Fundamental Knowledge on Software

Engineering

Lecture 2
 Topics covered

• Professional software development

– What is meant by software engineering.
• Software engineering ethics
– A brief introduction to ethical issues that affect software
engineering.
• Case studies
– An introduction to three/four examples that are used in
later chapters in the slides.

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 Frequently asked question : Software
Engineering
Question Answer

What is software? Computer programs and associated documentation.

Software products may be developed for a particular
customer or may be developed for a general market.
What are the attributes of good Good software should deliver the required
software? functionality and performance to the user and should
be maintainable, dependable and usable.
What is software engineering? Software engineering is an engineering discipline that
is concerned with all aspects of software production.
What are the fundamental software Software specification, software development,
engineering activities? software validation and software evolution.
What is the difference between Computer science focuses on theory and
software engineering and computer fundamentals; software engineering is concerned with
science? the practicalities of developing and delivering useful
software.
What is the difference between System engineering is concerned with all aspects of
software engineering and system computer-based systems development including
engineering? hardware, software and process engineering.
Software engineering is part of this more general
process.
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 Frequently asked question : Software
Engineering
Question Answer
What are the key challenges facing Coping with increasing diversity, demands for
software engineering? reduced delivery times and developing
trustworthy software.
What are the costs of software Roughly 60% of software costs are development
engineering? costs, 40% are testing costs. For custom
software, evolution costs often exceed
development costs.
What are the best software While all software projects have to be
engineering techniques and professionally managed and developed,
methods? different techniques are appropriate for
different types of system. For example, games
should always be developed using a series of
prototypes whereas safety critical control
systems require a complete and analyzable
specification to be developed. You can’t,
therefore, say that one method is better than
another.
What differences has the web The web has led to the availability of software
made to software engineering? services and the possibility of developing highly
distributed service-based systems. Web-based
systems development has led to important
advances in programming languages and 4
software reuse.
 Software Engineering
• Some realities:
– a concerted effort should be made to understand
the problem before a software solution is
developed
– design becomes a pivotal activity
– software should exhibit high quality
– software should be maintainable
• The seminal definition:
– [Software engineering is] the establishment and use of sound
engineering principles in order to obtain economically
software that is reliable5 and works efficiently on real
 Software Engineering
• The IEEE definition:
– Software Engineering: (1) The application of a
systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to
the development, operation, and maintenance of
software; that is, the application of engineering to
software. (2) The study of approaches as in (1).

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 Essential attributes of good software
Product characteristic Description

Maintainability Software should be written in such a way so that it can

evolve to meet the changing needs of customers. This is a
critical attribute because software change is an inevitable
requirement of a changing business environment.

Dependability and Software dependability includes a range of characteristics

security including reliability, security and safety. Dependable
software should not cause physical or economic damage in
the event of system failure. Malicious users should not be
able to access or damage the system.

Efficiency Software should not make wasteful use of system resources

such as memory and processor cycles. Efficiency therefore
includes responsiveness, processing time, memory
utilisation, etc.
Acceptability Software must be acceptable to the type of users for which it
is designed. This means that it must be understandable,
usable and compatible with other systems that they use.

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 General issues that affect most software

• Heterogeneity
– Increasingly, systems are required to operate as distributed
systems across networks that include different types of
computer and mobile devices.
• Business and social change
– Business and society are changing incredibly quickly as
emerging economies develop and new technologies
become available. They need to be able to change their
existing software and to rapidly develop new software.
• Security and trust
– As software is intertwined with all aspects of our lives, it is
essential that we can trust that software.

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 Software process activities

•Software specification, where customers and

engineers define the software that is to be produced
and the restrictions on its operation.

•Software development, where the software is

designed and programmed.

•Software validation, where the software is checked

to ensure that it is what the customer requires.

•Software evolution, where the software is modified

to reflect changing customer and market
requirements.
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 Software
Applications

• system software
• application software
• engineering/scientific software
• embedded software
• product-line software
• WebApps (Web applications)
• AI software
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Software—New Categories
• Open world computing—pervasive, distributed
computing
• Ubiquitous computing—wireless networks
• Net sourcing—the Web as a computing engine
• Open source—”free” source code open to the
computing community (a blessing, but also a potential
curse!)

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Legacy Software
Why must it change?
– software must be adapted to meet the needs of new
computing environments or technology.
– software must be enhanced to implement new
business requirements.
– software must be extended to make it interoperable
with other more modern systems or databases.
– software must be re-architected to make it viable
within a network environment.

