A process is a collection of activities, actions and tasks

that are performed when some work product is to be

created. It is not a rigid prescription for how to build
computer software. Rather, it is an adaptable approach
that enables the people doing the work to pick and choose
the appropriate set of work actions and tasks.
Purpose of process is to deliver software in a timely
manner and with sufficient quality to satisfy those who
have sponsored its creation and those who will use it.

Software Process

 Communication: communicate with customer to understand objectives and gather

requirements
Planning: creates a map defines the work by describing the tasks, risks and
resources, work products and work schedule.
Modeling: Create a sketch, what it looks like architecturally, how the
constituent parts fit together and other characteristics.
Construction: code generation and the testing.
Deployment: Delivered to the customer who evaluates the products and provides
feedback based on the evaluation.
These five framework activities can be used to all software development
regardless of the application domain, size of the project, complexity of the efforts
etc, though the details will be different in each case.
For many software projects, these framework activities are applied iteratively as
a project progresses. Each iteration produces a software increment that provides a
subset of overall software features and functionality.

Five Activities of a Generic

Process framework

Umbrella Activities
Complement the five process framework activities and help team manage and control
progress, quality, change, and risk.
Software project tracking and control: assess progress against the plan and take
actions to maintain the schedule.
Risk management: assesses risks that may affect the outcome and quality.
Software quality assurance: defines and conduct activities to ensure quality.
Technical reviews: assesses work products to uncover and remove errors before
going to the next activity.
Measurement: define and collects process, project, and product measures to ensure
stakeholders needs are met.
Software configuration management: manage the effects of change throughout the
software process.
Reusability management: defines criteria for work product reuse and establishes
mechanism to achieve reusable components.
Work product preparation and production: create work products such as models,
documents, logs, forms and lists.

The process should be agile and adaptable to problems. Process adopted for
one project might be significantly different than a process adopted from
another project. (to the problem, the project, the team, organizational
culture). Among the differences are:
the overall flow of activities, actions, and tasks and the interdependencies
among them
the degree to which actions and tasks are defined within each framework
activity
the degree to which work products are identified and required
the manner which quality assurance activities are applied
the manner in which project tracking and control activities are applied
the overall degree of detail and rigor with which the process is described
the degree to which the customer and other stakeholders are involved with
the project
the level of autonomy given to the software team
the degree to which team organization and roles are prescribed

Adapting a Process Model

The prescriptive process models stress detailed definition,

identification, and application of process activates and tasks. Intent is to
improve system quality, make projects more manageable, make delivery
dates and costs more predictable, and guide teams of software engineers
as they perform the work required to build a system.
Unfortunately, there have been times when these objectives were not
achieved. If prescriptive models are applied dogmatically and without
adaptation, they can increase the level of bureaucracy.
Agile process models emphasize project agility and follow a set of
principles that lead to a more informal approach to software process. It
emphasizes maneuverability and adaptability. It is particularly useful
when Web applications are engineered.

Prescriptive and Agile

Process Models

 How does the practice of software engineering fit in the

process activities mentioned above? Namely,
communication, planning, modeling, construction and
deployment.
George Polya outlines the essence of problem solving,
suggests:
1. Understand the problem (communication and analysis).
2. Plan a solution (modeling and software design).
3. Carry out the plan (code generation).
4. Examine the result for accuracy (testing and quality assurance).

The Essence of Practice

 Who has a stake in the solution to the problem? That is,

who are the stakeholders?
What are the unknowns? What data, functions, and
features are required to properly solve the problem?
Can the problem be compartmentalized? Is it possible to
represent smaller problems that may be easier to
understand?
Can the problem be represented graphically? Can an
analysis model be created?

Understand the Problem

 Have you seen similar problems before? Are there patterns that are
recognizable in a potential solution? Is there existing software
that implements the data, functions, and features that are
required?
Has a similar problem been solved? If so, are elements of the
solution reusable?
Can subproblems be defined? If so, are solutions readily apparent
for the subproblems?
Can you represent a solution in a manner that leads to effective
implementation? Can a design model be created?

Plan the Solution

 Does the solutions conform to the plan? Is source code

traceable to the design model?
Is each component part of the solution provably correct?
Has the design and code been reviewed, or better,
have correctness proofs been applied to algorithm?

Carry Out the Plan

 Is it possible to test each component part of the solution?

Has a reasonable testing strategy been
implemented?
Does the solution produce results that conform to the
data, functions, and features that are required? Has the
software been validated against all stakeholder
requirements?

Examine the Result

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Help you establish mind-set for solid software engineering

practice (David Hooker 96).
1: The Reason It All Exists: provide values to users
2: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid! As simple as possible)
3: Maintain the Vision (otherwise, incompatible design)
4: What You Produce, Others Will Consume (code with concern for those
that must maintain and extend the system)
5: Be Open to the Future (never design yourself into a corner as
specification and hardware changes)
6: Plan Ahead for Reuse
7: Think! Place clear complete thought before action produces better results.

