Overview of Software

Engineering
CS 330

Spring 2007
Key Ingredients in successful
organizations
People
Technology
Process
A better view
Process and Technology supporting people
Processes Technology
People
Pyramids are stable.
Wedges are not!
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
Software products may be
Generic/COTS - developed to be sold to a range of
different customers
Custom- developed for a customer according to their
specification

Engineering
Engineering is
The application of scientific principles and methods to
the construction of useful structures & machines
Examples
Mechanical engineering
Computer engineering
Civil engineering
Chemical engineering
Electrical engineering
Nuclear engineering
Aeronautical engineering
Software Engineering
The term is 35 years old: NATO Conferences
Garmisch, Germany, October 7-11, 1968
Rome, Italy, October 27-31, 1969
The reality is it is finally beginning to arrive
Computer science one the scientific basis
Years of studies/experience/statistics provide basis too
Many aspects have been made systematic
Methods/methodologies/techniques
Languages
Tools
Processes
Why Engineer Software ?
The problem is complexity
Many sources, but size is a key:
Mozilla contains 3 Million lines of code
UNIX contains 4 million lines of code
Windows 2000 contains 10
8
lines of code
Second is role and combinatorics of state
Third is uncertainty of inputs and their timing
Fourth is the continuing changing environment
and demands.
Software engineering is about managing
all the sources of complexity to
produce effective software.
Software Engineering in a
Nutshell
Development of software systems whose
size/complexity warrants team(s) of engineers
multi-person construction of multi-version software
[Parnas 1987]
Scope
study of software process,
development/management principles, techniques,
tools and notations
Goal
production of quality software, delivered on time,
within budget, satisfying customers requirements
and users needs
What does a software
engineer do?

Software engineers should
adopt a systematic and organised approach to all
aspects of software development.
use appropriate tools and techniques depending on
the problem to be solved,
the development constraints and
the resources available
Understand and communicate processes for
improved software development within their
organization
Be effective team members and/or leaders.
Can be very technical or more managerial depending
on organizational need.
What is the difference between software
engineering and computer science?
Computer Science Software Engineering
is concerned with
Computer science theories are currently insufficient to
act as a complete underpinning for software
engineering, BUT it is a foundation for practical aspects
of software engineering
theory
fundamentals
the practicalities of developing
delivering useful software
What is the difference between software
engineering and system engineering?
Software engineering is part of System engineering
System engineering is concerned with all aspects of
computer-based systems development including
hardware,
software and
process engineering
System engineers are involved in
system specification,
architectural design,
integration and deployment
Difficulties?
SE is a unique brand of engineering
Software is malleable
Software construction is human-intensive
Software is intangible and generally invisible
Software problems are unprecedentedly complex
Software directly depends upon the hardware
It is at the top of the system engineering food chain
Software solutions require unusual rigor
Software state means behaviors can depend on history.
Software has discontinuous operational nature

Software Engineering Software
Programming
Software programming
Single developer
Toy applications
Short lifespan
Single or few stakeholders
Architect = Developer = Manager = Tester = Customer = User
One-of-a-kind systems
Built from scratch
Minimal maintenance
Software Engineering Software
Programming
Software engineering
Teams of developers with multiple roles
Complex systems
Indefinite lifespan
Numerous stakeholders
Architect Developer Manager Tester Customer User
System families
Reuse to amortize costs
Maintenance accounts for 60%-80% of overall
development costs
Economic and Management
Aspects of SE
Software Engineering is about improved ROI
(can be Capital and/or Social ROI)
Software production =
development + maintenance
Maintenance costs 60%-80% of all
(successful) development costs
20% corrective (12%-16% total costs)
30% adaptive (18%-24% total costs)
50% perfective (30-40% total costs)
Quicker development is not always preferable
higher up-front costs may defray downstream costs
poorly designed/implemented software is a critical
cost factor in system cost and delays
Relative Costs of Fixing
Software Faults
Requirements Specification Planning Design Implementation Integration Maintenance
1
2
3
4
10
30
200
Mythical Man-Month
by Fred Brooks
Published in 1975, republished in 1995
Experience managing development of OS/360 in 1964-65
Central argument
Large projects suffer management problems different in kind than small
ones, due to division in labor
Critical need is the preservation of the conceptual integrity of the
product itself
Central conclusions
Conceptual integrity achieved through chief architect
Implementation achieved through well-managed effort
software developers are not interchangeable work units.
Brooks Law
Adding personnel to a late project makes it later
Software Engineering:
From Principles to Tools
PRINCIPLES
METHODS AND
TECHNIQUES
METHODOLOGIES
TOOLS
Software Qualities
Qualities are goals in the practice of
software engineering, and directly relate to
many of the guiding principles.

