1. Software Lifecycle and Processes
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2. Software process models Process activities Coping with change
Topics covered
Software process models
Process activities
Coping with change
Process improvement
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3. A structured set of activities required to develop a software system.
The software process
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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4. Software process descriptions
Capturing activities such as specifying a data model, designing a user interface, etc. and the ordering of these activities.
Process descriptions may also include:
Products, which are the outcomes of a process activity;
Roles, which reflect the responsibilities of the people involved in the process;
Pre- and post-conditions, which are statements that are true before and after a process activity has been enacted or a product produced.
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5. Plan-driven and agile processes
Plan-driven processes are processes where all of the process activities are planned in advance and progress is measured against this plan.
In agile processes, planning is incremental and it is easier to change the process to reflect changing customer requirements.
In practice, most practical processes include elements of both plan-driven and agile approaches.
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6. Software process models
The waterfall model
Plan-driven model. Separate and distinct phases of specification and development.
Incremental development
Specification, development and validation are interleaved. May be plan-driven or agile.
Integration and configuration
The system is assembled from existing configurable components. May be plan-driven or agile. …
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7. The waterfall model
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8. Waterfall model phases
There are separate identified phases in the waterfall model:
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.
A phase has to be complete before moving onto the next phase.
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9. 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.
In those circumstances, the plan-driven nature of the waterfall model helps coordinate the work.
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10. Incremental development
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11. Incremental development benefits
The cost of accommodating changing customer requirements is reduced.
The amount of analysis and documentation that has to be redone is much less than is required with the waterfall model.
It is easier to get customer feedback on the development work that has been done.
Customers can comment on demonstrations of the software and see how much has been implemented.
More rapid delivery and deployment of useful software to the customer is possible.
Customers are able to use and gain value from the software earlier than is possible with a waterfall process.
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12. Incremental development problems
The process is not visible.
Managers need regular deliverables to measure progress. If systems are developed quickly, it is not cost-effective to produce documents that reflect every version of the system.
System structure tends to degrade as new increments are added.
Unless time and money is spent on refactoring to improve the software, regular change tends to corrupt its structure.
Incorporating further software changes becomes increasingly difficult and costly.
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13. Integration and configuration
Based on software reuse where systems are integrated from existing components or application systems
COTS, GOTS, ROTS
Reused elements may be configured to adapt their behaviour and functionality to a user’s requirements
Reuse is now the standard approach for building many types of business system
Reuse covered in more depth in Chapter 15.
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14. Types of reusable software
Stand-alone application systems (sometimes called COTS) that are configured for use in a particular environment.
Collections of objects that are developed as a package to be integrated with a component framework such as .NET, J2EE, Django, Spark, Symfony.
Web services that are developed according to service standards and which are available for remote invocation.
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15. Reuse-oriented software engineering
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16. Requirements specification Software discovery and evaluation
Key process stages
Requirements specification
Software discovery and evaluation
Requirements refinement
Application system configuration
Component adaptation and integration
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17. Four basic process activities
Real software processes are inter-leaved sequences of technical, collaborative and managerial activities
Overall goal of specifying, designing, implementing and testing a software system.
Four basic process activities
specification, development, validation and evolution
Organized differently in different development processes.
For example, in the waterfall model, they are organized in sequence, whereas in incremental development they are interleaved.
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18. The requirements engineering process
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19. Software specification
The process of establishing what services are required and the constraints on the system’s operation and development.
Requirements engineering process
Requirements elicitation and analysis
What do the system stakeholders require or expect from the system?
Requirements specification
Defining the requirements in detail
Requirements validation
Checking the validity of the requirements
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20. 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.
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21. A general model of the design process
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22. System implementation
The software is implemented either by developing a program or programs or by configuring a system.
Design and implementation are interleaved activities for most types of software system.
Programming is an individual activity with no standard process.
Debugging is the activity of finding program faults and correcting these faults.
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23. Involves checking and review processes and system testing.
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.
Testing is the most commonly used V & V activity.
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24. Stages of testing
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25. Testing phases in a plan-driven software process (V-model)
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26. Software is inherently flexible and can change.
Software evolution
Software is inherently flexible and can change.
As requirements change so must software.
Traditional distinction between development and evolution (maintenance) is increasingly irrelevant
Fewer and fewer systems are completely new.
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27. System evolution
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28. Coping with change
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29. Change is inevitable in all large software projects.
Coping with change
Change is inevitable in all large software projects.
