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Topics covered

² Professional software development

§ What is meant by software engineering.
² Software engineering ethics
Chapter 1- Introduction
§ A brief introduction to ethical issues that affect software
engineering.
² Case studies
Lecture 1
§ An introduction to three examples that are used in later chapters
in the book.

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Software engineering Software costs

² The economies of ALL developed nations are ² Software costs often dominate computer system costs.
dependent on software. The costs of software on a PC are often greater than the
² More and more systems are software controlled hardware cost.
² Software costs more to maintain than it does to develop.
² Software engineering is concerned with theories,
methods and tools for professional software For systems with a long life, maintenance costs may be
development. several times development costs.
² Software engineering is concerned with cost-effective
² Expenditure on software represents a
significant fraction of GNP in all developed countries. software development.

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Software products Product specification

² Generic products ² Generic products

§ Stand-alone systems that are marketed and sold to any § The specification of what the software should do is owned by the
customer who wishes to buy them. software developer and decisions on software change are made
§ Examples – PC software such as graphics programs, project by the developer.
management tools; CAD software; software for specific markets ² Customized products
such as appointments systems for dentists.
§ The specification of what the software should do is owned by the
² Customized products customer for the software and they make decisions on software
§ Software that is commissioned by a specific customer to meet changes that are required.
their own needs.
§ Examples – embedded control systems, air traffic control
software, traffic monitoring systems.

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Frequently asked questions about software Frequently asked questions about software
engineering
engineering

Question Answer Question Answer

What is software? Computer programs and associated documentation. What are the key challenges facing Coping with increasing diversity, demands for reduced
Software products may be developed for a particular software engineering? delivery times and developing trustworthy software.
customer or may be developed for a general market. What are the costs of software Roughly 60% of software costs are development costs,
What are the attributes of good software? Good software should deliver the required functionality engineering? 40% are testing costs. For custom software, evolution
and performance to the user and should be costs often exceed development costs.
maintainable, dependable and usable. What are the best software engineering While all software projects have to be professionally
What is software engineering? Software engineering is an engineering discipline that is techniques and methods? managed and developed, different techniques are
concerned with all aspects of software production. appropriate for different types of system. For example,
What are the fundamental software Software specification, software development, software games should always be developed using a series of
engineering activities? validation and software evolution. prototypes whereas safety critical control systems require
a complete and analyzable specification to be developed.
What is the difference between software Computer science focuses on theory and fundamentals;
You can’t, therefore, say that one method is better than
engineering and computer science? software engineering is concerned with the practicalities
another.
of developing and delivering useful software.
What differences has the web made to The web has led to the availability of software services
What is the difference between software System engineering is concerned with all aspects of software engineering? and the possibility of developing highly distributed service-
engineering and system engineering? computer-based systems development including based systems. Web-based systems development has led
hardware, software and process engineering. Software to important advances in programming languages and
engineering is part of this more general process. software reuse.

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Essential attributes of good software Software engineering

Product characteristic Description ² Software engineering is an engineering discipline that is

Maintainability Software should be written in such a way so that it can evolve to
concerned with all aspects of software production from
meet the changing needs of customers. This is a critical attribute the early stages of system specification through to
because software change is an inevitable requirement of a
changing business environment. maintaining the system after it has gone into use.
Dependability and Software dependability includes a range of characteristics
security including reliability, security and safety. Dependable software ² Engineering discipline
should not cause physical or economic damage in the event of
system failure. Malicious users should not be able to access or § Using appropriate theories and methods to solve problems
damage the system. bearing in mind organizational and financial constraints.
Efficiency Software should not make wasteful use of system resources such
as memory and processor cycles. Efficiency therefore includes ² All aspects of software production
responsiveness, processing time, memory utilisation, etc.
§ Not just technical process of development. Also project
Acceptability Software must be acceptable to the type of users for which it is
designed. This means that it must be understandable, usable and management and the development of tools, methods etc. to
compatible with other systems that they use. support software production.

