ENEL2SE-Ch02 Modeling The Process and Life Cycle SHORT

Chapter 2
Modeling the
Process and Life Cycle
Contents
2.1 The Meaning of Process

2.2 Software Process Models
2.3 Tools and Techniques for Process Modeling
2.4 Practical Process Modeling
Pfleeger and Atlee, Software Engineering: Theory and Practice Chapter 2.2
Chapter 2 Objectives
• What we mean by a “process”

• Software development products, processes,
and resources
• Several models of the software development
process
• Tools and techniques for process modeling
• A process:
process a series of steps involving
activities, constrains, and resources that
produce an intended ouput of some kind
• A process involves a set of tools and
techniques
Process Characteristics
• Prescribes all major process activities
• Uses resources, subject to set of constraints (such as
schedule)
• Produces intermediate and final products
• May be composed of subprocesses with hierarchy or
links
• Each process activity has entry and exit criteria
• Activities are organized in sequence, so timing is clear
• Each process guiding principles, including goals of each
activity
• Constraints may apply to an activity, resource or
product
The Importance of Processes
• Impose consistency and structure on a set of

activities
• Guide us to understand, control, examine, and
improve the activities
• Enable us to capture our experiences and pass
them along
Reasons for Modeling a Process
1. To form a common understanding

2. To find inconsistencies, redundancies, omissions
3. To find and evaluate appropriate activities for reaching
process goals
4. To tailor (modify) a general process for a particular
situation in which it will be used
Software Life Cycle
• When a process involves building a software,
the process may be referred to as software
life cycle
1) Requirements analysis and definition
2) System (architecture) design
3) Program (detailed/procedural) design
4) Writing programs (coding/implementation)
5) Testing: unit, integration, system
6) System delivery (deployment)
– Maintenance
Software Development Process Models
1. Waterfall model (Top Down Approach)

2. V model
3. Prototyping model
4. Operational specification
5. Transformational model
6. Phased development: increments and iteration
7. Spiral model
8. Agile methods
1) Waterfall Model
Waterfall Model (continued)
• There is no iteration in waterfall model

• Most software developments apply a great many
iterations
Sidebar 2.1 Drawbacks of The Waterfall Model
1) Provides no guidance how to handle changes to

products and activities during development
(assumes requirements can be frozen)
2) Views software development as manufacturing
process rather than as creative process
3) There is no iterative activities that lead to creating a
final product
4) Long wait before a final product
Waterfall Model with Prototype
• A prototype is a partially developed product

• Prototyping helps
– developers assess alternative design strategies
(design prototype)
– users understand what the system will be like
(user interface prototype)
• Protopyping is useful for verification and
validation
Waterfall Model with Prototype (continued)
. Waterfall model with prototyping
2) V Model
A variation of the waterfall model

1. Uses unit testing to verify procedural design
2. Uses integration testing to verify
architectural (system) design
3. Uses acceptance testing to validate the
requirements
• If problems are found during verification and
validation, the left side of the V can be re-
executed before testing on the right side is
re-enacted
V Model (continued)
3) Prototyping Model
• Allows repeated investigation of the requirements or design
• Reduces risk and uncertainty in the development
Prototyping Model
Advantages:
1) Users get a feel for the actual system.
2) Developers get to build something immediately.
3) Specifications can be developed incrementally.
Disadvantages:
1. Developers may make implementation compromises in
order to get a prototype working quickly.
2. The process in not visible (few documents that reflect every
version of the system).
3. Systems poorly structured.
4) Operational Specification Model
a) Requirements are executed (examined) and their implication

evaluated early in the development process
b) Functionality and the design are allowed to be merged
5) Transformational Model
• Fewer major development steps

• Applies a series of transformations (System/Program Design, coding) to
change a specification into a deliverable system
– Change data representation
– Select algorithms (specified)
– Optimize (ex. reduction code/data)
– Compile (integration)
• Relies on formalism
• Requires formal (Correct) specification (to allow transformations)
Transformational Model (continued)
6) Phased Development: Increments and Iterations
1. Shorter cycle time

2. System delivered in pieces
a) enables customers to have some functionality
while the rest is being developed
3. Allows two systems functioning in parallel
a) the production system (release n): currently
being used
b) the development system (release n+1): the next
version
Phased Development: Increments and Iterations (continued)
• Incremental development: starts with small functional

subsystem and adds functionality with each new release
• Iterative development: starts with full system, then changes
functionality of each subsystem with each new release
• Phased development is desirable for several

reasons
1) Training can begin early, even though some
functions are missing
2) Markets can be created early for functionality that
has never before been offered
3) Frequent releases allow developers to fix
unanticipated problems globaly and quickly
4) The development team can focus on different
areas of expertise with different releases
Incremental Model
Advantages:
1) Customer value can be delivered with each increment so system functionality
is available earlier.
2) Early increments act as a prototype to help elicit requirements for later
increments.
3) Lower risk of overall project failure.
4) The highest priority system services tend to receive the most testing.
Disadvantages:
1. Increments should be relatively small (20,000 lines of code).
2. Can be difficult to map the customer’s requirements onto increments of the
right size.
3. Hard to identify common functions.
7) Spiral Model
• Suggested by Boehm (1988)

