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Chapter 2:
Software Process Models
Chapter 2 & 3 in Software Engineering Book
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Overview
 What are software process models?

 Why do we need software process models?

 Models:
 Waterfall models.

 Evolutionary models.

 CBSE models.

 Iterative models.
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By the end of this chapter, you should be able to..

 Describe various software process models.

 Identify advantages and disadvantages of each model.

 Evaluate the applicability of each model for different software

development contexts.
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Software Process Model

A structured set of activities required to develop a software system.

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Ad hoc Software Development

Developing software without planning for each phase, and without

specifying tasks, deliverables, or time constraints.

Reliesentirely on the skills and experience of the individuals

performing the work.

 The software process may change as work progresses.

Software Process Model
• A structured set of activities required to develop a
software system.
• Many different software processes but all involve:
– Specification – defining what the system should do;
– Design and implementation – defining the organization of the system and
implementing the system;
– Validation – checking that it does what the customer wants;
– Evolution – changing the system in response to changing customer needs.
• A software process model is an abstract representation of a process. It
presents a description of a process from some particular perspective.

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Activity: What could go wrong in a software

development project?

SaudiTech is a software company. It has a team of 25 programmers. Faisal has

recently established a dental clinic in Riyadh and asked SaudiTech to develop a
management system for his dental clinic.

Faisal’s request was to develop a system to electronically manage patient records

and perform administrative functions similar to ‘what is being used in other clinics’
but within a budget of 50k Saudi riyals and delivered within 3 months.

SaudiTech adopts an ad hoc approach to software development and has not

worked on large scale projects before. What problems do you anticipate in this
project?
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How can we overcome problems with ad hoc

software development?
 Problems: (include but not limited to)

 Difficult to distinguish between tasks  important tasks may be ignored.

 Inconsistent schedules, budgets, functionality and product quality.
 Delayed problem discovery  more costly to fix.

Solution? Software Process Model

“an abstract representation of a process. It presents a description of a process from
some particular perspective.”

Software Process Models provide guidelines to organize how software process

activities should be performed and in what order.
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Software Process Models

 Waterfall model.

 Evolutionary models.

 Component-Based development model (CBSE).

 Iterative Models.
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1. Waterfall Model

Requirements

Design

Code & Unit Test

Test & Integration

Operations &
Maintenance
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1. Waterfall Model

 Linear sequential model.

 Oldest model, since the 70s.

 Most widely used in software engineering.

 Documentation is produced at every stage.

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2. Evolutionary Models
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2. Evolutionary (Exploratory Model)

Concurrent Activities

Initial
Specification
Version

Outline
Description Development

Validation Final
Version
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2. Evolutionary (Prototyping Model)

1. Requirements gathering.
2. Design and build SW prototype.
3. Evaluate prototype with customer.
4. Refine requirements.
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3. Component-Based Models CBSE

Requirements Component Requirements System design

specification analysis modification with reuse

Development
System
and
validation
integration

 Systematic reuse: Integrated from existing components or COTS

(Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) systems.

 This approach is becoming increasingly used as component standards have

emerged.
3. Component-Based Models CBSE
Types of software components:

•Web services that are developed according to service standards and which
are available for remote invocation.
•Collections of objects that are developed as a package to be integrated with
a component framework such as .NET or J2EE.
•Stand-alone software systems (COTS) that are configured for use in a
particular environment.

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4. Iterative Models
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4. Iterative (Incremental Model)

Define
Assign requirements Design system
outline
to increments architecture
requirements

Develop system Validate Integrate Final

Validate system
increment increment increment system

System incomplete

 Development & delivery in increments.

 Increment  deliver part of the functionality.
 User requirements are prioritized  Requirements with highest priority are included in
early increments.
 Freezing requirements for each increment.
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4. Iterative (Spiral Model)

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4. Iterative (Spiral Model)

 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.
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4. Iterative (Spiral Model)

 Risk driven process model.
 Different risk patterns can lead to choosing different process models.

 What is risk?
Situations or possible events that may cause a project to fail to meet its goal.
Example risks:
 Experienced staff leave the project.
 Hardware which is essential for the system will not be delivered on schedule.
More about risks in Chapter 3 (22 in the book).
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4. Iterative (Agile Model)

 Working software vs. Documentation.

 Customer collaboration vs. contract negotiation.

 Development team:
 Size.
 Location: distributed vs. co-located.
 Experience (skilled) and discipline (self-organizing).

 Methods:
 Individuals & interactions vs. Processes, phases & tools.
 Adaptations to changing circumstances.
 Measures of progress: working software, rapid delivery.
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Evaluation of Models
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Activity

 Select one slip from the envelope.

 In teams of 4 people, list the advantages, disadvantages, and

when to use a certain software process model.

 Share your list with the rest of the class.

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1. Waterfall Model

 Problems: Inflexible partitioning of the project into distinct stages

makes it difficult to respond to changing customer requirements.

 Applicability:
 Appropriate when requirements are well-understood.
 Changes will be fairly limited during the design process.
 Large interactive systems.

 Mostly used for large systems engineering projects.

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2.(a) Exploratory Model

 Problems:
 Lack of process visibility;
 Systems are often poorly structured;

 Applicability:
 For small or medium-size interactive systems;
 For parts of large systems (e.g. the user interface);
 For short-lifetime systems.
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2.(b) Prototyping Model

 Advantages:
 Users get a feel for the actual system.
 Developers get to build something immediately.
 Specifications can be developed incrementally.

 Disadvantages:
 Developers may make implementation compromises in order to get a
prototype working quickly.
 The process in not visible (few documents that reflect every version of
the system).
 Systems poorly structured.
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3. CBSE
 Advantages:
 Reduce amount of software to be developed.
 Reduce costs and risks.
 Faster delivery.

 Disadvantages:
 Requirements compromises’, system does not meet real needs of users.
 Control over system evolution is lost.
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4.(a) Incremental Model

 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.

 Disadvantages:
 Increments should be relatively small (20,000 lines of code).
 Can be difficult to map the customer’s requirements onto increments of the right
size.
 Hard to identify common functions.
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4.(b) Spiral Model

 Advantages:
 Risks are explicitly assessed and resolved throughout the process.
 Software engineers can start working on the project earlier rather than
wading through a lengthy early design process.

 Disadvantages:
 Requires highly skilled people in risk analysis and planning.
 Requires more time, and is more expensive.
 Estimates of budget and time are harder to judge at the beginning of the
project since the requirements evolve through the process.
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Which software process model is best?

 Depends on the project circumstances and requirements.

 Combinations of models are used sometimes to get the benefits of

more than one model.

 Criteria for evaluating models:

 Risk management.
 Quality / cost control.
 Visibility of progress.
 Early system functionality.
 Customer involvement and feedback.