External vs. Internal qualities
Product vs. Process qualities
Software Qualities
Critical Quality Attributes
Correctness
Maintainability
Dependability
Usability
Reliability
Other Attributes
Completeness
Compatibility
Portability
Internationalization
Understandability
Scalability
Robustness
Testability
Reusability
Customizability
Efficiency
External vs. Internal Qualities
External qualities are visible to the user
reliability, usability, efficiency (maybe),
robustness, scalability

Internal qualities are the concern of
developers
they help developers achieve external qualities
verifiability, maintainability, extensibility,
evolvability, adaptability, portability, testability,
reusability

Product vs. Process Qualities
Product qualities concern the developed
artifacts
maintainability, performance, understandability,
Process qualities deal with the development
activity
products are developed through process
maintainability, productivity, predictability
Some Software Qualities
Correctness
ideal quality
established w.r.t. the requirements/specification
absolute
Reliability
statistical property
probability that software will operate as expected
over a given period of time/inputs
relative
Some Software Qualities (cont.)
Robustness
reasonable behavior in unforeseen
circumstances
subjective
a specified requirement is an issue of
correctness;
an unspecified requirement is an issue of
robustness
Usability
ability of end-users to easily use software
extremely subjective
Some Software Qualities (cont.)
Understandability
ability of developers to easily understand
produced artifacts
internal product quality
subjective
Verifiability
ease of establishing desired properties
performed by formal analysis or testing
internal quality
Some Software Qualities (cont.)
Performance
equated with efficiency
assessable by measurement, analysis, and
simulation
Evolvability
ability to add or modify functionality
addresses adaptive and perfective maintenance
problem: evolution of implementation is too easy
evolution should start at requirements or design
Some Software Qualities (cont.)
Reusability
ability to construct new software from existing pieces
must be planned for
occurs at all levels: from people to process, from
requirements to code
Interoperability
ability of software (sub)systems to cooperate with
others
easily integratable into larger systems
common techniques include APIs, distributed
programming interfaces (CORBA, DCOM), plug-in
protocols, etc.
Some Software Qualities (cont.)
Scalability
ability of a software system to grow in size while
maintaining its properties and qualities
assumes maintainability and evolvability
goal of component-based development