• Combines development activities with risk management to
minimize and control risks
• The model is presented as a spiral in which each iteration
is represented by a circuit around four major activities
1) Plan
2) Determine goals, alternatives and constraints
3) Evaluate alternatives and risks
4) Develop and test
Spiral Model (continued)
Spiral Model
Advantages:
1) Risks are explicitly assessed and resolved throughout the process.
2) Software engineers can start working on the project earlier rather than
wading through a lengthy early design process.
Disadvantages:
1) Requires highly skilled people in risk analysis and planning.
2) Requires more time, and is more expensive.
3) Estimates of budget and time are harder to judge at the beginning of the
project since the requirements evolve through the process.
8) Agile Methods
• Emphasis on flexibility in producing software quickly
and capably
• Agile manifesto (platform)
1. Value individuals and interactions over process and tools
2. Prefer to invest time in producing working software
rather than in producing comprehensive documentation
3. Focus on customer collaboration rather than contract
negotiation
4. Concentrate on responding to change rather than on
creating a plan and then following it
Agile Methods: Examples of Agile Process
5. Extreme programming (XP)

6. Crystal: a collection of approaches based on
the notion that every project needs a unique
set of policies and conventions
7. Scrum: 30-day iterations; multiple self-
organizing teams; daily “scrum”
coordination
8. Adaptive software development (ASD)
Agile Methods: Extreme Programming
• Emphasis on four charateristics of agility

A. Communication: continual interchange between
customers and developers
B. Simplicity: select the simplest design or
implementation
C. Courage: commitment to delivering functionality
early and often
D. Feedback: loops built into the various activitites
during the development process
Which software process model is best?
Ans.:
a) Depends on the project circumstances and requirements.
b) Combinations of models are used sometimes to get the benefits of
more than one model.
Criteria for evaluating models:
1. Risk management.
2. Quality / cost control.
3. Visibility of progress.
4. Early system functionality.
5. Customer involvement and feedback.
2.3 Tools and Techniques for Process
Modeling
• Notation depends on what we want to
capture in the model
• The two major notation categories
1) Static model: depicts (represents) the process
2) Dynamic model: enacts (endorses) the process
Static Modeling: Lai Notation
• Element of a process are viewed in terms of

seven types
1. Activity
2. Sequence
3. Process model
4. Resource
5. Control
6. Policy
7. Organization
• Several templates, such as an Artifact
Definition Template
Dynamic Modeling
• Enables enaction of process to see what happens

to resources and artifacts as activities occur
• Simulate alternatives and make changes to
improve the process
• Example: systems dynamics model
Agile Methods: Twelve Facets of XP
(Reading)
• The planning game • Pair programming

(customer defines value)
• Collective ownership
• Small release
• Continuous integration
• Metaphor (common (small increments)
vision, common names)
• Sustainable pace (40
• Simple design hours/week)
• Writing tests first • On-site customer
• Refactoring • Coding standard
Sidebar 2.2 When Extreme is Too Extreme?
(Reading)
• Extreme programming's practices are

interdependent
– A vulnerability if one of them is modified
• Requirements expressed as a set of test
cases must be passed by the software
– System passes the tests but is not what the
customer is paying for
• Refactoring issue
– Difficult to rework a system without degrading its
architecture
Sidebar 2.3 Collections of Process Models
(Reading)
• Development process is a problem-solving activity
• Curtis, Krasner, and Iscoe (1988) performed a field
study to determine which problem-solving factors to
captured in process model
• The results suggest a layered behavioral model as
supplement to the traditional model
• Process model should not only describe series of tasks,
but also should detail factors that contribute to a
project's inherent uncertainty and risk
Dynamic Modeling: System Dynamics
(Reading)
• Introduced by Forrester in the 1950's

• Abdel-Hamid and Madnick applied it to
software development
• One way to understand system dynamics is
by exploring how software development
process affects productivity
Sidebar 2.4 Process Programming
(Reading)
• A program to describe and enact the process
– Eliminate uncertainty
– Basis of an automated environment to produce software
• Does not capture inherent variability of underlying
development process
– Implementation environment, skill, experience,
understanding the customer needs
• Provides only sequence of tasks
• Gives no warning of impending problems
2.4 Practical Process Modeling
Marvel Case Studies
(Reading)
• Uses Marvel Process Language (MPL)
• Three constructs: classes, rules, tool
envelopes
• Three-part process description
1. rule-based specification of process behaviour
2. object-oriented definition of model’s
information process
3. set of envelopes to interface between Marvel and
external software tools

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Chapter 2

2.1 The Meaning of Process

• What we mean by a “process”

• Impose consistency and structure on a set of

1. To form a common understanding

1. Waterfall model (Top Down Approach)

• There is no iteration in waterfall model

1) Provides no guidance how to handle changes to

• A prototype is a partially developed product

. Waterfall model with prototyping

A variation of the waterfall model

a) Requirements are executed (examined) and their implication

• Fewer major development steps

1. Shorter cycle time

• Incremental development: starts with small functional

• Phased development is desirable for several

• Suggested by Boehm (1988)

5. Extreme programming (XP)

• Emphasis on four charateristics of agility

• Element of a process are viewed in terms of

• Enables enaction of process to see what happens

• The planning game • Pair programming

• Extreme programming's practices are

• Introduced by Forrester in the 1950's

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