Software Processes

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 1

 Objectives
⚫ To introduce software process models
⚫ To describe three generic process models and
when they may be used
⚫ To describe outline process models for
requirements engineering, software
development, testing and evolution
⚫ To explain the Rational Unified Process model
⚫ To introduce CASE technology to support
software process activities

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 2

 Topics covered

⚫ Software process models

⚫ Process iteration
⚫ Process activities
⚫ The Rational Unified Process
⚫ Computer-aided software engineering

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 3

 The software process
⚫ A structured set of activities required to develop a
software system
• Specification;
• Design & implementation;
• Validation;
• Evolution.
⚫ A software process model is an abstract representation
of a process. It presents a description of a process
from some particular perspective.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 4

 Generic software process models
⚫ The waterfall model
• Separate and distinct phases of specification and
development.
⚫ Evolutionary development
• Specification, development and validation are
interleaved.
⚫ Component-based software engineering
• The system is assembled from existing components.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 5

 Waterfall model

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 6

 Waterfall model phases
⚫ Requirements analysis and definition
⚫ System and software design
⚫ Implementation and unit testing
⚫ Integration and system testing
⚫ Operation and maintenance
⚫ The main drawback of the waterfall model is
the difficulty of accommodating change after
the process is underway. One phase has to be
completed before moving onto the next phase.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 7

 Waterfall model problems
⚫ 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.
⚫ The waterfall model is mostly used for large systems
engineering projects where a system is developed at
several sites.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 8

 Evolutionary development

⚫ Exploratory development
• Objective is to work with customers and to evolve a
final system from an initial outline specification.
Should start with well-understood requirements and
add new features as proposed by the customer.
⚫ Throw-away prototyping
• Objective is to understand the system requirements.
Should start with poorly understood requirements to
clarify what is really needed.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 9

 Evolutionary development

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 10

 Evolutionary development
⚫ Problems
• Lack of process visibility;
• Systems are often poorly structured due to
continual changes;
• Special skills (e.g. in languages for rapid
prototyping) may be required.
⚫ Applicability
• For small or medium-size interactive systems;
• For parts of large systems (e.g. the user interface);
• For short-lifetime systems.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 11

 ⚫ For Large Systems:
It is recommended to use a mixed process that
incorporates the best features of the waterfall
and the evolutionary development models
⚫ Parts of the system that are well understood
can be developed using the waterfall process
⚫ Other parts, such as the user interface, which
are difficult to specify in advance, should be
developed using the exploratory approach

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 12

 Component-based software engineering

⚫ Based on systematic reuse where systems are

integrated from existing components or COTS
(Commercial-off-the-shelf) systems.
⚫ Process stages
• Component analysis by searching given specs
• Requirements modification for found components
• System design with reuse;
• Development and integration.
⚫ This approach is becoming increasingly used
as component standards have emerged.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 13

 Reuse-oriented development

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 14

 Process iteration

⚫ System requirements ALWAYS evolve in the

course of a project so process iteration where
earlier stages are reworked is always part of
the process for large systems.
⚫ Iteration can be applied to any of the generic
process models.
⚫ Two (related) approaches
• Incremental delivery;
• Spiral development.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 15

 Incremental delivery
⚫ 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.
⚫ User requirements are prioritised and the highest
priority requirements are included in early increments.
⚫ Once the development of an increment is started, the
requirements are frozen though requirements for later
increments can continue to evolve.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 16

 Incremental development

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 17

 Incremental development advantages

⚫ Customer value can be delivered with each

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

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 18

 Spiral development
⚫ Process is represented as a spiral rather than as
a sequence of activities with backtracking.
⚫ Each loop in the spiral represents a phase in the
process.
⚫ The innermost loop might concern with feasibility,
next loop with requirements definition, next loop
with design, and so on.
⚫ No fixed phases - loops in the spiral are chosen
depending on what is required.
⚫ Risks are explicitly assessed and resolved
throughout the process.
©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 19
Spiral model of the software process

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 20

 Spiral model sectors
Each loop in the spiral is split into 4 sectors:
⚫ Objective setting
• Specific objectives for the phase are identified.
⚫ Risk assessment and reduction
• Risks are assessed and activities put in place to reduce
the key risks.
⚫ Development and validation
• A development model for the system is chosen which
can be any of the generic models.
⚫ Planning
• The project is reviewed and the next phase of the spiral
is planned.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 21

 Process activities

⚫ Software specification
⚫ Software design and implementation
⚫ Software validation
⚫ Software evolution

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 22

 Software specification

⚫ The process of establishing what services are

required and the constraints on the system’s
operation and development.
⚫ Requirements engineering process
• Feasibility study;
• Requirements elicitation and analysis;
• Requirements specification;
• Requirements validation.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 23

 The requirements engineering process

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 24

 Software design and implementation

⚫ The process of converting the system

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

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 25

 Design process activities

⚫ Architectural design
⚫ Interface design
⚫ Component design
⚫ Data structure design
⚫ Algorithm design

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 26

 The software design process

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 27

 Structured methods
⚫ Systematic approaches to developing a
software design.
⚫ The design is usually documented as a set of
graphical models.
⚫ Possible models
• Object model;
• Sequence model;
• State transition model;
• Structural model;
• Data-flow model.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 28

 Programming and debugging

⚫ Translating a design into a program and

removing errors from that program.
⚫ Programming is a personal activity - there is
no generic programming process.
⚫ Programmers carry out some program testing
to discover faults in the program and remove
these faults in the debugging process.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 29

 The debugging process

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 30

 Software validation
⚫ Verification and validation (V & V) is intended
to show that a system conforms to its
specification and meets the requirements of
the system customer.
⚫ Involves checking and review processes and
system testing.
⚫ 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.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 31

 The testing process

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 32

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

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 33

 Testing phases

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 34

 Software evolution

⚫ Software is inherently flexible and can change.