Process Principles
Prescribes all major activities
Uses resources, within a set of constraints, to
produce intermediate and final products
May be composed of sub-processes
Each activity has entry and exit criteria
Activities are organized in a sequence
Has a set of guiding principles to explain goals
Constraints may apply to activity, resource or
product
Software Development Stages
Requirements Analysis & Specification
Conceptual/System/Architectural Design
Detailed/Program Design
Implementation/Coding
Unit & Integration Testing
System Testing/Validation
System Delivery/Deployment
Maintenance
Note there are many variations on the names. You are
responsible for the main categories above (an on the next
pages)..
Software Lifecycle Models
Waterfall Model
V Model
Phased Development Model
Incremental Model
Prototyping Model
Spiral Model
Software Development Lifecycle
Waterfall Model
Requirements
Design
Implementation
Integration
Validation
Deployment
Plan/Schedule
Replan/Reschedule
V Model
REQUIREMENTS
ANALYSIS
SYSTEM
DESIGN
PROGRAM
DESIGN
CODING
UNIT & INTE-
GRATION TESTING
SYSTEM
TESTING
ACCEPTANCE
TESTING
OPERATION
& MAINTENANCE
Verify design
Validate requirements
[Pfleeger 98]
Phased Development Model
Development systems
Production systems
D
E
V
E
L
O
P
E
R
S
U
S
E
R
S
Build Release 1
Use Release 1
Build Release 2
Use Release 2
Build Release 3
Use Release 3
Time
[Pfleeger 98]
Software Development Lifecycle
Incremental Model
Requirements
Design
Implementation
Integration
Validation
Deployment
Requirements
Design
Implementation
Integration
Validation
Deployment
Requirements
Design
Implementation
Integration
Validation
Deployment
Version 1:
Complete General Design
Version 2:
Design/Implement first set
of planned new features.
Note overlap with V1 schedule
Version 3:
Design/Implement second set
of planned new features
Prototyping Model
[Pressman 97]
Listen to
Customer
Customer
Test-drives
Mock-up
Build/Revise
Mock-Up
Prototyping Model
LIST OF
REVISIONS
LIST OF
REVISIONS
LIST OF
REVISIONS
PROTOTYPE
REQUIREMENTS
PROTOTYPE
DESIGN
PROTOTYPE
SYSTEM
TEST
DELIVERED
SYSTEM
SYSTEM
REQUIREMENTS
(sometimes informal
or incomplete)
revise
prototype
user/
customer
review
[Pfleeger 98]
Spiral development
Process is represented as a spiral rather than as a
sequence of activities with backtracking.
Each loop in the spiral represents a phase in the
process.
No fixed phases such as specification or design -
loops in the spiral are chosen depending on what
is required.
Risks are explicitly assessed and resolved
throughout the process.
Spiral model of the software process
Spiral model sectors
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.
Evolutionary development
Exploratory development
Objective is to work with customers and to evolve a
final system from an initial outline specification.
Should start with well-understood requirements and
add new features as proposed by the customer.
Throw-away prototyping
Objective is to understand the system requirements.
Should start with poorly understood requirements to
clarify what is really needed.
Evolutionary development
Evolutionary development
Problems
Lack of process visibility;
Systems are often poorly structured;
Special skills (e.g. in languages for rapid prototyping)
may be required.
Applicability
For small or medium-size interactive systems;
For parts of large systems (e.g. the user interface);
For short-lifetime systems.
Component-based software
engineering
Based on systematic reuse where systems are
integrated from existing components or COTS
(Commercial-off-the-shelf) systems.
Process stages
Component analysis;
Requirements modification;
System design with reuse;
Development and integration.
This approach is becoming increasingly used as
component standards have emerged.
Reuse-oriented development
Component-Based Development
Develop generally applicable components of a
reasonable size and reuse them across systems
Make sure they are adaptable to varying contexts
Extend the idea beyond code to other
development artifacts
Question: what comes first?
Integration, then deployment
Deployment, then integration
Different Flavors of Components
Third-party software pieces
Plug-ins / add-ins
Applets
Frameworks
Open Systems
Distributed object infrastructures
Compound documents
Legacy systems
Process iteration
System requirements ALWAYS evolve in the
course of a project so process iteration where
earlier stages are reworked is always part of the
process for large systems.
Iteration can be applied to any of the generic
process models.
Two (related) approaches
Incremental delivery;
Spiral development.
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.
Incremental development
Incremental development
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.
Extreme programming
An approach to development based on the
development and delivery of very small
increments of functionality.
Relies on constant code improvement, user
involvement in the development team and
pairwise programming.
Covered in Chapter 17
Software Development Lifecycle
Waterfall Model
Requirements
Design
Implementation
Integration
Validation
Deployment
Plan/Schedule
Replan/Reschedule
Software specification
The process of establishing what services are
required and the constraints on the systems
operation and development.
Requirements engineering process
Feasibility study;
Requirements elicitation and analysis;
Requirements specification;
Requirements validation.
Requirements
Problem Definition Requirements/Specification
determine exactly what the customer and user need (maybe want)
Requirements develop a contract with the customer
Specification say what the software product is to do
Difficulties
client is computer/software illiterate (no idea what is doable)
client asks for wrong product (want vs need)
client is computer/software literate (specifies solution not need)
specifications are ambiguous, inconsistent, incomplete
Studies have shown that the percentage of defects
originating during requirements engineering is estimated at
more than 50 percent. The total percentage of project
budget due to requirements defects is 25 to 40 percent.
The requirements engineering process
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.
Design process activities
Architectural design
Abstract specification
Interface design
Component design
Data structure design
Algorithm design
The software design process
Structured methods
Systematic approaches to developing a software
design.
The design is usually documented as a set of
graphical models.
Possible models
Object model;
Sequence model;
State transition model;
Structural model;
Data-flow model.
Architecture vs. Design
[Perry & Wolf 1992]
Architecture is concerned with the selection of
architectural elements, their interactions, and the
constraints on those elements and their interactions
necessary to provide a framework in which to satisfy
the requirements and serve as a basis for the design.

