
usability
 Developers: sufficiency of requirements detail and usage scenario descriptions, .
frameworks for component selection or development, resolution of development
risk, product line compatibility, sufficiency of the development environment
 Maintainers: sufficiency of product and documentation artifacts, understandability,
interoperability with existing systems, sufficiency of maintenance environment
 Others: possibly many other perspectives by stakeholders such as regulatory
agencies, independent verification and validation contractors, venture capital
investors, subcontractors, associate contractors, and sales and marketing teams
Table 9-1 summarizes the balance of information across the major milestones.
Life-Cycle Objectives Milestone
The life-cycle objectives milestone occurs at the end of the inception phase. The goal is to
present to all stakeholders a recommendation on how to proceed with development, including
a plan, estimated cost and schedule, and expected benefits and cost savings. A successfully
completed life-cycle objectives milestone will result in authorization from all stakeholders to
proceed with the elaboration phase.

Life-Cycle Architecture Milestone

The life-cycle architecture milestone occurs at the end of the elaboration phase. The primary
goal is to demonstrate an executable architecture to all stakeholders. The baseline
architecture consists of both a human-readable representation (the architecture document)
and a configuration-controlled set of software components captured in the engineering
artifacts. A successfully completed life-cycle architecture milestone will result in
authorization from the stakeholders to proceed with the construction phase.
The technical data listed in Figure 9-2 should have been reviewed by the time of the lifecycle
architecture milestone. Figure 9-3 provides default agendas for this milestone.
Initial Operational Capability Milestone
The initial operational capability milestone occurs late in the construction phase. The goals
are to assess the readiness of the software to begin the transition into customer/user sites and
to authorize the start of acceptance testing. Acceptance testing can be done incrementally
across multiple iterations or can be completed entirely during the transition phase is not
necessarily the completion of the construction phase.
Product Release Milestone
The product release milestone occurs at the end of the transition phase. The goal is to assess
the completion of the software and its transition to the support organization, if any. The
results of acceptance testing are reviewed, and all open issues are addressed. Software
quality metrics are reviewed to determine whether quality is sufficient for transition to the
support organization.
9.2 MINOR MILESTONES
For most iterations, which have a one-month to six-month duration, only two minor
milestones are needed: the iteration readiness review and the iteration assessment review.

 Iteration Readiness Review. This informal milestone is conducted at the start of

each iteration to review the detailed iteration plan and the evaluation criteria that
have been allocated to this iteration .
 Iteration Assessment Review. This informal milestone is conducted at the end of
each iteration to assess the degree to which the iteration achieved its objectives
and satisfied its evaluation criteria, to review iteration results, to review
qualification test results (if part of the iteration), to determine the amount of
rework to be done, and to review the impact of the iteration results on the plan for
subsequent iterations.

The format and content of these minor milestones tend to be highly dependent on the project
and the organizational culture. Figure 9-4 identifies the various minor milestones to be
considered when a project is being planned.

9.3 PERIODIC STATUS ASSESSMENTS

Periodic status assessments are management reviews conducted at regular intervals
(monthly, quarterly) to address progress and quality indicators, ensure continuous attention to
project dynamics, and maintain open communications among all stakeholders.
Periodic status assessments serve as project snapshots. While the period may vary, the
recurring event forces the project history to be captured and documented. Status assessments
provide the following:
 A mechanism for openly addressing, communicating, and resolving management
issues, technical issues, and project risks
 Objective data derived directly from on-going activities and evolving product
configurations
 A mechanism for disseminating process, progress, quality trends, practices, and
experience information to and from all stakeholders in an open forum
Periodic status assessments are crucial for focusing continuous attention on the evolving
health of the project and its dynamic priorities. They force the software project manager to
collect and review the data periodically, force outside peer review, and encourage
dissemination of best practices to and from other stakeholders.

The default content of periodic status assessments should include the topics identified in
Table 9-2.