Software Processes

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 2

 Topics covered

Software process models

Process iteration

Process activities

The Rational Unified Process

Computer-aided software engineering

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 3

 The software process

A structured set of activities required to develop a
software system
• Specification;
• Design;
• 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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.

There are many variants of these models e.g. formal
development where a waterfall-like process is used but
the specification is a formal specification that is refined
through several stages to an implementable design.

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 5

 Waterfall model

Requirements
definition

System and
software design

Implementa tion
and unit testing

Integration and
system testing

Operation and
maintenance

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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
complete before moving onto the next phase.

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 9

 Evolutionary development

Concurrent
activities

Initial
Specification version

Outline Intermediate
Development versions
description

Final
Validation version

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 10

 Evolutionary development

Problems
• Lack of process visibility;
• Systems are often poorly structured;
• 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 11

 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;
• Requirements modification;
• System design with reuse;
• Development and integration.

This approach is becoming increasingly used
as component standards have emerged.

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 12

 Reuse-oriented development

Requirements Component Requirements System design

specification analysis modification with reuse

Development System
and integ
ration validation

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 13

 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 14

 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 15

 Incremental development

Define outline Assign requirements Design system

requirements to increments architectur
e

Develop system Validate Integrate Validate

increment increment increment system
Final
system
System incomplete

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 16

 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 17

 Extreme programming

An approach to development based on the
development and delivery of very small
increments of functionality.

Relies on constant code improvement, user
involvement in the development team and
pairwise programming.

Covered in Chapter 17

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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.

No fixed phases such as specification or
design - loops in the spiral are chosen
depending on what is required.

Risks are explicitly assessed and resolved
throughout the process.

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 19

Spiral model of the software process
Determine objectives,
Evaluate alternatives,
alternatives and
identify, resolve risks
constraints Risk
analysis

Risk
analysis

Risk
Opera-
analysis
Prototype 3 tional
Prototype 2 protoype
Risk
REVIEW analysis Proto-
type 1
Requirements plan Simulations, models, benchmarks
Life-cycle plan Concept of
Operation S/W
requirements Product
design Detailed
Requirement design
Development
plan validation Code
Unit test
Integration Design
V&V Integration
and test plan
Plan ne xt phase test
Acceptance
Service test Develop, verify
next-level product

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 20

 Spiral model 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 21

 Process activities

Software specification

Software design and implementation

Software validation

Software evolution

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 23

The requirements engineering process

Requirements
Feasibility
study elicitation and
analy sis
Requirements
specification
Feasibility Requirements
report validation

System
models
User and system
requirements

Requirements
document

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 25

 Design process activities

Architectural design

Abstract specification

Interface design

Component design

Data structure design

Algorithm design

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 26

 The software design process

Requir
ements
specifica
tion

Design acti
vities

Architectur
al Abstract Interface Component Data Algorithm
design specifica
tion design design structur
e design
design

Data
System Softw are Interface Component Algorithm
structure
architectur
e specifica
tion specifica
tion specifica
tion specifica
tion
specifica
tion

Design pr
oducts

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 29

 The debugging process

Locate Design Repair Re-test

error error repair error program

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 31

 The testing process

Component System Acceptance

testing testing testing

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 33

 Testing phases

Requirements System System Detailed

specification specification design design

System Sub-system Module and

Acceptance
integration integration unit code
test plan test plan test plan and test

Acceptance System Sub-system

Service
test integration test integration test

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 35

 System evolution

Define system Assess existing Propose system Modify

requirements systems changes systems

Existing New
systems system

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 37

 RUP phase model

Phase iteration

Inception Elaboration Construction Transition

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 40

 Static workflows
Workflow Description
Business modelling The business processes are modelled using business use cases.
Requirements Actors who interact with the system are identified and use cases are
developed to model the system requirements.
Analysis and design A design model is created and documented using architectural
models, component models, object models and sequence models.
Implementation The components in the system are implemented and structured into
implementation sub-systems. Automatic code generation from design
models helps accelerate this process.
Test Testing is an iterative process that is carried out in conjunction with
implementation. System testing follows the completion of the
implementation.
Deployment A product release is created, distributed to users and installed in their
workplace.
Configuration and This supporting workflow managed changes to the system (see
change management Chapter 29).
Project management This supporting workflow manages the system development (see
Chapter 5).
Environment This workflow is concerned with making appropriate software tools
available to the software development team.

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 45

 Activity-based tool classification
Re-engineering tools

Testing tools

Debugging tools

Program 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 47

Tools, workbenches, environments
CASE
technology

Tools Workbenches Environments

File Integrated Process-centr

ed
Editors Compilers
comparators environments environments

Analysis and
Programming Testing
design

Multi-method Single-method General-purpose Language-specific

workbenches workbenches workbenches workbenches

©Ian Sommerville 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th 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 2006 Software Engineering, 8th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 50