Design is concerned with the modularization and
detailed interfaces of the design elements, their
algorithms and procedures, and the data types needed
to support the architecture and to satisfy the
requirements.
Architecture/Design
Requirements/Specification Architecture/Design
architecture: decompose software into
modules/objects/components with interfaces
design: develop module/object/component specifications
(algorithms, data types) and communication details
maintain a record of design decisions and traceability
specifies how the software product is to do its tasks
Difficulties
miscommunication between module designers
design may be inconsistent, incomplete, ambiguous
How to achieve a requirement may be unknown
Planning/Scheduling
Before undertaking cost of development, need to
estimate the costs/sizes of various steps
Estimate Code size
Estimate tools needed
Estimate personnel
Often Done after Architecture and before rest of
design, but revised again after full design.
Develop schedule for aspects of project lifecycle
If doing predictive/quantitative SE, build on past
experience, considering how to improve process.
Implementation & Integration
Design Implementation
implement modules; verify that they meet their
specifications
combine modules according to the design
specifies how the software design is realized
Difficulties
module interaction errors
order of integration may influence quality and
productivity
Programming and debugging
Translating a design into a program and removing
errors from that program.
Programming is a personal activity - there is no
generic programming process.
Programmers carry out some program testing to
discover faults in the program and remove these
faults in the debugging process.
The debugging process
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.
Verification and Validation
Analysis
Static
Science
Formal verification
Informal reviews and walkthroughs
Testing
Dynamic
Engineering
White box vs. black box
Structural vs. behavioral
Issues of test adequacy

The testing process
Testing stages
Component or unit 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.
Acceptance testing
Testing with customer data to check that the system
meets the customers needs.
Testing phases
Quality Assurance
Done as part of each step
Reduce costs by catching errors early.
Help determine ambiguities/inconsistencies
Help ensure quality product.
Requirements Specification Planning Design Implementation Integration Maintenance
1
2
3
4
10
30
200
Deployment
Completed End-User Documentation
Separate from Developer documentation
Installation Process(es)
Customer test procedures
Support Processes (help desk, etc)
Trouble Tracking
Repair/rework to address bugs
Regression testing (as bugs are fixed)

Maintenance & Evolution
Operation Change
maintain software during/after user operation
determine whether the product still functions correctly
Difficulties
Rigid or fragile designs
lack of documentation
personnel turnover
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.
System evolution
Why I include CASE Tools
Computer Aides Software
Engineering tools support
good SE processes (e.g. UML)
Some tools absolute
requirement for scaling e.g.
build and configuration
management.
Integrated CASE (ICASE)
tools embody good processes
and improve productivity (E.g.
Rational tool set)
Some tools (e.g. debuggers,
Purify) do almost impossible
for humans.
But.. Tools change
No SE tools from my first
3 jobs exist (except
Fortran/C languages)
I use regularly use 3 SE
tools from my next set of
jobs.
Other tools I learned have
been replaced with similar
but expanded concepts..
Understanding today;s
tools gives a basis for
learning future ones.
ICASE Design Tools
Rational Rose and
Rational Unified
Development.
From UML drawing to
code and back.
Generates stubs and
eventually testing code.
Supports multiple
languages