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Importance of software engineering Software process activities

² More and more, individuals and society rely on advanced ² Software specification, where customers and engineers
software systems. We need to be able to produce define the software that is to be produced and the
reliable and trustworthy systems economically and constraints on its operation.
quickly. ² Software development, where the software is designed
² It is usually cheaper, in the long run, to use software and programmed.
engineering methods and techniques for software ² Software validation, where the software is checked to
systems rather than just write the programs as if it was a ensure that it is what the customer requires.
personal programming project. For most types of
system, the majority of costs are the costs of changing ² Software evolution, where the software is modified to
the software after it has gone into use. reflect changing customer and market requirements.

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General issues that affect most software Software engineering diversity

² Heterogeneity ² There are many different types of software system and

§ Increasingly, systems are required to operate as distributed there is no universal set of software techniques that is
systems across networks that include different types of computer applicable to all of these.
and mobile devices.
² The software engineering methods and tools used
² Business and social change depend on the type of application being developed, the
§ Business and society are changing incredibly quickly as requirements of the customer and the background of the
emerging economies develop and new technologies become development team.
available. They need to be able to change their existing software
and to rapidly develop new software.
² Security and trust
§ As software is intertwined with all aspects of our lives, it is
essential that we can trust that software.

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Application types Application types

² Stand-alone applications ² Batch processing systems

§ These are application systems that run on a local computer, § These are business systems that are designed to process data
such as a PC. They include all necessary functionality and do in large batches. They process large numbers of individual
not need to be connected to a network. inputs to create corresponding outputs.
² Interactive transaction-based applications ² Entertainment systems
§ Applications that execute on a remote computer and are § These are systems that are primarily for personal use and which
accessed by users from their own PCs or terminals. These are intended to entertain the user.
include web applications such as e-commerce applications.
² Systems for modeling and simulation
² Embedded control systems § These are systems that are developed by scientists and
§ These are software control systems that control and manage engineers to model physical processes or situations, which
hardware devices. Numerically, there are probably more include many, separate, interacting objects.
embedded systems than any other type of system.

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Application types Software engineering fundamentals

² Data collection systems ² Some fundamental principles apply to all types of

§ These are systems that collect data from their environment using software system, irrespective of the development
a set of sensors and send that data to other systems for techniques used:
processing. § Systems should be developed using a managed and understood
² Systems of systems development process. Of course, different processes are used
for different types of software.
§ These are systems that are composed of a number of other
software systems. § Dependability and performance are important for all types of
system.
§ Understanding and managing the software specification and
requirements (what the software should do) are important.
§ Where appropriate, you should reuse software that has already
been developed rather than write new software.

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Software engineering and the web Web software engineering

² The Web is now a platform for running application and ² Software reuse is the dominant approach for constructing
organizations are increasingly developing web-based web-based systems.
systems rather than local systems. § When building these systems, you think about how you can
assemble them from pre-existing software components and systems.
² Web services (discussed in Chapter 19) allow
application functionality to be accessed over the web. ² Web-based systems should be developed and delivered
incrementally.
² Cloud computing is an approach to the provision of
§ It is now generally recognized that it is impractical to specify all the
computer services where applications run remotely on requirements for such systems in advance.
the ‘cloud’.
² User interfaces are constrained by the capabilities of web
§ Users do not buy software buy pay according to use.
browsers.
§ Technologies such as AJAX allow rich interfaces to be created within
a web browser but are still difficult to use. Web forms with local
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scripting are more commonly used.
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Web-based software engineering Key points

² Web-based systems are complex distributed systems ² Software engineering is an engineering discipline that is
but the fundamental principles of software engineering concerned with all aspects of software production.
discussed previously are as applicable to them as they ² Essential software product attributes are maintainability,
are to any other types of system.
dependability and security, efficiency and acceptability.
² The fundamental ideas of software engineering, ² The high-level activities of specification, development,
discussed in the previous section, apply to web-based validation and evolution are part of all software
software in the same way that they apply to other types processes.
of software system.
² The fundamental notions of software engineering are
universally applicable to all types of system
development.

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Key points

² There are many different types of system and each

requires appropriate software engineering tools and
techniques for their development.
Chapter 1- Introduction
² The fundamental ideas of software engineering are
applicable to all types of software system.

