Software Processes

Chapter 2 Software Processes 1

The software process

² A structured set of activities required to develop a

software system.
² Many different software processes but all involve:
§ Specification – defining what the system should do;
§ Design and implementation – defining the organization of the
system and implementing the system;
§ Validation – checking that it does what the customer wants;
² A software process model is an abstract representation
of a process. It presents a description of a process from
some particular perspective.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 3

Software process descriptions

² When we describe and discuss processes, we usually

talk about the activities in these processes such as
specifying a data model, designing a user interface, etc.
and the ordering of these activities.
² Process descriptions may also include:
§ Products, which are the outcomes of a process activity;
§ Roles, which reflect the responsibilities of the people involved in
the process;
§ Pre- and post-conditions, which are statements that are true
before and after a process activity has been enacted or a
product produced.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 4

Plan-driven and agile processes

² Plan-driven processes are processes where all of the

process activities are planned in advance and progress
is measured against this plan.
² In agile processes, planning is incremental and it is
easier to change the process to reflect changing
customer requirements.
² In practice, most practical processes include elements of
both plan-driven and agile approaches.
² There are no right or wrong software processes.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 5

Software process models

Chapter 2 Software Processes 6

Software process models

² The waterfall model

§ Plan-driven model. Separate and distinct phases of specification
and development.
² Incremental development
§ Specification, development and validation are interleaved. May
be plan-driven or agile.
² Integration and configuration
§ The system is assembled from existing configurable
components. May be plan-driven or agile.
² In practice, most large systems are developed using a
process that incorporates elements from all of these
models.
Chapter 2 Software Processes 7
The waterfall model

Requirements
definition

System and
software design

Implementation
and unit testing

Integration and
system testing

Operation and
maintenance

Chapter 2 Software Processes 8

Waterfall model phases

² There are separate identified phases in the waterfall

model:
§ Requirements analysis and definition
§ System and software design
§ Implementation and unit testing
§ Integration and system testing
§ Operation and maintenance
² The main drawback of the waterfall model is the difficulty
of accommodating change after the process is
underway. In principle, a phase has to be complete
before moving onto the next phase.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 9

Waterfall model problems

² Inflexible partitioning of the project into distinct stages

makes it difficult to respond to changing customer
requirements.
§ Therefore, this model is only appropriate when the requirements
are well-understood and changes will be fairly limited during the
design process.
§ Few business systems have stable requirements.
² The waterfall model is mostly used for large systems
engineering projects where a system is developed at
several sites.
§ In those circumstances, the plan-driven nature of the waterfall
model helps coordinate the work.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 10

Incremental development

Concurrent
activities

Initial
Specification version

Outline Intermediate
description Development versions

Final
Validation version

Chapter 2 Software Processes 11

Incremental development benefits

² The cost of accommodating changing customer

requirements is reduced.
§ The amount of analysis and documentation that has to be
redone is much less than is required with the waterfall model.
² It is easier to get customer feedback on the development
work that has been done.
§ Customers can comment on demonstrations of the software and
see how much has been implemented.
² More rapid delivery and deployment of useful software to
the customer is possible.
§ Customers are able to use and gain value from the software
earlier than is possible with a waterfall process.
Chapter 2 Software Processes 12
Incremental development problems

² The process is not visible.

§ Managers need regular deliverables to measure progress. If
systems are developed quickly, it is not cost-effective to produce
documents that reflect every version of the system.
² System structure tends to degrade as new increments
are added.
§ Unless time and money is spent on refactoring to improve the
software, regular change tends to corrupt its structure.
Incorporating further software changes becomes increasingly
difficult and costly.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 13

Integration and configuration

² Based on software reuse where systems are integrated

from existing components or application systems
(sometimes called COTS -Commercial-off-the-shelf)
systems).
² Reused elements may be configured to adapt their
behaviour and functionality to a user’s requirements
² Reuse is now the standard approach for building many
types of business system

Chapter 2 Software Processes 14

Types of reusable software

² Stand-alone application systems (sometimes called

COTS) that are configured for use in a particular
environment.
² Collections of objects that are developed as a package
to be integrated with a component framework such as
.NET or J2EE.
² Web services that are developed according to service
standards and which are available for remote invocation.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 15