public class Car
{
public Driver theDriver;
/**
* @roseuid 3EAFF17E035B
*/
public Car()
{
}
}
public class Driver
{
/**
* @roseuid 3EAFF53F02FD
*/
public Driver()
{
}
}
Car Driver
Associations are
implemented as reference
attributes.
No explicit role name
defined so, Rose adds
automatically a role name
to the code: theDriver
Templates for the default
constructors are provided.
(Similar for
methods/members when
given in the class
diagram.)
Configuration Management
CM is a discipline whose goal is to control
changes to large software through the
functions of
Component identification
Change tracking
Version selection and baselining
Managing simultaneous updates (team work)
Build processes with automated regression
testing
Software manufacture
CM in Action
1.1
1.2
1.4
2.0
2.1
2.2
3.1
3.0
1.5
4.0
1.0
1.3
Build Tools
Necessary for large projects. Keep track of what depends
upon on what, and what needs recompiled or regenerated
when things change.
Important even for small 1-person projects as soon as you
have multiple files.
Can do much more than just compile, can generate
document (if using code-based docs), generate
manufactured code (e.g. SOAP interfaces), even send
emails or suggest alternatives.
E.g. in our IUE project, edit some files compile was one in
seconds, edit another and a rebuild taking days would be needed. If
more than 30 files impacted, our make process recommend a new
branch to avoid conflicts!
Debugging Tools
How do you see what the code is really doing (not
what it seems it should do)?
How to you see what happened to code during
compiler optimization?
How do you find/track down the cause of
Segfault/GFP in code youve never seen before?
How can you test various possibilities without
generating special code or recompiling.
How do you track down a memory leak?
Tools, workbenches, environments
Si ngl e-method
workbenches
General-purpose
workbenches
Mult i -met hod
workbenches
Language-specifi c
workbenches
Programmi ng Test ing
Analysi s and
design
Int egrat ed
envi ronment s
Process-centr ed
envi ronment s
Fi l e
compar at ors
Compil ers Edit ors
Envi ronment s Wor kbenches
Tool s
CASE
t echnol ogy
The Rational Unified Process
A modern process model derived from the work
on the UML and associated process.
Normally described from 3 perspectives
A dynamic perspective that shows phases over time;
A static perspective that shows process activities;
A practive perspective that suggests good practice.
RUP phase model
Phase it erat ion
Incept ion Elaborat ion Const ruct ion Transit ion
RUP phases
Inception
Establish the business case for the system.
Elaboration
Develop an understanding of the problem domain and
the system architecture.
Construction
System design, programming and testing.
Transition
Deploy the system in its operating environment.
RUP good practice
Develop software iteratively
Manage requirements
Use component-based architectures
Visually model software
Verify software quality
Control changes to software
Static workflows
Workflow Description
Business modelli ng The business processes are modelled using business use cases.
Requirements Actors who interact with the system are identified and use cases are
developed to model the system requirements.
Analysis and design A design model is created and documented using architectural
models, component models, object models and sequence models.
Implementation The components in the system are implemented and structured into
implementation sub-systems. Automatic code generation from design
models helps accelerate this process.
Test Testing is an iterative process that is carried out in conjunction with
implementation. System testing follows the completion of the
implementation.
Deployment A product release is created, distributed to users and installed in their
workplace.
Configuration and
change management
This supporting workflow managed changes to the system (see
Chapter 29).
Project management This supporting workflow manages the system development (see
Chapter 5).
Environment This workflow is concerned with making appropriate software tools
available to the software development team.
Computer-aided software
engineering
Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) is
software to support software development and
evolution processes.
Activity automation
Graphical editors for system model development;
Data dictionary to manage design entities;
Graphical UI builder for user interface construction;
Debuggers to support program fault finding;
Automated translators to generate new versions of a
program.
Case technology
Case technology has led to significant
improvements in the software process. However,
these are not the order of magnitude
improvements that were once predicted
Software engineering requires creative thought - this is
not readily automated;
Software engineering is a team activity and, for large
projects, much time is spent in team interactions.
CASE technology does not really support these.
CASE classification
Classification helps us understand the different types