Lecture 2

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Software engineering ethics Issues of professional responsibility

² Software engineering involves wider responsibilities than ² Confidentiality

simply the application of technical skills. § Engineers should normally respect the confidentiality of their
employers or clients irrespective of whether or not a formal
² Software engineers must behave in an honest and confidentiality agreement has been signed.
ethically responsible way if they are to be respected as ² Competence
professionals. § Engineers should not misrepresent their level of competence.
² Ethical behaviour is more than simply upholding the law They should not knowingly accept work which is outwith their
competence.
but involves following a set of principles that are morally
correct.

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Issues of professional responsibility ACM/IEEE Code of Ethics

² Intellectual property rights ² The professional societies in the US have cooperated to

§ Engineers should be aware of local laws governing the use of
produce a code of ethical practice.
intellectual property such as patents, copyright, etc. They should ² Members of these organisations sign up to the code of
be careful to ensure that the intellectual property of employers practice when they join.
and clients is protected.
² The Code contains eight Principles related to the
² Computer misuse behaviour of and decisions made by professional
§ Software engineers should not use their technical skills to software engineers, including practitioners, educators,
misuse other people’s computers. Computer misuse ranges from managers, supervisors and policy makers, as well as
relatively trivial (game playing on an employer’s machine, say) to trainees and students of the profession.
extremely serious (dissemination of viruses).

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Rationale for the code of ethics The ACM/IEEE Code of Ethics

§ Computers have a central and growing role in commerce, Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice
industry, government, medicine, education, entertainment and
ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Task Force on Software Engineering Ethics and Professional Practices
society at large. Software engineers are those who contribute by
direct participation or by teaching, to the analysis, specification, PREAMBLE
design, development, certification, maintenance and testing of The short version of the code summarizes aspirations at a high level of the abstraction; the
software systems. clauses that are included in the full version give examples and details of how these
aspirations change the way we act as software engineering professionals. Without the
§ Because of their roles in developing software systems, software aspirations, the details can become legalistic and tedious; without the details, the
engineers have significant opportunities to do good or cause aspirations can become high sounding but empty; together, the aspirations and the details
harm, to enable others to do good or cause harm, or to influence form a cohesive code.
others to do good or cause harm. To ensure, as much as Software engineers shall commit themselves to making the analysis, specification, design,
development, testing and maintenance of software a beneficial and respected profession. In
possible, that their efforts will be used for good, software accordance with their commitment to the health, safety and welfare of the public, software
engineers must commit themselves to making software engineers shall adhere to the following Eight Principles:
engineering a beneficial and respected profession.

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Ethical principles Ethical dilemmas

1. PUBLIC - Software engineers shall act consistently with the public interest. ² Disagreement in principle with the policies of senior
2. CLIENT AND EMPLOYER - Software engineers shall act in a manner that is in the best management.
interests of their client and employer consistent with the public interest.
3. PRODUCT - Software engineers shall ensure that their products and related
² Your employer acts in an unethical way and releases a
modifications meet the highest professional standards possible. safety-critical system without finishing the testing of the
4. JUDGMENT - Software engineers shall maintain integrity and independence in their system.
professional judgment.
5. MANAGEMENT - Software engineering managers and leaders shall subscribe to and ² Participation in the development of military weapons
promote an ethical approach to the management of software development and
maintenance.
systems or nuclear systems.
6. PROFESSION - Software engineers shall advance the integrity and reputation of the
profession consistent with the public interest.
7. COLLEAGUES - Software engineers shall be fair to and supportive of their colleagues.
8. SELF - Software engineers shall participate in lifelong learning regarding the practice of
their profession and shall promote an ethical approach to the practice of the profession.

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Case studies Insulin pump control system

² A personal insulin pump ² Collects data from a blood sugar sensor and calculates
§ An embedded system in an insulin pump used by diabetics to the amount of insulin required to be injected.
maintain blood glucose control.
² Calculation based on the rate of change of blood sugar
² A mental health case patient management system levels.
§ A system used to maintain records of people receiving care for ² Sends signals to a micro-pump to deliver the correct
mental health problems.
dose of insulin.
² A wilderness weather station
§ A data collection system that collects data about weather
² Safety-critical system as low blood sugars can lead to
conditions in remote areas. brain malfunctioning, coma and death; high-blood sugar
levels have long-term consequences such as eye and
kidney damage.