Hookers General Principles for Software

Engineering Practice: important underlying law
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Software Myths
Erroneous beliefs about software and the process that is
used to build it.
Affect managers, customers (and other non-technical
stakeholders) and practitioners
Are believable because they often have elements of truth,
but
Invariably lead to bad decisions,
therefore
Insist on reality as you navigate your way through
software engineering

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Software Myths Examples

Myth 1: Once we write the program and get it to work, our job is done.
Reality: the sooner you begin writing code, the longer it will take you to get done. 60% to 80%
of all efforts are spent after software is delivered to the customer for the first time.
Myth 2: Until I get the program running, I have no way of assessing its quality.
Reality: technical review are a quality filter that can be used to find certain classes of software
defects from the inception of a project.
Myth 3: software engineering will make us create voluminous and unnecessary documentation
and will invariably slow us down.
Reality: it is not about creating documents. It is about creating a quality product. Better quality
leads to a reduced rework. Reduced work results in faster delivery times.

Many people recognize the fallacy of the myths. Regrettably, habitual attitudes and
methods foster poor management and technical practices, even when reality dictates a
better approach.

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 SafeHome:
Every software project is precipitated by some
business need

the need to correct a defect in an existing application;

the need to the need to adapt a legacy system to a changing
business environment;
the need to extend the functions and features of an existing
application, or
the need to create a new product, service, or system.

How It all Starts

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Case studies
A personal insulin pump
An embedded system in an insulin pump used by diabetics to
maintain blood glucose control.

A mental health case patient management system

A system used to maintain records of people receiving care for
mental health problems.

A wilderness weather station

A data collection system that collects data about weather
conditions in remote areas.

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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.
Calculation based on the rate of change of blood sugar levels.
Sends signals to a micro-pump to deliver the correct dose of
insulin.
Safety-critical system as low blood sugars can lead to brain
malfunctioning, coma and death; high-blood sugar levels have
long-term consequences such as eye and kidney damage.

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Insulin pump hardware

architecture

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Activity model of the insulin

pump

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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 level of blood sugar.
The system must therefore be designed and implemented to
ensure that the system always meets these requirements.

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A patient information system for

mental health care

A patient information system to support mental health care is a

medical information system that maintains information about
patients suffering from mental health problems and the
treatments that they have received.
Most mental health patients do not require dedicated hospital
treatment but need to attend specialist clinics regularly where
they can meet a doctor who has detailed knowledge of their
problems.
To make it easier for patients to attend, these clinics are not just
run in hospitals. They may also be held in local medical
practices or community centres.
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MHC-PMS
The MHC-PMS (Mental Health Care-Patient Management
System) is an information system that is intended for use in
clinics.
It makes use of a centralized database of patient information
but has also been designed to run on a PC, so that it may be
accessed and used from sites that do not have secure network
connectivity.
When the local systems have secure network access, they use
patient information in the database but they can download and
use local copies of patient records when they are disconnected.
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MHC-PMS goals
To generate management information that allows health service
managers to assess performance against local and government
targets.
To provide medical staff with timely information to support the
treatment of patients.

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The organization of the MHC-PMS

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MHC-PMS key features

Individual care management
Clinicians can create records for patients, edit the information in the
system, view patient history, etc. The system supports data
summaries so that doctors can quickly learn about the key problems
and treatments that have been prescribed.

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

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

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MHC-PMS concerns
Privacy
It is essential that patient information is confidential and is never
disclosed to anyone apart from authorised medical staff and the
patient themselves.

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

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Wilderness weather station

The government of a country with large areas of wilderness
decides to deploy several hundred weather stations in remote
areas.
Weather stations collect data from a set of instruments that
measure temperature and pressure, sunshine, rainfall, wind
speed and wind direction.
The weather station includes a number of instruments that
measure weather parameters such as the wind speed and direction,
the ground and air temperatures, the barometric pressure and the
rainfall over a 24-hour period. Each of these instruments is
controlled by a software system that takes parameter readings
periodically and manages the data collected from the instruments.

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The weather stations

environment

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Weather information system

The weather station system

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

The data management and archiving system

This system collects the data from all of the wilderness weather
stations, carries out data processing and analysis and archives the
data.

The station maintenance system

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

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Additional software
functionality
Monitor the instruments, power and communication hardware
and report faults to the management system.
Manage the system power, ensuring that batteries are charged
whenever the environmental conditions permit but also that
generators are shut down in potentially damaging weather
conditions, such as high wind.
Support dynamic reconfiguration where parts of the software
are replaced with new versions and where backup instruments
are switched into the system in the event of system failure.

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