Introduction to Software

Engineering

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Organization of this Lecture
● What is Software Engineering?
● Programs vs. Software Products
● Evolution of Software Engineering
● Notable Changes In Software
Development Practices
● Introduction to Life Cycle Models
● Summary

2
What is Software Engineering?
● Engineering approach to develop
software.
– Building Construction Analogy.
● Systematic collection of past
experience:
– Techniques,

– Methodologies,

– Guidelines.
3
 Engineering Practice
● Heavy use of past experience:
– Past experience is systematically arranged.
● Theoretical basis and quantitative
techniques provided.
● Many are just thumb rules.
● Tradeoff between alternatives.
● Pragmatic approach to cost-
effectiveness.
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 Technology Development
Pattern
Engineering
Esoteric Past
Experience
Technology

Craft
Systematic Use of Past
Experience and Scientific Basis

Unorganized Use of
Art Past Experience

Time

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 Evolution of an Art into an
Engineering Discipline
● The early programmers used an
exploratory (also called build and fix)
style.
– In the build and fix (exploratory) style,
normally a `dirty' program is quickly
developed.
– The different imperfections that are
subsequently noticed are fixed.

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 What is Wrong with the
Exploratory Style?
● Can successfully be used for very small
programs only.
Software
Exploratory Engineering
Effort, time,

Machine
cost

Program Size

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 What is Wrong with the
Exploratory Style? Cont…
● Besides the exponential growth of
effort, cost, and time with problem
size:
– Exploratory style usually results in
unmaintainable code.
– It becomes very difficult to use the
exploratory style in a team development
environment.
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 What is Wrong with the
Exploratory Style? Cont…
● Why does the effort required
to develop a product grow
exponentially with product size?
– Why does the approach
completely breaks down when the
product size becomes large?

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 Implication in Program
Development
● A small program having just a few
variables:
– Is within the easy grasp of an individual.
● As the number of independent variables
in the program increases:
– It quickly exceeds the grasping power of
an individual:
● Requires an unduly large effort to master the
problem.
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 Implication in Program
Development
● Instead of a human, if a machine could be
writing (generating) a program,
– The slope of the curve would be linear.
● But, why does the effort-size curve
become almost linear when software
engineering principles are deployed?
– Software engineering principles extensively use
techniques specifically to overcome the human
cognitive limitations.

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 Principles Deployed by Software
Engineering to Overcome Human
Cognitive Limitations

● Mainly two important principles

are deployed:
– Abstraction

– Decomposition

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 Abstraction
● Simplify a problem by omitting unnecessary
details.
– Focus attention on only one aspect of the problem and
ignore irrelevant details.
● Suppose you are asked to develop an overall
understanding of some country.
– No one in his right mind would meet all the citizens of
the country, visit every house, and examine every tree
of the country, etc.
– You would possibly refer to various types of maps for
that country.
● A map, in fact, is an abstract representation of a
country.
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 Decomposition
● Decompose a problem into many small
independent parts.
– The small parts are then taken up one by
one and solved separately.
– The idea is that each small part would
be easy to grasp and can be easily
solved.
– The full problem is solved when all the
parts are solved.

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 Decomposition
● A popular way to demonstrate the
decomposition principle:
– Try to break a bunch of sticks tied
together versus breaking them individually.
● Example use of decomposition principle:
– You understand a book better when the
contents are organized into independent
chapters
– Compared to when everything is mixed up.
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 Why Study Software
Engineering? (1)
● To acquire skills to develop
large programs.
– Exponential growth in complexity
and difficulty level with size.
– Thead hoc approach breaks down
when size of software increases.

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 Why Study Software
Engineering? (2)
● Ability to solve complex
programming problems:
– How to break large projects into smaller
and manageable parts?
– How to use abstraction?

● Also learn techniques of:

– Specification, design, user interface
development, testing, project
management, etc. 17
Why Study Software Engineering?
(3)

● To acquire skills to be a
better programmer:
● Higher Productivity
● Better Quality Programs

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 Software Crisis
● Software products:
– Failto meet user requirements.
– Frequently crash.
– Expensive.
– Difficult to alter, debug, and
enhance.
– Often delivered late.
– Use resources non-optimally.
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 Software Crisis (cont.)

