SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

Socio-technical systems
SYSTEMS

•Software Engineering is not an isolated activity but is part of a broader

systems engineering process.

•Software system are not isolated and are essential components.

System/Complex System ?

“A system is a purposeful collection of interrelated components that

work together to achieve some objective”
System that includes s/w fall into two categories
– Technical computer-based systems

Systems that includes

●
hardware and software components but
not procedures and processes.
– Socio-technical systems
Systems that include● technical systems but also operational processes and
people who use and interact with the technical system. Socio- technical
systems are governed by organisational policies and rules.
Technical Computer-based Systems

System that include hardware and software but where the operators
and operational processes not normally considered to be part of the
system.
 Socio-technical System
System that include technical systems but also operational processes and people
who use and interact with the technical system.
Socio-technical systems are governed by organizational policies and
rules.
Sociotechnical System Stack
Layers in the STS stacks
●
Equipment
– Hardware devices , some of which may be computers.Most devices
will include an embedded system of some kind.
●
Operating System
– Provides a set of common facilities for higher levels in the system.
●
Communications and data management
– Middleware that provides access to remote systems and databases.
●
Application systems
– Specific functionality to meet some organization requirements
Layers in the STS stacks
●
Business processes
– A set of processes involving people and computer
systems that support the activities of the business
●
Organizations
– Higher level strategic business activities that
affect the operation of the system.
●
Society
– Laws , regulation and culture that affect the
operation of the system.
 Organizational Affects
●
Process Changes
– Significant changes may be resisted by users.
●
Job Changes
– System me de-skill user or cause changes to
the way they work.
● Organizational Changes
– May change political power structure
in an organization.
Socio-technical system characteristics
●
Emergent Properties
– Properties of the system of a whole that
depend on the system components and their
●
relationships
Non-deterministic
– They do not always produce the same output
when presented with the same input because
●
the system’s behaviour is partially dependent
on human operators.
Complex relationships with
organizational objective
– The extent to which the systemm supports
 Emergent Properties
Property Description

Volume The volume of a system (the total space occupied) varies depending on how the component
assemblies are arranged and connected.

Reliability System reliability depends on component reliability but unexpected interactions can cause new types
of failures and therefore affect the reliability of the system.

Security The security of the system (its ability to resist attack) is a complex property that cannot
be easily measured. Attacks may be devised that were not anticipated by the system designers and
so may defeat built-in safeguards.

Repairability This property reflects how easy it is to fix a problem with the system once it has been
discovered. It depends on being able to diagnose the problem, access the components that are
faulty, and modify or replace these components.

Usability This property reflects how easy it is to use the system. It depends on the technical system
components, its operators, and its operating environment.
Types of Emergent Property

●
Functional Properties
– These appear when all the parts of a
system work together to achieve some
●
objective
Non-functional emergent properties
– Example are reliability , performance ,
safely and security.These relate to the
behaviour of the system in its operational
environment
Reliability as an emergent property
● Because of component inter-
dependencies faults can be propogated
●
through the system
System failure often occur because of
●
unforeseen inter-relationships between
components
Consider reliability from three
prospectives:-
– Hardware reliability
– Software reliability
– Operator reliability
Non-determinism
●
People are non-deterministics
● Sociotechnical systems are non-
deterministic partly because of :-
– People
– Changes to h/w , s/w and data in these
systems are so frequent.
System Engineering
•So , system engineering involved following activities :-
– Procuring
– Specifying
– Designing
– Implementing
– Validating
– Deploying
– Operating
– and , maintaining
Stages of Systems Engineering
There are
● three overlapping stages in the lifetime of
large and complex sociotechnical systems :-
– Procurement or Acquisition
– Development
– Operation
Procurement or Acquisition
● It includes :-
– Purpose of system is decided
– High-level system requirements are
established
– Decision are made on how functionality
will be distributed across hardware ,
software and people
– and ,components that will make up the
system are purchased
Development
●
It includes :-
–development activities related
to System Developments (requirements definition ,
●

system design , hardware and software

engineering , system integration and testing)
● operational Processes are defined
● the training courses for system users are
designed.
 Operation
● It includes :-
– System is deployed
– Users are trainined
– System is brought into
use
Air Traffic Management System
System Procurement
●
System Procurement
Process
System Development
Goal of System Development Process :-
– Develop or acquire all of the components of a system
– Integrate these components to create the final system
Fundamental activities involved in system development
– Requirements Development
– System Design
– Subsystem Engineering
– System Integration
– System Testing
– System Development
System Development

26
System Development

Requirement Development
– High-level and business requirements identified during
the procurement process have to be developed in more
detail.
System Design
– This process overlap with requirement development process
– Establishing the overall architecture of the system
– Identifying different components and understanding
relationship between them
System Development

Subsystem Engineering
– It involves development of system components
– Configuring off-the-self hardware and software
– If necessary , design special-purpose hardware
– Define operational processes for the system
– Redesign essential business processes
System Integration
– The components are put together to create a new system
Integrate subsystem

Integration of subsystem can be done using :-

– “Big-Bang” approach
– Incremental approach
Development of subsystem can be finished at the same time.
Incremental integration reduces the cost of error location.
Now a days systems developed using COTS (component off-the-
self) h/w and s/w.