Introduction

Vũ Thị Hồng Nhạn

([email protected])

Dept. of Software Engineering, FIT, UET

Vietnam National Univ., Hanoi

 Contents
 Professional software development
 What does SE means?

 SE ethics
 A brief introduction to ethical issues that impact SE

 Case studies
 An introduction to typical examples that will be explored in later lectures

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Professional software development

Answer 10 frequently asked questions about SE

 1. What is software?
 Software is a computer program along with its associated documents

 A computer program may be part of a larger system, meaning multiple

programs can exist within a system

 Documentation is essential in SE, i.e., we’re not just writing a program we

also create documents and other necessary information for long-term use

 Software can be classified into 2 types

 Off-the-shelf software or application designed for general markets

 Customized software developed specially according to a customer’s requirements

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 2. What are the attributes of good software?

 Software should meet customer requirements and deliver the

desired functionality with a reasonable level of performance

 It should also be usable, maintainable, and reliable

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 3. What is SE?
 SE is an engineering discipline that focuses on all aspects of
software production

 It involves not just coding but everything from understanding user

needs to maintaining the software through its lifetime

 As an engineering discipline, it emphasizes systematic, disciplined,

and well-managed approaches to software development

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 4. What are the fundamental SE activities?

 There are 4 activities that are always part of professional SE

 Software specification

 Software development

 Software validation

 Software evolution

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5. What is the difference between

SE & computer science?

 SE is a part of a broader Computer Science curriculum

 Fundamentally, Computer Science on the theory of software, while

SE is concerned with its practical application and software
development

 In practice, theory and application do not always align perfectly

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6. What is the difference between

Software & SE?

 SE is concerned with all aspects of computer-based system development,

including hardware, software, and process engineering

 Software, on the other hand, is a more focused activity that deals only with
the software itself, though it is closely associated with and integrated into
the SE process

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 7. Key Challenges facing in SE?
 Firstly, addressing increasing diversity: software is now present in all kinds
of devices, from smartwatches to space station

 We need to understand characteristics of the devices and the computers we are

using to develop the most appropriate software for them

 Secondly, the challenge of responsiveness and faster delivery

 Business and users expect quick results and cannot afford to wait for several
years for software development

 Finally, ensuring trustworthy software

 Reliable and resilient software must be able to withstand external cyberattacks

and maintain its integrity

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 8. What are the costs of SE?
 This is a difficult question to answer because the cost varies significantly
depending on the type of system

 For example, developing a critical system for an aircraft will be much more
expensive per line of code than creating a free app for the Android Store or
iTunes

 On average, about 60% of software costs go to development, while 40%

are testing costs, which include updates to ensure the software useful as
requirement change

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9. What are the best…

engineering techniques & methods

 All software projects must be professionally managed and developed, with

different techniques suited for different types of systems

 For example, games should be developed using a series prototypes, while

safety-critical control system requires a complete and thoroughly analyzable
specification

 Therefore, no single method can be considered universally better than

another

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10. What differences has the web made to SE?

 Fundamentally, the web has transformed software development and delivery

by enabling a new approach

 Instead of installing software on user’s computer, we can now provide

software as a service that can be accessed remotely

 This has led to the development of new types of distributed systems that
deliver the functionality users need

 The demands of the web and the need for highly distributed systems have
driven advancements in SE

 New methods for software reuse, new programming languages, and

innovative development techniques have emerged as a result

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Why SE matters?
Why?
 Software is everywhere, and our society is now completely dependent on
software-intensive systems

Power infrastructure Financial system

telecommunications

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 Why?
 Feeding and housing a growing world population

 Addressing challenges of an aging population by

ensuring a high quality of life for elderly citizens

 Combating international terrorism, which

threatens all societies

 To tackle these challenges, we need SE and

effective techniques for developing complex
software systems.