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Characteristics of WebApps -
I
• Network intensiveness. A WebApp resides on a network and
must serve the needs of a diverse community of clients.
• Concurrency. A large number of users may access the WebApp
at one time.
• Unpredictable load. The number of users of the WebApp may
vary by orders of magnitude from day to day.
• Performance. If a WebApp user must wait too long (for access,
for server-side processing, for client-side formatting and display),
he or she may decide to go elsewhere.
• Availability. Although expectation of 100 percent availability is
unreasonable, users of popular WebApps often demand access
on a “24/7/365” basis.
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Characteristics of WebApps - II
• Data driven. The primary function of many WebApps is to use
hypermedia to present text, graphics, audio, and video content to the
end-user.
• Content sensitive. The quality and aesthetic nature of content
remains an important determinant of the quality of a WebApp.
• Continuous evolution. Unlike conventional application software that
evolves over a series of planned, chronologically-spaced releases,
Web applications evolve continuously.
• Immediacy. Although immediacy—the compelling need to get
software to market quickly—is a characteristic of many application
domains, WebApps often exhibit a time to market that can be a matter
of a few days or weeks.
• Security. Because WebApps are available via network access, it is
difficult, if not impossible, to limit the population of end-users who may
access the application.
• Aesthetics. An undeniable part of the appeal of a WebApp is its look
and feel. 14
E-Commerce

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Embedded control systems

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Batch processing systems

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Entertainment systems

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Systems for modelling and simulation

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Cloud Computing

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 Software Engineering: The Fundamental
Principles
• Some fundamental principles apply to all types of software
system, irrespective of the development techniques used:

– Systems should be developed using a managed and

understood development process. Of course, different
processes are used for different types of software.
– Dependability and performance are important for all types of
system.
– Understanding and managing the software specification and
requirements (what the software should do) are important.
– Where appropriate, you should reuse software that has
already been developed rather than write new software.

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 Software engineering Ethics

• Software engineering involves wider responsibilities than

simply the application of technical skills.

• Software engineers must behave in an honest and ethically

responsible way if they are to be respected as professionals.

• Ethical behaviour is more than simply upholding the law but

involves following a set of principles that are morally correct.

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 Issues of professional responsibility

• Confidentiality
– Engineers should normally respect the confidentiality of
their employers or clients irrespective of whether or not
a formal confidentiality agreement has been signed.

• Competence
– Engineers should not misrepresent their level of
competence. They should not knowingly accept work
which is out with their competence.

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 Issues of professional responsibility

• Intellectual property rights

– Engineers should be aware of local laws governing the
use of intellectual property such as patents, copyright,
etc. They should be careful to ensure that the
intellectual property of employers and clients is
protected.
• Computer misuse
– Software engineers should not use their technical skills
to misuse other people’s computers. Computer misuse
ranges from relatively trivial (game playing on an
employer’s machine, say) to extremely serious
(dissemination of viruses).
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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

– An information 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 station’s 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###03

• 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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 A Layered Technology
Foundation of
Encompass SE
Array of
Tasks tool
s
metho
ds
process
model
a “quality”
focus

Software Engineering

Provide semi automated and automated

supports for process and method
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 Layers of Software Engineering

Quality Focus
At first ensure the professional quality

Process
Enable timely delivery through framework and work products(models,
docs, report etc.)
Ensure technical method
Ensure the model and change is properly managed

Method
Define “how to” ’s and define broad array of tusks
Include communication, analysis, designing, program construction, testing
and support.

Tools
Provide support for the process and method.

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Framework
Activities
• Communication
• Planning
• Modeling
– Analysis of requirements
– Design
• Construction
– Code generation
– Testing
• Deployment

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 Generic View of Process

• During the time of developing we have to go through a series of

predictable steps that helps:

– Timely Delivery
– High quality Result

The steps we follow is called Process.

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Software Process Framework
Activity

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 Umbrella
Activities
• Software project management
• Formal technical reviews
• Software quality assurance
• Software configuration management
• Work product preparation and production
• Reusability management
• Measurement
• Risk management

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 Key points

• Software engineers have responsibilities to the engineering profession and

society. They should not simply be concerned with technical issues.

• Professional societies publish codes of conduct which set out the standards of
behaviour expected of their members.

• Process Framework Activities

• Three case studies are used in the book:

– An embedded insulin pump control system
– A system for mental health care patient management
– A wilderness weather station

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