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

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 35

 System evolution

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 36

 The Rational Unified Process

⚫ A modern process model derived from the

work on the UML and associated process.
⚫ Normally described from 3 perspectives
• A dynamic perspective that shows phases over
time;
• A static perspective that shows process activities;
• A practive perspective that suggests good
practice.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 37

 RUP phase model

Phase iteration

Inception Elaboration Construction Transition

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 38

 RUP phases

⚫ Inception
• Establish the business case for the system.
⚫ Elaboration
• Develop an understanding of the problem domain
and the system architecture.
⚫ Construction
• System design, programming and testing.
⚫ Transition
• Deploy the system in its operating environment.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 39

 RUP good practice

⚫ Develop software iteratively

⚫ Manage requirements
⚫ Use component-based architectures
⚫ Visually model software
⚫ Verify software quality
⚫ Control changes to software

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 40

 Static workflows
Workflow Description
Business modelling The bu siness processes are modelled u sing bu siness use cases.
Requirements Actors who interact with the system are iden tified and use cases are
deve loped to model the system requirements.
Analysis and de sign A design model is created and do cumented u sing architectural
models, componen t models, object models and sequence mod els.
Implementation The co mponents in the system are implemented and structured into
implementation sub-systems. Automatic code gen eration from design
models helps accelerate this proces s.
Test Testing is an iterative p rocess that is carried ou t in con junction with
implementation. System testing follows the completion of the
implementation.
Deployment A produc t release is created, distributed to users and installed in their
workplace.
Configuration and This supporting workflow managed change s to the system (see
chang e management Chapter 29).
Project management This supporting workflow manages the system deve lopment (see
Chapter 5).
Environment This workflow is concerned with making appropriate software tools
available to the software deve lopment team.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 41

 Computer-aided software engineering

⚫ Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) is

software to support software development and
evolution processes.
⚫ Activity automation
• Graphical editors for system model development;
• Data dictionary to manage design entities;
• Graphical UI builder for user interface construction;
• Debuggers to support program fault finding;
• Automated translators to generate new versions of a
program.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 42

 Case technology

⚫ Case technology has led to significant

improvements in the software process.
However, these are not the order of magnitude
improvements that were once predicted
• Software engineering requires creative thought -
this is not readily automated;
• Software engineering is a team activity and, for
large projects, much time is spent in team
interactions. CASE technology does not really
support these.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 43

 CASE classification
⚫ Classification helps us understand the different types
of CASE tools and their support for process activities.
⚫ Functional perspective
• Tools are classified according to their specific function.
⚫ Process perspective
• Tools are classified according to process activities that
are supported.
⚫ Integration perspective
• Tools are classified according to their organisation into
integrated units.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 44

 Functional tool classification

Tool type Examples

Planning tools PERT tools, estimation tools, spreadsheets
Editing tools Text editors, diagram editors, word processors
Change management tools Requirements traceability tools, change control systems
Configuration management tools Version management systems, system building tools
Prototyping tools Very high-level languages, user interface generators
Method-support tools Design editors, data dictionaries, code generators
Language-processing tools Compilers, interpreters
Program analysis tools Cross reference generators, static analysers, dynamic analysers
Testing tools Test data generators, file comparators
Debugging tools Interactive debugging systems
Documentation tools Page layout programs, image editors
Re-engineering tools Cross-reference systems, program re-structuring systems

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 45

 Activity-based tool classification
Re-eng ineering tools

Testing tools

Debugg ing tools

Prog ram analysis tools

Language-processing
tools

Method suppor t tools

Prototyping tools

Configuration
management tools

Change management tools

Documentation tools

Editing tools

Planning tools

Specification Design Implementation Verification

and
Validation

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 46

 CASE integration
⚫ Tools
• Support individual process tasks such as design
consistency checking, text editing, etc.
⚫ Workbenches
• Support a process phase such as specification or
design, Normally include a number of integrated
tools.
⚫ Environments
• Support all or a substantial part of an entire
software process. Normally include several
integrated workbenches.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 47

 Tools, workbenches, environments
CASE
technolo g y

Tools Wor kbenches Environments

File Integ rated Process-centr ed

Editors Compilers
compar ators en vironments en vironments

Analysis and
Pro gramming Testing
design

Multi-method Single-method Gener al-purpose Langua ge-specific

workbenches workbenches workbenches workbenches

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 48

 Key points
⚫ Software processes are the activities involved in
producing and evolving a software system.
⚫ Software process models are abstract representations
of these processes.
⚫ General activities are specification, design and
implementation, validation and evolution.
⚫ Generic process models describe the organisation of
software processes. Examples include the waterfall
model, evolutionary development and component-
based software engineering.
⚫ Iterative process models describe the software process
as a cycle of activities.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 49

 Key points
⚫ Requirements engineering is the process of developing
a software specification.
⚫ Design and implementation processes transform the
specification to an executable program.
⚫ Validation involves checking that the system meets to
its specification and user needs.
⚫ Evolution is concerned with modifying the system after
it is in use.
⚫ The Rational Unified Process is a generic process
model that separates activities from phases.
⚫ CASE technology supports software process activities.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 50