Business changes lead to new and changed system requirements
New technologies open up new possibilities for improving implementations
Changing platforms require application changes
Change leads to rework so the costs of change include both rework (e.g. re-analyzing requirements) as well as the costs of implementing new functionality
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30. Reducing the costs of rework
Change anticipation, where the software process includes activities that can anticipate possible changes before significant rework is required.
For example, a prototype system may be developed to show some key features of the system to customers.
Change tolerance, where the process is designed so that changes can be accommodated at relatively low cost.
This normally involves some form of incremental development.
Proposed changes may be implemented in increments that have not yet been developed.
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31. Coping with changing requirements
System prototyping, where a version of the system or part of the system is developed quickly to check the customer’s requirements and the feasibility of design decisions.
This approach supports change anticipation.
Incremental delivery, where system increments are delivered to the customer for comment and experimentation.
This supports both change avoidance and change tolerance.
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32. A prototype can be used in:
Software prototyping
A prototype is an initial version of a system used to demonstrate concepts and try out design options.
May be thrown away.
A prototype can be used in:
The requirements engineering process to help with requirements elicitation and validation;
In design processes to explore options and develop a UI design;
In the testing process to run back-to-back tests.
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33. Benefits of prototyping
Improved system usability.
A closer match to users’ real needs.
Improved design quality.
Improved maintainability.
Reduced development effort.
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34. The process of prototype development
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35. 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.
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36. Incremental delivery
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37. Incremental delivery 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.
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38. Incremental delivery problems
Most systems require a set of basic facilities that are used by different parts of the system.
As requirements are not defined in detail until an increment is to be implemented, it can be hard to identify common facilities that are needed by all increments.
The essence of iterative processes is that the specification is developed in conjunction with the software.
However, this conflicts with the procurement model of many organizations, where the complete system specification is part of the system development contract.
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39. Program specification, design and implementation are inter-leaved
Agile development
Program specification, design and implementation are inter-leaved
The system is developed as a series of versions or increments with stakeholders involved in version specification and evaluation
Frequent delivery of new versions for evaluation
Extensive tool support (e.g. automated testing tools) used to support development.
Minimal documentation – focus on working code
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40. Plan-driven and agile development
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41. The aim of agile methods is
Dissatisfaction with the overheads involved in software design methods of the 1980s and 1990s led to the creation of agile methods. These methods:
Focus on the code rather than the design
Are based on an iterative approach to software development
Are intended to deliver working software quickly and evolve this quickly to meet changing requirements.
The aim of agile methods is
to reduce overheads in the software process (e.g. by limiting documentation);
to be able to respond quickly to changing requirements without excessive rework.
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42. Agile manifesto
We are uncovering better ways of developing 
software by doing it and helping others do it. 
Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan
That is, while there is value in the items on 
the right, we value the items on the left more.
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43. The principles of agile methods
Description
Customer involvement
Customers should be closely involved throughout the development process. Their role is provide and prioritize new system requirements and to evaluate the iterations of the system.
Incremental delivery
The software is developed in increments with the customer specifying the requirements to be included in each increment.
People not process
The skills of the development team should be recognized and exploited. Team members should be left to develop their own ways of working without prescriptive processes.
Embrace change
Expect the system requirements to change and so design the system to accommodate these changes.
Maintain simplicity
Focus on simplicity in both the software being developed and in the development process. Wherever possible, actively work to eliminate complexity from the system.
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44. Agile method applicability
Product development where a software company is developing a small or medium-sized product for sale.
Virtually all software products and apps are now developed using an agile approach
Custom system development within an organization
There is a clear commitment from the customer to become involved in the development process;
There are few external rules and regulations that affect the software.
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45. Agile development techniques
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46. Extreme programming
A very influential agile method, developed in the late s, that introduced a range of agile development techniques.
Extreme Programming (XP) takes an ‘extreme’ approach to iterative development.
New versions may be built several times per day;
Increments are delivered to customers every 2 weeks;
All tests must be run for every build and the build is only accepted if tests run successfully.
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47. The extreme programming release cycle
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48. Extreme programming practices (a)
Principle or practice
Description
Incremental planning
Requirements are recorded on story cards and the stories to be included in a release are determined by the time available and their relative priority. The developers break these stories into development ‘Tasks’. See Figures 3.5 and 3.6.
Small releases
The minimal useful set of functionality that provides business value is developed first. Releases of the system are frequent and incrementally add functionality to the first release.