 SE is essential for maintaining and continuing to

improve the quality of life for our citizens

 We must also ensure that these systems are

reliable, secure, and capable of meeting user
needs

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 Software products
 Generic products
 Stand-alone systems that are marketed and sold to any customer who wants to
purchase them

 E.g. PC software such as graphic programs, project management tools, CAD(Computer-

Aided Design) software, and industry-specific software like appointment systems for
dentists

 Customized products
 Software developed specially for a particular customer to meet their unique needs

 E.g., embedded control systems, air traffic control software, and traffic monitoring
systems

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 Product specification
 Generic/off-the-shelf products

 The specification of what the software should do is owned by the

software developer, and decisions regarding software changes are
made by the developer

 Customized products

 The specification of what the software should do is owned by the

customer, and they make decisions regarding software changes

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Essential attributes of good software
Product Description
characteristic
Maintainability Software should be written in a way that allows it to evolves and adapt to the
changing needs of customers  crucial attribute, as software changes are
inevitable in a dynamic business environment

Dependability & Soft. dependability encompasses various characteristics (reliability, security,

security and safety)
Dependable soft. shouldn’t cause physical or economic damage in the event
of a system failure. Additionally, malicious users should not be able to
access or compromise the system
Efficiency Soft. shouldn’t waste resources such as memory or processor cycles 
efficiency encompasses factors like responsiveness, processing time, and
memory utilization

Acceptability Soft. must be suitable for the intended users (i.e., should be understandable,
user-friendly, and compatible with other system they use)

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 SE
 SE is an engineering discipline that focuses on all aspects of software production,
from the early stages of software specification to maintaining the system after it’s
been deployed

 Engineering disciple: SE applies appropriate theories and methods to solve

problems while considering organization and financial constraints

 Comprehensive approach: SE encompasses all aspects of software products, not

just the technical development process

 Beyond development: SE also involves project management, as well as

development of tools, methods, and frameworks to support software production

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 Software process activities
 Software specification: the stage where customers and engineers define the
software to be developed, along with the constraints on its operations

 Software development: the process of designing and programing the software

 Software validation: the phase where the software is tested to ensure it meets
customer requirements (i.e., does the right things)

 Software evolution: the ongoing process of modifying the software to adapt to

changing customer and market requirements

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General issues that affect software

 Heterogeneity: modern systems are increasingly required to operate as

distributed systems across networks that include various types of computers
and mobile devices

 Business & social change: business and society are evolving rapidly as
emerging economies grow and new technologies become available

 Adaptivity: organizations must be able to modify their existing software and

quickly develop new software to keep up with these changes

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General issues that affect software...

 Security & trust

 As software becomes deeply intertwined

in all aspects of our lives, it’s essential to
ensure its reliability, trustworthiness and
security

 Scale

 Software must be developed to

accommodate a wide range of scales,
from embedded systems in portable or
wearable devices to large-scale, cloud-
based systems serving a global
community
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 SE diversity
 There’re many different types of software systems, and no universal set of
software technique is applicable to all of them

 The SE methods and tools used depend on the type of application being
developed, the customer’s requirements, and the background of the
development team

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 Application types
 Stand-alone applications: these are application systems that run on a
local computer, such as a PC
 They include all necessary functionality and do not require a network
connection

 Interactive transaction-based applications: these are applications

that run on a remote computer and are accessed by users from their own
PCs or terminals
 Examples include web applications such as e-commerce platforms

 Embedded control systems

 These are software systems

designed to control and manage

hardware devices

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 Application types...
 Batch processing systems: these are business
systems designed to process data in large
batches. They handle a high volume of
individual inputs to generate corresponding
outputs

 Entertainment systems: these systems are

intended for personal use and designed to
entertain the user

 Modeling and simulation systems: these

systems are developed by scientists and
engineers to simulate physical processes or
real-world scenarios involving multiple
interacting components

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 Application types...
 Data collection systems: these are
systems that gather data from their
environment using a set of sensors and
transmit it to other systems for
processing
Forest fire detection
 Systems of systems: these are complex
systems composed of multiple
interconnected software systems

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 SE fundamentals
 Structured development process: systems should be developed using a
well-managed and well-understood process. Different processes may be
used for different types of software

