Chapter 2 - Software Processes PDF

Chapter 2 – Software Processes 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 1 Topics covered  Software process models  Process activities  Coping with change  Process improvement 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 2 The software process  A structured set of activit...

Chapter 2 – Software Processes 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 1 Topics covered  Software process models  Process activities  Coping with change  Process improvement 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 2 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 3 Software process descriptions  When we describe and discuss processes, we usually talk about the activities in these processes 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 4 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.  There are no right or wrong software processes. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 5  Software process models 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 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.  In practice, most large systems are developed using a process that incorporates elements from all of these models. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 7 The waterfall model 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 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. In principle, a phase has to be complete before moving onto the next phase. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 10 Incremental development 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 13 Integration and configuration  Based on software reuse where systems are integrated from existing components or application systems (sometimes called COTS -Commercial-off-the-shelf) systems).  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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 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 or J2EE.  Web services that are developed according to service standards and which are available for remote invocation. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 15 Reuse-oriented software engineering 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 16 Key process stages  Requirements specification  Software discovery and evaluation  Requirements refinement  Application system configuration  Component adaptation and integration 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 17 Advantages and disadvantages  Reduced costs and risks as less software is developed from scratch  Faster delivery and deployment of system  But requirements compromises are inevitable so system may not meet real needs of users  Loss of control over evolution of reused system elements 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 18  Process activities 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 19 Process activities  Real software processes are inter-leaved sequences of technical, collaborative and managerial activities with the overall goal of specifying, designing, implementing and testing a software system.  The four basic process activities of specification, development, validation and evolution are organized differently in different development processes.  For example, in the waterfall model, they are organized in sequence, whereas in incremental development they are interleaved. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 20 The requirements engineering process 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 21 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 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 22 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 23 A general model of the design process 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 24 Design activities  Architectural design, where you identify the overall structure of the system, the principal components (subsystems or modules), their relationships and how they are distributed.  Database design, where you design the system data structures and how these are to be represented in a database.  Interface design, where you define the interfaces between system components.  Component selection and design, where you search for reusable components. If unavailable, you design how it will operate. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 25 System implementation  The software is implemented either by developing a program or programs or by configuring an application 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 26 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 27 Stages of testing 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 28 Testing stages  Component 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.  Customer testing  Testing with customer data to check that the system meets the customer’s needs. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 29 Testing phases in a plan-driven software process (V-model) 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 30 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 31 System evolution 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 32  Coping with change 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 33 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-analysing requirements) as well as the costs of implementing new functionality 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 34 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. If this is impossible, then only a single increment (a small part of the system) may have be altered to incorporate the change. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 35 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 36 Software prototyping  A prototype is an initial version of a system used to demonstrate concepts and try out design options.  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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 37 Benefits of prototyping  Improved system usability.  A closer match to users’ real needs.  Improved design quality.  Improved maintainability.  Reduced development effort. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 38 The process of prototype development 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 39 Prototype development  May be based on rapid prototyping languages or tools  May involve leaving out functionality  Prototype should focus on areas of the product that are not well- understood;  Error checking and recovery may not be included in the prototype;  Focus on functional rather than non-functional requirements such as reliability, performance, robustness and security 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 40 Throw-away prototypes  Prototypes should be discarded after development as they are not a good basis for a production system:  It may be impossible to tune the system to meet non-functional requirements;  Prototypes are normally undocumented;  The prototype structure is usually degraded through rapid change;  The prototype probably will not meet normal organisational quality standards. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 41 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 42 Incremental development and delivery  Incremental development  Develop the system in increments and evaluate each increment before proceeding to the development of the next increment;  Normal approach used in agile methods;  Evaluation done by user/customer proxy.  Incremental delivery  Deploy an increment for use by end-users;  More realistic evaluation about practical use of software;  Difficult to implement for replacement systems as increments have less functionality than the system being replaced. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 43 Incremental delivery 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 44 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 45 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 46  Process improvement 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 47 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. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 48 Approaches to improvement  The process maturity approach, which focuses on improving process and project management and introducing good software engineering practice.  The level of process maturity reflects the extent to which good technical and management practice has been adopted in organizational software development processes.  The agile approach, which focuses on iterative development and the reduction of overheads in the software process.  The primary characteristics of agile methods are rapid delivery of functionality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 49 The process improvement cycle 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 50 Process improvement activities  Process measurement  You measure one or more attributes of the software process or product. These measurements forms a baseline that helps you decide if process improvements have been effective.  Process analysis  The current process is assessed, and process weaknesses and bottlenecks are identified. Process models (sometimes called process maps) that describe the process may be developed.  Process change  Process changes are proposed to address some of the identified process weaknesses. These are introduced and the cycle resumes to collect data about the effectiveness of the changes. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 51 Process measurement  Wherever possible, quantitative process data should be collected  However, where organisations do not have clearly defined process standards this is very difficult as you don’t know what to measure. A process may have to be defined before any measurement is possible.  Process measurements should be used to assess process improvements  But this does not mean that measurements should drive the improvements. The improvement driver should be the organizational objectives. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 52 Process metrics  Time taken for process activities to be completed  E.g. Calendar time or effort to complete an activity or process.  Resources required for processes or activities  E.g. Total effort in person-days.  Number of occurrences of a particular event  E.g. Number of defects discovered. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 53 Capability maturity levels 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 54 The SEI capability maturity model  Initial  Essentially uncontrolled  Repeatable  Product management procedures defined and used  Defined  Process management procedures and strategies defined and used  Managed  Quality management strategies defined and used  Optimising  Process improvement strategies defined and used 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 55 Key points  Software processes are the activities involved in producing a software system. Software process models are abstract representations of these processes.  General process models describe the organization of software processes.  Examples of these general models include the ‘waterfall’ model, incremental development, and reuse-oriented development.  Requirements engineering is the process of developing a software specification. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 56 Key points  Design and implementation processes are concerned with transforming a requirements specification into an executable software system.  Software validation is the process of checking that the system conforms to its specification and that it meets the real needs of the users of the system.  Software evolution takes place when you change existing software systems to meet new requirements. The software must evolve to remain useful.  Processes should include activities such as prototyping and incremental delivery to cope with change. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 57 Key points  Processes may be structured for iterative development and delivery so that changes may be made without disrupting the system as a whole.  The principal approaches to process improvement are agile approaches, geared to reducing process overheads, and maturity-based approaches based on better process management and the use of good software engineering practice.  The SEI process maturity framework identifies maturity levels that essentially correspond to the use of good software engineering practice. 30/10/2014 Chapter 2 Software Processes 58