Untitled Quiz

SOFT2412 Exam Preparation

• Agile software Development Practices (University of Sydney)

1 Software Development Process Models

• The Software Process
  • Set of activities required to develop software
  • Activities are to be done in a specific order.
  • Lifecycle for a Software Development project includes processes, tools, and definitions of artifacts.
  • Most development processes include activities like specification (system requirements), design and implementation, validation (testing), and evolution.
• Software Process Models
  • Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
  • Description of a process from a particular perspective, outlining activities and their sequence without necessarily detailing the roles involved.
• Representative Software Process Models
  • Waterfall Model: Development activities as phases (requirements, design, implementation, integration & testing, operation & maintenance)
  • Spiral Model: Incremental development using risk analysis at each stage
  • Agile Model: Iterative incremental development for rapid development and adjusting to changing requirements.
  • Rational Unified Process (RUP or UP): A model combining elements of different process models with defined phases.

Waterfall Model

• Phases: Requirements analysis & definition, system & software design, implementation & unit testing, integration & system testing, operations & maintenance.
• Advantages: Intensive documentation, easy to understand and implement.
• Problems: Difficult to accommodate changes and inflexible partitioning. Commonly used in large-scale system engineering projects.

Requirements Engineering Process

• Planning in Software Development

  • Plan-driven (Plan-and-Document, Heavy-weight): Activities are pre-planned, and changes are expensive.
  • Agile Processes (Light-weight): Planning is incremental and continuous, easier to change to reflect evolving requirements.

• Software Evolution

  • Software is inherently flexible and must adapt to changes.
  • Business software needs to respond rapidly to changing markets.

Rational Unified Process (RUP)

• Software Development process using iterative and risk-driven approach to develop object-oriented software systems.
• Iterative incremental and evolutionary development.
• Includes phases such as inception, elaboration, construction, and transition.

Agile Development Model

• Project Failure is the primary trigger for agility and quick development.
• Process
  • Agile advocates believe current processes are too heavy/cumbersome and rigid.
  • More active customer involvement is essential.
• Agile Methods:
  • Set of principles with light-weight methodology, such as Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum.
• Agile Principles:
  • Prioritize customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
  • Welcome changing requirements and are flexible.
  • Deliver working software frequently.
  • Have daily interactions with business people and developers.
  • Build projects around motivated individuals.
  • Face-to-face communication is the most effective method to convey information.
  • Working software is the primary measure of progress.
  • Maintain a sustainable pace of development.
  • Focus on technical excellence.
  • Keep things simple.
  • Self-organising teams should emerge.
  • Teams should reflect on how they can become more effective.

2 Tools and Technologies for Controlling Artifacts

• Software Artifact - Software Requirements Specification
  • Variety of formats (e.g., user stories, documents)
  • Track changes and versions of requirements is important.
• Software Artifacts - Code
  • Spread over many files.
  • Use Language conventions/documentation.

Version Control System (VCS)

• Tools for software teams to manage changes to code over time.
• Local VCS: Keep track of all modifications. Revert to previous states, and view change history.
• Centralized VCS: Single server storing all versions. Easier administrator access, and developer work may get interrupted due to a single point of failure.
• Distributed VCS: Multiple remote repositories, allowing multiple developers to collaborate simultaneously. Backup facility is present.

Git Fundamentals

• A version control system for tracking and managing changes to code.
• Web-based (online) central repository of code.
• Tracks changes and histories, allowing merges and conflict resolutions via command line and UI.
• Git distinguishes between unchanged files.
• Supports delta-based VCS.

3 Tools and Technologies for Controlling Artifacts (2) - Distributed Git - Remote Branches

• Remote (Hosted) Repositories
• Remote-tracking branches.
• Remote references (pointers) in your remote repos.
• Localised references cannot be moved, but git moves them for accuracy w.r.t. remote repos.
• List of remote references, or list of remote branches (e.g., via git commands)

4 System Build Automation

• Software Configuration Management (CM)
  • Concerned with policies, processes, and tools used to manage changing software systems.
  • Tracks changes and component versions incorporated into each system.
  • Essential to control changes by different developers.
• Configuration Management Activities
  • System building: Assembling program components, data, and libraries.
  • Version management: Tracking multiple versions and preventing conflicts.
  • Change management: Handling requests for changes.
  • Release management: Preparing software for external release.