 Dependability & performance: these are crucial for all types of software
systems

 Requirements management: understanding and managing software

specifications and requirements is essential

 Software reuse: whenever possible, existing software should be reused

instead of rewriting new code

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 Internet SE
 The web has now become a platform for running applications, and
organizations are increasingly developing web-based systems rather than
local systems
 Web services enable application functionality to be accessed over the
web and the internet
 Cloud computing is an approach to providing computer services where
applications run remotely on the cloud
 Users do not purchase software but instead pay based on usage

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 Web-based SE
 Web-based systems are complex distributed systems, but the fundamental

principles of SE discussed previously are applicable to them, just as they

are to other types of systems

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 Web SE
 Software reuse: is the predominant approach for constructing web-
based systems
 When building these systems, you consider how to assemble them from
pre-existing software components and systems

 Incremental and agile development

 Web-based systems should be developed and delivered incrementally.
It’s now generally recognized that specifying all the requirements for
such systems in advance is impractical

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 Web SE...
 Service-oriented systems

 Software may be implemented using service-oriented software SE, where the software
components are stand-alone web services

 Rich interfaces

 Interface development technologies such as AJAX and HTML5 have emerged to support
the creation of rich interfaces within a web browser

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SE Ethics
 What is Ethics?
 Ethics and codes of ethics related to professions in computing and science
are fairly simple

 It refers to behavior that we consciously choose which has positive and

negative impacts on society, citizens, and the environment (both cultural
and natural)

 Generally, there’re two kids of ethics

 Minimalism: avoiding harm

 Idealism: the optimistic side of computing, which suggests that we can prevent
harm, possibly do positive things, and sometimes be labeled as ethical

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 SE ethics
 SE involves broader responsibilities than just applying technical skills

 Software engineers must act in an honest and ethically responsible

manner in order to be respected as professionals

 Ethical behavior goes beyond merely upholding the law; it involves

following a set of principles that are morally right

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 Issues of professional responsibility

 Confidentiality

 Engineers should respect the confidentiality of their employers or clients,

regardless of whether or not a formal confidentiality agreement has been
signed

 Competence

 Engineers should not misinterpret their level of competence.

 They should not knowingly accept work that is beyond their level of
competence

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 Issues of professional responsibility
 Intellectual property rights
 Engineers should be aware of local laws governing the use of intellectual
property, such as patents, copyrights, etc.

 They must ensure that the intellectual property of their employers and clients is
protected

 Computer misuse
 Software engineers should not use their technical skills to misuse other people’s
computers

 Computer misuse can range relatively trivial actions (such as playing games on
an employers’ machine) to extremely serious offenses (such as disseminating
viruses)

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Case studies
 Case studies
 A personal insulin pump: an embedded system in an insulin pump used by
diabetics to maintain blood glucose control
 A mental health care patient management system (Mentcare): a system
used to maintain records of people receiving care for mental health
problems
 A wilderness weather station: a data collection system that gathers data
about weather conditions in remote areas
 iLearn: a digital learning environment
 Service-oriented systems: systems designed to provide services through a
network, typically utilizing web services

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 Insulin pump control system
 Collects data from a blood sugar sensor and
calculates the amount of insulin required to be
injected

 The calculation is based on the rate of change in

blood sugar levels

 Send signals to a micro-pump to deliver the correct

doses of insulin

 A safety-critical system, as a low blood sugar level

can lead to brain malfunction, coma, and death
while high blood sugar levels can have long-term
consequences, such as eyes and kidney damage

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 Insulin pump hardware architecture

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 Essential high-level requirements
 The system shall be available to deliver insulin when required

 The system shall perform reliably and deliver the correct amount of insulin
to counteract the current blood sugar level

 Therefore the system must be designed and implemented to ensure that it

always meets these requirements

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Mentcare
A patient information system for mental health care

 A patient information system to support mental health care is a medical

information system that maintain records about patients suffering from
mental health problems and the treatments they have received

 Most mental health patients don’t require dedicated hospital treatment

but need to attend specialists clinics regularly, where they can meet with
a doctor who has detailed knowledge of their problems