 Reuse-oriented software engineering

Application system Configure

Software available application
discovery system

Requirements Requirements
specification refinement Adapt
components
Software Integrate
evaluation Components system
available Develop new
components

Chapter 2 Software Processes 16

Key process stages

² Requirements specification
² Software discovery and evaluation
² Requirements refinement
² Application system configuration
² Component adaptation and integration

Chapter 2 Software Processes 17

Advantages and disadvantages

² Reduced costs and risks as less software is developed

from scratch
² Faster delivery and deployment of system
² But requirements compromises are inevitable so system
may not meet real needs of users
² Loss of control over evolution of reused system elements

Chapter 2 Software Processes 18

Process activities

Chapter 2 Software Processes 19

Process activities

² Real software processes are inter-leaved sequences of

technical, collaborative and managerial activities with the
overall goal of specifying, designing, implementing and
testing a software system.
² The four basic process activities of specification,
development, validation and evolution are organized
differently in different development processes.
² For example, in the waterfall model, they are organized
in sequence, whereas in incremental development they
are interleaved.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 20

The requirements engineering process

Requirements
elicitation and
analysis
Requirements
specification
Requirements
validation

System
descriptions
User and system
requirements

Requirements
document

Chapter 2 Software Processes 21

Software specification

² The process of establishing what services are required

and the constraints on the system’s operation and
development.
² Requirements engineering process
§ Requirements elicitation and analysis
• What do the system stakeholders require or expect from the system?
§ Requirements specification
• Defining the requirements in detail
§ Requirements validation
• Checking the validity of the requirements

Chapter 2 Software Processes 22

Software design and implementation

² The process of converting the system specification into

an executable system.
² Software design
§ Design a software structure that realises the specification;
² Implementation
§ Translate this structure into an executable program;
² The activities of design and implementation are closely
related and may be inter-leaved.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 23

A general model of the design process

Design inputs

Platform Requirements Data

information specification description

Design activities

Architectural Interface Component

design design design

Database design

Design outputs

System Database Interface Component

architecture specification specification specification

Chapter 2 Software Processes 24

Design activities

² Architectural design, where you identify the overall

structure of the system, the principal components
(subsystems or modules), their relationships and how
they are distributed.
² Database design, where you design the system data
structures and how these are to be represented in a
database.
² Interface design, where you define the interfaces
between system components.
² Component selection and design, where you search for
reusable components. If unavailable, you design how it
will operate.
Chapter 2 Software Processes 25
System implementation

² The software is implemented either by developing a

program or programs or by configuring an application
system.
² Design and implementation are interleaved activities for
most types of software system.
² Programming is an individual activity with no standard
process.
² Debugging is the activity of finding program faults and
correcting these faults.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 26

Software verification and validation

² Verification and validation (V & V) is intended to show

that a system conforms to its specification and meets the
requirements of the system customer.
² Involves checking and review processes and system
testing.
² System testing involves executing the system with test
cases that are derived from the specification of the real
data to be processed by the system.
² Testing is the most commonly used V & V activity.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 27

Stages of testing

Component Acceptance
System testing
testing testing

Chapter 2 Software Processes 28

Testing stages

² Component testing
§ Individual components are tested independently;
§ Components may be functions or objects or coherent groupings
of these entities.
² System testing
§ Testing of the system as a whole. Testing of emergent properties
is particularly important.
² Customer testing
§ Testing with customer data to check that the system meets the
customer’s needs.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 29

 Testing phases in a plan-driven software
process (V-model)

Requirements System System Detailed

specification specification design design

System Sub-system Module and

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

Acceptance System Sub-system

Service
test integration test integration test

Chapter 2 Software Processes 30

Software evolution

² Software is inherently flexible and can change.

² As requirements change through changing business
circumstances, the software that supports the business
must also evolve and change.
² Although there has been a demarcation between
development and evolution (maintenance) this is
increasingly irrelevant as fewer and fewer systems are
completely new.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 31

System evolution

Define system Assess existing Propose system Modify

requirements systems changes systems

Existing New
systems system

Chapter 2 Software Processes 32

Coping with change

Chapter 2 Software Processes 33

Coping with change

² Change is inevitable in all large software projects.

