Software Engineering (ESC501)

- Prof. Poulami Dutta

 Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
 Explain what a prototype is.

 Explain why and when a prototype needs to be developed during software development.

 Identify the situations in which one would prefer to build a prototype.

 State the activities carried out during each phase of a spiral model.

 Identify circumstances under which spiral model should be used for

software development.

 Tailor a development process to a specific project.

 Prototyping Model

• Before starting actual development,

– a working prototype of the system should first be built.

• A prototype is a toy implementation of a system:

– limited functional capabilities,

– low reliability,

– inefficient performance.

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 Reasons for developing a prototype

• Illustrate to the customer:

– input data formats, messages, reports, or interactive dialogs.
• Examine technical issues associated with product development:
– Often major design decisions depend on issues like:
– response time of a hardware controller,
– efficiency of a sorting algorithm, etc.

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 Prototyping Model (contd.)

• The third reason for developing a prototype is:

– it is impossible to ``get it right'' the first time,

– we must plan to throw away the first product

– if we want to develop a good product.

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 Prototyping Model (contd.)

• Start with approximate requirements.

• Carry out a quick design.

• Prototype model is built using several short-cuts:

– Short-cuts might involve using inefficient, inaccurate, or dummy functions.

– A function may use a table look-up rather than performing the actual computations.

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 Prototyping Model (contd.)
• The developed prototype is submitted to the customer for his evaluation:

– Based on the user feedback, requirements are refined.

– This cycle continues until the user approves the prototype.

• The actual system is developed using the classical waterfall approach.

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 Prototyping Model (contd.)
Build Prototype
Customer
Requirements Customer satisfied
Evaluation of Design
Gathering Quick Design Prototype

Refine Implement
Requirements

Test

Maintain

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 Prototyping Model (contd.)

• Requirements analysis and specification phase becomes redundant:

– final working prototype (with all user feedbacks incorporated) serves as an

animated requirements specification.

• Design and code for the prototype is usually thrown away:

– However, the experience gathered from developing the prototype helps a great
deal while developing the actual product.

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 Prototyping Model (contd.)

• Even though construction of a working prototype model involves additional cost --- overall development
cost might be lower for:
– systems with unclear user requirements,

– systems with unresolved technical issues.

• Many user requirements get properly defined and technical issues get resolved:

– these would have appeared later as change requests and resulted in incurring massive redesign costs.

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 Evolutionary Model
• Evolutionary model (aka successive versions or incremental model):

– The system is broken down into several modules which can be

incrementally implemented and delivered.

• First develop the core modules of the system.

• The initial product skeleton is refined into increasing levels of capability:

– by adding new functionalities in successive versions.

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 Evolutionary Model (CONT.)
• Successive version of the product:

– functioning systems capable of performing some useful work.

– A new release may include new functionality:

– also existing functionality in the current release might have been

enhanced.

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Evolutionary Model (CONT.)

CC
A AB A
B

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 Advantages of Evolutionary Model

• Users get a chance to experiment with a partially developed system:

– much before the full working version is released,
• Helps finding exact user requirements:
– much before fully working system is developed.
• Core modules get tested thoroughly:
– reduces chances of errors in final product.

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 Disadvantages of Evolutionary Model

• Often, difficult to subdivide problems into functional units:

– which can be incrementally implemented and delivered.
– evolutionary model is useful for very large problems,
– where it is easier to find modules for incremental implementation.

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 Evolutionary Model with Iteration

• Many organizations use a combination of iterative and incremental

development:

– a new release may include new functionality

– existing functionality from the current release may also have been modified.

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 Evolutionary Model with iteration
• Several advantages:

– Training can start on an earlier release

– customer feedback taken into account

– Markets can be created:

– for functionality that has never been offered.

– Frequent releases allow developers to fix unanticipated problems quickly.

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 Spiral Model
 Proposed by Boehm in 1988.

 Each loop of the spiral represents a phase of the software process:

 the innermost loop might be concerned with system feasibility,

 the next loop with system requirements definition,

 the next one with system design, and so on.

 There are no fixed phases in this model, the phases shown in the figure are just
examples.

 Each phase in this model is split into four

sectors (or quadrants)

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 Spiral Model (CONT.)

 The team must decide:

 how to structure the project into phases.
 Start work using some generic model:
 add extra phases
 for specific projects or when problems are identified during a project.

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Spiral Model

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Spiral Model
Spiral Model
 Spiral Model (CONT.)
First quadrant (Objective Setting)

• During the first quadrant, it is needed to identify the objectives of

the phase.

• Examine the risks associated with these objectives.

Second Quadrant (Risk Assessment and Reduction)

• A detailed analysis is carried out for each identified project risk.

• Steps are taken to reduce the risks. For example, if there is a risk

that the requirements are inappropriate, a prototype system may be

developed.
 Spiral Model (CONT.)
 Third Quadrant (Development and Validation)
• Develop and validate the next level of the product after resolving
the identified risks.

 Fourth Quadrant (Review and Planning)

• Review the results achieved so far with the customer and plan the
next iteration around the spiral.
• Progressively more complete version of the software gets built with
each iteration around the spiral.
 Spiral Model (CONT.)
 It works on

 Concept development projects

 New product development projects

 Product enhancement projects

 Product maintenance projects

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 Objective Setting

 Identify objectives of the phase,

 Examine the risks associated with these objectives.

 Risk:

 any adverse circumstance that might hamper successful completion of a software project.

 Find alternate solutions possible.

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 Risk Assessment and Reduction

 For each identified project risk,

 a detailed analysis is carried out.

 Steps are taken to reduce the risk.

 For example, if there is a risk that the requirements are inappropriate:

 a prototype system may be developed.

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 Spiral Model (CONT.)

 Development and Validation:

 develop and validate the next level of the product.

 Review and Planning:

 Review the results achieved so far with the customer and plan the next iteration around the spiral.

 With each iteration around the spiral:

 progressively more complete version of the software gets built.

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 Spiral Model as a meta model

 Subsumes all discussed models:

 a single loop spiral represents waterfall model.

 uses an evolutionary approach --

 iterations through the spiral are evolutionary levels.

 enables understanding and reacting to risks during each iteration along the
spiral.
 uses:

 prototyping as a risk reduction mechanism

 retains the step-wise approach of the waterfall model.

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Comparison of Different Life Cycle Models
 Iterative waterfall model

 most widely used model.

 But, suitable only for well-understood problems.

 Prototype model is suitable for projects not well understood:

 user requirements

 technical aspects

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Comparison of Different Life Cycle Models (CONT.)

 Evolutionary model is suitable for large problems:

 can be decomposed into a set of modules that can be incrementally implemented,
 incremental delivery of the system is acceptable to the customer.
 The spiral model:
 suitable for development of technically challenging software products that are subject to several
kinds of risks.

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