5 Software Quality Assurance: Software Testing

• Software Quality:
  • Satisfying user needs; correct behavior, easy to use, does not crash etc.
  • Easy to debug and enhance.
• Software Testing:
  • Demonstrating software meets requirements.
  • Finding incorrect or undesired behavior (bugs).
  • Types of Software Defects
    • Syntax Errors: detected during programming or compile.
    • Runtime errors: may crash during code execution.
    • Logic Errors: The program produces incorrect output for some inputs.
    • Timing Errors: Does not produce computational results in reasonable time.
• Software Testing - Costs
  • Cost of inadequate testing is estimated to be $59.5 billion annually in the US alone.
  • Critical software systems (e.g., medical, flight control, traffic control) require careful testing.
• Testing Levels:
  • Unit/Functional Testing: Tests individual units of code.
  • Integration Testing: Tests interactions between different parts of a system.
  • System Testing: Tests the entire system for functionality, security, performance, etc.
  • Acceptance Testing: Tests the system from the perspective of the user.
• Testing Techniques:
  • Black-box testing: Testing without knowledge of the code. Focus on input/output behaviors and specifications.
  • White-box testing: Testing with knowledge of the code, to test internal structure and code paths

6 Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, and Development

• Agile Principle:
  • Highest priority is customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery.
  • Welcome changing requirements. Deliver working software frequently.
• Continuous Integration (CI):
  • Software development practice integrating work frequently using automated builds (including tests).
• Continuous Delivery (CD) :
  • Software delivery discipline allowing release of new changes quickly and reliably to customers.
  • Automatically package artifacts and deploy applications.

7 Team Dynamics; Tools and Technologies for Teamwork

• Waterfall Model Teams:
  • Separate teams for each stage with handoffs (coordination) using documents.
• Agile Teams:
  • Self-organising, cross-functional teams.
  • Individuals and their interactions are more important than the processes and tools.

8 Agile Method - Scrum

• Agile Process - Agile development processes are lightweight and focused.
• Agile Principles:
  • Customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery.
  • Acceptance of changing requirements.
  • Frequent delivery of working software.
  • Daily cooperation between business people and developers.
  • Build projects around motivated individuals.
  • Efficient communication.
• Extreme Programming (XP) and Scrum are popular agile methods.

9 Requirements; Technologies for Expressing Requirements

• Requirements in plan-and-document methodologies.
• Plan-and-Document - Requirements:
  • Requirements document detailed, extensive, and adheres to standards.
  • Typically uses structured templates (like Word docs).
  • Includes numbered, named requirements for traceability.
• Plan-and-Document: Requirements Engineering Process:
  • Requirements elicitation and analysis.
  • Requirements specifications.
  • Requirements validation.
• Requirements Elicitation - Technique:
  • Interviewing stakeholders.
  • Creating scenarios.
  • Creating use cases.
• Requirements Documentation: Software Requirements Specifications (SRS) documents.
• Why Do Software Projects Fail?:
  • Budget and schedule overruns.
  • Useless features (those unused frequently or rarely).

10 Estimation and Its Challenges; Tools and Technologies for Tracking Progress

• Goals: Making Software Engineering predictable in budget and schedule.
• Components: Requirements elicitation, requirements documentation, cost estimation, scheduling and monitoring, change and risk management.

11 Ethics, Intellectual Property, and Open-Source Software

• Ethics Theory: Discusses ethical principles, personal conduct codes and frameworks for ethical decision-making by software engineers.
• Professional Frameworks: Professional codes of ethics provided by various professional organisations are offered to guide best practice and decision-making.
• Intellectual Property (IP)
  • intangible creations of the human intellect (e.g. inventions, designs).
  • Law to protect these creations (e.g., Copyright, Trademark, Patent).
• Software Licensing:
  • Agreements allowing use, distribution, sharing, or modifications of Software.
  • Licenses from software vendors to customers
• Open-Source Software: Software with source code, publicly available for inspection, modification, and enhancement.
  • Open-source licenses approved by the OSI (Open-Source Initiative)