Simple design
Enough design is carried out to meet the current requirements and no more.
Test-first development
An automated unit test framework is used to write tests for a new piece of functionality before that functionality itself is implemented.
Refactoring
All developers are expected to refactor the code continuously as soon as possible code improvements are found. This keeps the code simple and maintainable.
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49. Extreme programming practices (b)
Pair programming
Developers work in pairs, checking each other’s work and providing the support to always do a good job.
Collective ownership
The pairs of developers work on all areas of the system, so that no islands of expertise develop and all the developers take responsibility for all of the code. Anyone can change anything.
Continuous integration
As soon as the work on a task is complete, it is integrated into the whole system. After any such integration, all the unit tests in the system must pass.
Sustainable pace
Large amounts of overtime are not considered acceptable as the net effect is often to reduce code quality and medium term productivity
On-site customer
A representative of the end-user of the system (the customer) should be available full time for the use of the XP team. In an extreme programming process, the customer is a member of the development team and is responsible for bringing system requirements to the team for implementation.
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50. XP and agile principles
Incremental development is supported through small, frequent system releases.
Customer involvement means full-time customer engagement with the team.
People not process through pair programming, collective ownership and a process that avoids long working hours.
Change supported through regular system releases.
Maintaining simplicity through constant refactoring of code.
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51. Influential XP practices
Extreme programming has a technical focus and is not easy to integrate with management practice in most organizations.
Consequently, while agile development uses practices from XP, the method as originally defined is not widely used.
Key practices
User stories for specification
Refactoring
Test-first development
Pair programming
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52. User stories for requirements
In XP, a customer or user is part of the XP team and is responsible for making decisions on requirements.
User requirements are expressed as user stories or scenarios.
These are written on cards and the development team break them down into implementation tasks. These tasks are the basis of schedule and cost estimates.
The customer chooses the stories for inclusion in the next release based on their priorities and the schedule estimates.
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53. A ‘prescribing medication’ story
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54. Examples of task cards for prescribing medication
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55. Conventional wisdom in software engineering is to design for change.
Refactoring
Conventional wisdom in software engineering is to design for change.
XP, however, maintains that this is not worthwhile as changes cannot be reliably anticipated.
Rather, it proposes constant code improvement (refactoring) to make changes easier when they have to be implemented.
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56. Refactoring
Programming team looks for possible software improvements and make these improvements even where there is no immediate need for them.
This improves the understandability of the software and so reduces the need for documentation.
Changes are easier to make because the code is well- structured and clear.
However, some changes requires architecture refactoring and this is much more expensive.
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57. Examples of refactoring
Re-organization of a class hierarchy to remove duplicate code.
Tidying up and renaming attributes and methods to make them easier to understand.
The replacement of inline code with calls to methods that have been included in a program library.
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58. Test-driven development
Writing tests before code clarifies the requirements to be implemented.
Tests are written as programs rather than data so that they can be executed automatically. The test includes a check that it has executed correctly.
Usually relies on a testing framework such as Junit.
All previous and new tests are run automatically when new functionality is added, thus checking that the new functionality has not introduced errors.
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59. Customer involvement
The role of the customer in the testing process is to help develop acceptance tests for the stories that are to be implemented in the next release of the system.
The customer who is part of the team writes tests as development proceeds. All new code is therefore validated to ensure that it is what the customer needs.
However, people adopting the customer role have limited time available and so cannot work full-time with the development team.
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60. Test case description for dose checking
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61. Pair programming
Pair programming involves programmers working in pairs, developing code together.
This helps develop common ownership of code and spreads knowledge across the team.
It serves as an informal review process as each line of code is looked at by more than 1 person.
It encourages refactoring as the whole team can benefit from improving the system code.
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62. Pair programming
In pair programming, programmers sit together at the same computer to develop the software.
Pairs are created dynamically so that all team members work with each other during the development process.
The sharing of knowledge that happens during pair programming is very important as it reduces the overall risks to a project when team members leave.
Pair programming is not necessarily inefficient and there is some evidence that suggests that a pair working together is more efficient than 2 programmers working separately.
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63. Process improvement
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64. Process improvement
Many software companies have turned to software process improvement as a way of enhancing the quality of their software, reducing costs or accelerating their development processes.
Process improvement means understanding existing processes and changing these processes to increase product quality and/or reduce costs and development time.
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65. The process improvement cycle
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66. Capability maturity levels
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