 To make it easier for patients to attend, these clinics are not only run in
hospitals they may also be held in local medical practices or community
centers

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 Mentcare
 Mentcare is an information system designed for use in clinics

 It utilizes a centralized database of patients information but is also

designed to run on a PC, allowing it to be accessed and used from
sites without secure network connectivity

 When local system have secure network access, they can use
patient information from the database, download, and access copies
of patient records even when disconnected

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 Mentcare goals
 To generate management information that enables health service
managers to access performance against local and government targets

 To provide medical staff with timely information to support patient

treatment

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 The organization of the Mentcare system

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 Key features of the Mentcare system
 Individual care management: clinicians can manage patient records, edit
information in the system, view patient history and more

 The system supports data summarization to help doctors quickly

understand the key issues and treatments prescribed for their patients

 Patient monitoring: the system monitors the records of patients undergoing

treatment and issues

 Administrative reporting: the system generates monthly management

reports, showing the number of patients treated at each clinic
 The number of patients who have entered or existed the care system,

 the number of patients admitted to the hospital,

 the drugs prescribed and their associated costs and more

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 Mentcare system concerns
 Privacy
 It is essential that patient information remains confidential and is never disclosed
to anyone other than authorized medical staff and the patient themselves

 Safety
 Some mental illnesses may cause patients to become suicidal or pose a danger
to others

 Whenever possible, the system should alert medical staff about potentially
suicidal or dangerous patients

 The system must be available when needed, otherwise, patient safety may be
compromised, and it may be impossible to prescribe the correct medication

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 Wilderness weather station
 The government of a country with a vast wilderness
area decide to deploy several hundred weather
stations in remote locations

 These weather stations collect data from a set of

instruments that measure weather parameters such as
wind speed, directions, ground and air temperature,
barometric pressure, and rainfall over a 24-hour
period

 Each of these instruments is controlled by a software

system that periodically takes parameter readings and
manages the collected data

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 The weather station’s environment

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 Weather information system
 The weather station system: is responsible for
collecting weather data, performing data
processing, and transmitting the data to the data
management system

 The data management system and archiving

system: gathers data collected from wilderness
weather station, processes and analyzes it, and
archives the collected data

 The station maintenance system:

communicates via satellite with all wilderness
stations to monitor the status and generate reports
on any detected issues

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 iLearn: a digital learning environment

 A digital learning environment is a framework in which

 a set of general-purpose and specialty designed tools for learning may be
embedded

 plus a set of applications that are geared to the needs to the learners using
the system

 The tools included in each version of the environment are chosen by

teachers and learners to suit their specific needs
 These can be general applications such as spreadsheets

 learning management applications such as a Virtual Learning Environment to

mange homework submission and assessment, games and simulations

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 iLearn: service-oriented systems
 The system is a service-oriented system with all system components
considered to be a replaceable service

 This allows the system to be updated incrementally as new services

become available

 It also makes it possible to rapidly configure the system to create

versions of the environment for different groups such as very young
children who cannot read, senior students, etc.

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 iLearn services
 Utility services that provide basic application-independent
functionality and which may be used by other services in the system

 Application services that provide specific applications such as email,

conferencing, photo sharing etc. and access to specific educational
content such as scientific films or historical resources

 Configuration services that are used to adapt the environment with a

specific set of application services and do define how services are
shared between students, teachers, and their parents

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 iLearn architecture

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 iLearn service integration
 Integrated services are services which offer an API and which can be
accessed by other services through that API

 Direct service-to-service communication is therefore possible

 Independent services are services which are simply accessed through

a browser interface and which operate independently of other services

 Information can only be shared with other services through explicit user
actions such as copy and paste;

 re-authentication may be required for each independent service

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 Key points
 Software engineering is an engineering discipline that is concerned with all
aspects of software production

 Essential software product attributes are maintainability, dependability

and security, efficiency and acceptability

 The high-level activities of specification, development, validation and

evolution are part of all software process

 The fundamental notions of SE are universally applicable to all types of

system development

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