of CASE tools and their support for process activities.
Functional perspective
Tools are classified according to their specific function.
Process perspective
Tools are classified according to process activities that
are supported.
Integration perspective
Tools are classified according to their organisation into
integrated units.
Functional tool classification
Tool type Examples
Planning tools PERT tools, estimation tools, spreadsheets
Editing tools Text editors, diagram editors, word processors
Change management tools Requirement s traceability tools, change control systems
Configuration management tools Version management systems, syst em building tools
Prototyping tools Very high-level languages, user int erface generat ors
Method-support tools Design editors, data dictionaries, code generators
Language-processing tools Compilers, interpret ers
Program analysis tools Cross reference generat ors, st atic analysers, dynamic analysers
Testing tools Test dat a generators, file comparators
Debugging tools Interactive debugging systems
Documentation tools Page layout programs, image edit ors
Re-engineering tools Cross-reference systems, program re-structuring systems
Activity-based tool classification
Speci fi cat ion Desi gn Impl ement at ion Veri ficat i on
and
Vali dat ion
Re-eng i neeri ng t ool s
Test ing t ools
Debuggi ng t ools
Program analysi s t ool s
Language-processi ng
t ools
Method suppor t t ool s
Prot otypi ng t ool s
Confi gurati on
management tool s
Change management t ools
Document at ion t ools
Edit i ng t ool s
Pl anni ng t ool s
CASE integration
Tools
Support individual process tasks such as design
consistency checking, text editing, etc.
Workbenches
Support a process phase such as specification or
design, Normally include a number of integrated
tools.
Environments
Support all or a substantial part of an entire software
process. Normally include several integrated
workbenches.
Boults view of SE
SE must balance risks in software development process:
Risks of error in
requirements
specification,
design,
implementation,
and integration
Risks of exceeding available resources
Risks of being late on delivery or missing the market
Dont let push for formality dominate your process.
Dont let push for expedience destroy your process.
Software Process Qualities
Process is reliable if it consistently leads to high-
quality products
Process is robust if it can accommodate
unanticipated changes in tools and
environments
Process performance is productivity
Process is evolvable if it can accommodate new
management and organizational techniques
Process is reusable if it can be applied across
projects and organizations
Assessing Software Qualities
Qualities must be measurable/quantifiable
Measurement requires that qualities be
precisely defined
Improvement requires accurate and
consistent measurements
For most SD groups, qualities are informally
defined and are difficult to assess
Software Engineering Axioms
Adding developers to a project will likely result in further
delays and accumulated costs
The longer a fault exists in software
the more costly it is to detect and correct
the less likely it is to be properly corrected
Up to 70% of all faults detected in large-scale software
projects are introduced in requirements and design
detecting the causes of those faults early may reduce their
resulting costs by a factor of 200 or more
Basic tension of software engineering
better, cheaper, faster pick any two!
functionality, scalability, performance pick any two!
Want/Need Managements buy in to formal SE process.
If you dont document your process, you dont have one!
Boehms Spiral Model
PLAN
DEVELOP AND TEST
DETERMINE GOALS,
ALTERNATIVES,
CONSTRAINTS
EVALUATE ALTERNATIVES
AND RISKS
Requirements,
life-cycle plan
Budget
1
Risk analysis
1
Risk analysis
2
Risk analysis
3
Risk analysis
4
Budget
2
Budget
3
Budget
4 Prototype
1
Proto -
type
2
Proto -
type
3
Proto -
type
4
Concept of
operation
Detailed
design
Code
Unit test
System
test Acceptance
test
Implementation
plan
start
Key points
Software processes are the activities involved in
producing and evolving a software system.
Software process models are abstract representations
of these processes.
General activities are specification, design and
implementation, validation and evolution.
Generic process models describe the organisation of
software processes. Examples include the waterfall
model, evolutionary development and component-
based software engineering.
Iterative process models describe the software process
as a cycle of activities.
Key points
Requirements engineering is the process of developing
a software specification.
Design and implementation processes transform the
specification to an executable program.
Validation involves checking that the system meets to
its specification and user needs.
Evolution is concerned with modifying the system
after it is in use.
The Rational Unified Process is a generic process
model that separates activities from phases.
CASE technology supports software process activities.