§ Business changes lead to new and changed system
requirements
§ New technologies open up new possibilities for improving
implementations
§ Changing platforms require application changes
² Change leads to rework so the costs of change include
both rework (e.g. re-analysing requirements) as well as
the costs of implementing new functionality

Chapter 2 Software Processes 34

Coping with changing requirements

² System prototyping, where a version of the system or

part of the system is developed quickly to check the
customer’s requirements and the feasibility of design
decisions. This approach supports change anticipation.
² Incremental delivery, where system increments are
delivered to the customer for comment and
experimentation. This supports both change avoidance
and change tolerance.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 36

Software prototyping

² A prototype is an initial version of a system used to

demonstrate concepts and try out design options.
² A prototype can be used in:
§ The requirements engineering process to help with requirements
elicitation and validation;
§ In design processes to explore options and develop a UI design;
§ In the testing process to run back-to-back tests.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 37

The process of prototype development

Establish Define
prototype prototype Develop Evaluate
objectives functionality prototype prototype

Prototyping Outline Executable Evaluation

plan definition prototype report

Chapter 2 Software Processes 39

Throw-away prototypes

² Prototypes should be discarded after development as

they are not a good basis for a production system:
§ It may be impossible to tune the system to meet non-functional
requirements;
§ Prototypes are normally undocumented;
§ The prototype structure is usually degraded through rapid
change;
§ The prototype probably will not meet normal organisational
quality standards.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 41

Incremental delivery

² Rather than deliver the system as a single delivery, the

development and delivery is broken down into
increments with each increment delivering part of the
required functionality.
² User requirements are prioritised and the highest priority
requirements are included in early increments.
² Once the development of an increment is started, the
requirements are frozen though requirements for later
increments can continue to evolve.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 42

Incremental development and delivery

² Incremental development
§ Develop the system in increments and evaluate each increment
before proceeding to the development of the next increment;
§ Normal approach used in agile methods;
§ Evaluation done by user/customer proxy.
² Incremental delivery
§ Deploy an increment for use by end-users;
§ More realistic evaluation about practical use of software;

Chapter 2 Software Processes 43

Incremental delivery

Define outline Assign requirements Design system Develop system

requirements to increments architecture increment

System
incomplete?
Validate Integrate Validate Deploy
increment increment system increment

System
complete?
Final
system

Chapter 2 Software Processes 44

Incremental delivery advantages

² Customer value can be delivered with each increment so

system functionality is available earlier.
² Early increments act as a prototype to help elicit
requirements for later increments.
² Lower risk of overall project failure.
² The highest priority system services tend to receive the
most testing.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 45

Process improvement

Chapter 2 Software Processes 47

Process improvement

² Many software companies have turned to software

process improvement as a way of enhancing the quality
of their software, reducing costs or accelerating their
development processes.
² Process improvement means understanding existing
processes and changing these processes to increase
product quality and/or reduce costs and development
time.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 48

Process improvement activities

² Process measurement
§ You measure one or more attributes of the software process or
product. These measurements forms a baseline that helps you
decide if process improvements have been effective.
² Process analysis
§ The current process is assessed, and process weaknesses and
bottlenecks are identified. Process models (sometimes called
process maps) that describe the process may be developed.
² Process change
§ Process changes are proposed to address some of the identified
process weaknesses. These are introduced and the cycle
resumes to collect data about the effectiveness of the changes.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 51

Process metrics

² Time taken for process activities to be

completed
§ E.g. Calendar time or effort to complete an activity or process.
² Resources required for processes or activities
§ E.g. Total effort in person-days.
² Number of occurrences of a particular event
§ E.g. Number of defects discovered.

Chapter 2 Software Processes 53

Capability maturity levels

Level 5
Optimizing

Level 4
Quantitatively
managed

Level 3
Defined

Level 2
Managed

Level 1
Initial

Chapter 2 Software Processes 54

The SEI capability maturity model

² Initial
§ Essentially uncontrolled
² Repeatable
§ Product management procedures defined and used
² Defined
§ Process management procedures and strategies defined
and used
² Managed
§ Quality management strategies defined and used
² Optimising
§ Process improvement strategies defined and used
Chapter 2 Software Processes 55