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Insulin pump hardware architecture Activity model of the insulin pump

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A patient information system for mental health

Essential high-level requirements care

² The system shall be available to deliver insulin when ² A patient information system to support mental health
required. care is a medical information system that maintains
² The system shall perform reliably and deliver the correct information about patients suffering from mental health
problems and the treatments that they have received.
amount of insulin to counteract the current level of blood
sugar. ² Most mental health patients do not require dedicated
² The system must therefore be designed and hospital treatment but need to attend specialist clinics
implemented to ensure that the system always meets regularly where they can meet a doctor who has detailed
knowledge of their problems.
these requirements.
² To make it easier for patients to attend, these clinics are
not just run in hospitals. They may also be held in local
medical practices or community centres.

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MHC-PMS MHC-PMS goals

² The MHC-PMS (Mental Health Care-Patient ² To generate management information that allows health
Management System) is an information system that is service managers to assess performance against local
intended for use in clinics. and government targets.
² It makes use of a centralized database of patient ² To provide medical staff with timely information to
information but has also been designed to run on a PC, support the treatment of patients.
so that it may be accessed and used from sites that do
not have secure network connectivity.
² When the local systems have secure network access,
they use patient information in the database but they can
download and use local copies of patient records when
they are disconnected.

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The organization of the MHC-PMS MHC-PMS key features

² Individual care management

§ Clinicians can create records for patients, edit the information in
the system, view patient history, etc. The system supports data
summaries so that doctors can quickly learn about the key
problems and treatments that have been prescribed.
² Patient monitoring
§ The system monitors the records of patients that are involved in
treatment and issues warnings if possible problems are detected.
² Administrative reporting
§ The system generates monthly management reports showing the
number of patients treated at each clinic, the number of patients
who have entered and left the care system, number of patients
sectioned, the drugs prescribed and their costs, etc.
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MHC-PMS concerns Wilderness weather station

² Privacy ² The government of a country with large areas of

§ It is essential that patient information is confidential and is never wilderness decides to deploy several hundred weather
disclosed to anyone apart from authorised medical staff and the stations in remote areas.
patient themselves.
² Weather stations collect data from a set of instruments
² Safety that measure temperature and pressure, sunshine,
§ Some mental illnesses cause patients to become suicidal or a rainfall, wind speed and wind direction.
danger to other people. Wherever possible, the system should
§ The weather station includes a number of instruments that
warn medical staff about potentially suicidal or dangerous
measure weather parameters such as the wind speed and
patients.
direction, the ground and air temperatures, the barometric
§ The system must be available when needed otherwise safety pressure and the rainfall over a 24-hour period. Each of these
may be compromised and it may be impossible to prescribe the instruments is controlled by a software system that takes
correct medication to patients. parameter readings periodically and manages the data collected
from the instruments.
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The weather station’s environment Weather information system

² The weather station system

§ This is responsible for collecting weather data, carrying out some
initial data processing and transmitting it to the data management
system.
² The data management and archiving system
§ This system collects the data from all of the wilderness weather
stations, carries out data processing and analysis and archives the
data.
² The station maintenance system
§ This system can communicate by satellite with all wilderness
weather stations to monitor the health of these systems and provide
reports of problems.

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Additional software functionality Key points

² Monitor the instruments, power and communication ² Software engineers have responsibilities to the
hardware and report faults to the management system. engineering profession and society. They should not
² Manage the system power, ensuring that batteries are simply be concerned with technical issues.
charged whenever the environmental conditions permit ² Professional societies publish codes of conduct which
but also that generators are shut down in potentially set out the standards of behaviour expected of their
damaging weather conditions, such as high wind. members.
² Support dynamic reconfiguration where parts of the ² Three case studies are used in the book:
software are replaced with new versions and where § An embedded insulin pump control system
backup instruments are switched into the system in the § A system for mental health care patient management
event of system failure. § A wilderness weather station

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Course structure and organization

² Add your own material here about how you will be

running the course

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