Software Engineering

Lecture 1
Introduction to Software Engineering

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Software Definition
⚫ Software is:
◦ A product
◦ A vehicle for delivering another product
⚫ Software is collection of:
◦ Program
◦ Documentation
◦ Data
◦ Procedure

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Software Characteristics
⚫ Software is engineered, not manufactured
⚫ Software does not wear out
⚫ Most software continues to be custom
built

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Failure Curves for software

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Software Myths
1. Management Myths
◦ Myth: If we get behind schedule, add more
programmers.
◦ Reality: Adding people to a late software project
makes it later.
2. Practitioner’s Myths
◦ Myth: Software Engineering will make us create many
and unnecessary documentation.
◦ Reality: Software engineering is not about creating
documents. It is about creating quality. Better quality
leads to reduced rework. Reduced rework results in
faster delivery times.
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Software Myths
3. Customer Myths
◦ Myth: A general statement of objectives is sufficient to
begin writing programs—we can fill in the details
later.
◦ Reality: Although a comprehensive and stable
statement of requirements is not always possible, an
ambiguous “statement of objectives” is a recipe for
disaster. Unambiguous requirements (usually derived
iteratively) are developed only through effective and
continuous communication between customer and
developer.

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Software Crisis
⚫ During 1960-1970, most software
development faced the following
problems:
◦ Overdue schedule
◦ Exceeding initial budget
◦ Inadequate software quality
◦ High software maintenance cost

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Software Engineering
⚫ Software engineering is first coined in 1968 at a
software conference organized by NATO at
Garmisch, Germany as a solution to the
software crisis.
⚫ Software engineering is the establishment and
use of sound engineering principles in order to
obtain economically software that is reliable and
works efficiently on real machines.

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Engineering Principles
⚫ The engineering principles used in
software engineering comprises:
◦ Analysis
◦ Design
◦ Implementation
◦ Testing

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Software Engineering Layers

Software Engineering

tools
methods
process model

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Software Engineering Layers (cont.)
⚫ Tools: Software Tools (Word Processors,
Diagramming Tools, Project Tools,
Compilers, etc.)
⚫ Methods: Modeling methods (DFD, ERD,
Gantt Chart,etc.)
⚫ Process: Waterfall, Spiral, Incremental, etc.

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Software Engineering Phases
⚫ Definition Phase (What)
◦ Systems Engineering, Project Planning,
Requirements Analysis
⚫ Development Phase (How)
◦ Software Design, Code Generation, Software
Testing
⚫ Support Phase (Change)
◦ Correction, Adaptation, Enhancement,
Prevention

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Umbrella Activities
⚫ Umbrella activities are activities that are
applied throughout the software process:
◦ Project tracking and control
◦ Software Quality Assurance
◦ Software Configuration Management
◦ Document Preparation and Management

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Capability Maturity Model
⚫ CMM is used to determine an organization’s current
state of process maturity
⚫ Five levels of CMM:
◦ Level 1: Initial (Ad Hoc)
◦ Level 2: Repeatable (Basic project management)
◦ Level 3: Defined (Process standardization)
◦ Level 4: Managed (Quantitative Management)
◦ Level 5: Optimized (Continuous process improvement)

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CMM Level 1: Initial
⚫ The software process is characterized as
ad hoc and occasionally even chaotic.
Few processes are defined, and success
depends on individual effort.

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CMM Level 2: Repeatable
⚫ Basic Project Management processes are
established to track cost, schedule, and
functionality.

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CMM Level 3: Defined
⚫ The process is “tailored from the
organization’s set of standard processes
according to the organization’s tailoring
guidelines, and contributes work
products, measures, and other
process-improvement information to the
organizational process assets”.

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CMM Level 4: Managed
⚫ Detailed measures of the software
process and product quality are collected.

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CMM Level 5: Optimized
⚫ The process area is adapted and
optimized using quantitative means to
meet changing customer needs and to
continually improve the efficacy of the
process area under consideration.

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Personal Software Process
⚫ The Personal Software Process (PSP) emphasizes
personal measurement of both the work product that is
produced and the resultant quality of work product
(Humphrey 1997).
⚫ The PSP process model defined five framework
activities:
◦ Planning
◦ High-Level Design
◦ High-Level Design Review
◦ Development
◦ Postmortem

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Personal Software Process (cont.)
⚫ PSP stresses the need for each software
engineer to identify errors early and, as
important, to understand the types of errors
that he/she is likely to make.
⚫ This is accomplished through a rigorous
assessment activity performed on all work
products produced by the software engineer.
⚫ PSP can improve the productivity and
software quality. However, PSP has not been
widely adopted throughout the industry due
to human nature and organizational inertia.
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 Team Software Process (TSP)
⚫ TSP is an extension of PSP.
⚫ The goal of TSP is to build a “self-directed” project team
that organizes itself to produce high-quality software:
◦ Build self-directed teams that plan and track their work,
establish goals, and own their processes and plans.
◦ Show managers how to coach and motivate their teams.
◦ Accelerate software process improvement.
◦ Provide improvement guidance to high-maturity organizations.
◦ Facilitate university teaching of industrial-grade team skills.

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 Summary
⚫ Software Engineering is a discipline that
integrates process, methods, and tools for the
development of computer software.
⚫ The Capability Maturity Model Integration
(CMMI) is a comprehensive process
meta-model that describes the specific goals,
practices, and capabilities that should be present
in a mature software process.
⚫ Personal and Team Software process emphasize
measurement, planning, and self-direction as key
ingredients for a successful software process.
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References
⚫ Pressman, Chapter 1, 2

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