Hw cost
Sw cost

1960 Year
2000

Relative Cost of Hardware and Software

20
 Factors Contributing to the
Software Crisis
● Larger problems,
● Lack of adequate training in
software engineering,
● Increasing skill shortage,
● Low productivity improvements.

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 Programs versus Software
Products
● Usually small in size ● Large
● Author himself is sole ● Large number of
user users
● Single developer ● Team of developers
● Lacks proper user ● Well-designed
interface interface
Lacks proper ● Well documented &
user-manual prepared
●

documentation
Systematic
Ad hoc development.
●
●
development

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 Types of Software Projects
● Software products
● Outsourced projects
● Indian companies have focused
on outsourced projects.

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 Emergence of Software
Engineering
● Early Computer Programming
(1950s):
– Programswere being written in
assembly language.
– Programswere limited to about a
few hundreds of lines of assembly
code.

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Early Computer Programming
(50s)
● Every programmer developed
his own style of writing
programs:
– According to his intuition
(exploratory programming).

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 High-Level Language
Programming (Early 60s)
● High-level languages such as
FORTRAN, ALGOL, and COBOL
were introduced:
– Thisreduced software
development efforts greatly.

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 High-Level Language
Programming (Early 60s)
● Software development style
was still exploratory.
– Typical program sizes were
limited to a few thousands of
lines of source code.

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 Control Flow-Based Design
(late 60s)

● Size and complexity of programs

increased further:
– Exploratoryprogramming style
proved to be insufficient.
● Programmers found:
– Verydifficult to write cost-
effective and correct programs.

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 Control Flow-Based Design
(late 60s)
● Programmers found:
– programs written by others very
difficult to understand and maintain.
● To cope up with this problem,
experienced programmers advised:
-“Pay particular attention to the design
of the program's control structure.'’

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 Control Flow-Based Design (late 60s)

● A program's control structure

indicates:
– The sequence in which the program's
instructions are executed.
● To help design programs having good
control structure:
– Flow charting technique was developed.

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 Control Flow-Based Design (late 60s)

● Using flow charting technique:

– One can represent and design a
program's control structure.
– Usually one understands a
program:
● By mentally simulating the program's
execution sequence.

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 Control Flow-Based Design
(Late 60s)

● A program having a messy

flow chart representation:
– Difficult to understand and
debug.

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Control Flow-Based Design (Late 60s)

● It was found:
– GO TO statements makes control
structure of a program messy.
– GO TO statements alter the flow of
control arbitrarily.
– Theneed to restrict use of GO TO
statements was recognized.

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 Control Flow-Based Design (Late 60s)

● Many programmers had extensively

used assembly languages.
– JUMP instructions are frequently used
for program branching in assembly
languages.
– Programmers considered use of GO TO
statements inevitable.

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Control-flow Based Design (Late 60s)

● At that time, Dijkstra published his

article:
– “Goto
Statement Considered Harmful”
Comm. of ACM, 1969.
● Many programmers were unhappy to
read his article.

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Control Flow-Based Design (Late 60s)

● They published several

counter articles:
– Highlightingthe advantages
and inevitability of GO TO
statements.

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Control Flow-Based Design (Late 60s)

● But, soon it was conclusively proved:

– Only three programming constructs are
sufficient to express any programming
logic:
● sequence (e.g. a=0;b=5;)
● selection (e.g.if(c=true) k=5 else m=5;)
● iteration (e.g. while(k>0) k=j-k;)

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 Control-flow Based Design (Late 60s)

● Everyone accepted:
– Itis possible to solve any
programming problem without
using GO TO statements.
– Thisformed the basis of
Structured Programming
methodology.

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 Structured Programming
● A program is called structured
– When it uses only the following
types of constructs:
● sequence,
● selection,
● iteration

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 Structured Programs
● Unstructured control flows are
avoided.
● Consist of a neat set of modules.
● Use single-entry, single-exit
program constructs.

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 Structured Programs
● However, violations to this
feature are permitted:
– Dueto practical considerations
such as:
● Premature loop exit to support
exception handling.

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 Structured programs
● Structured programs are:
– Easier to read and understand,
– Easier to maintain,
– Requireless effort and time for
development.

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 Structured Programming
● Research experience shows:
– Programmers commit less number
of errors:
● While using structured if-then-else
and do-while statements.
● Compared to test-and-branch
constructs.
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 Data Structure-Oriented
Design (Early 70s)
● Soon it was discovered:
– Itis important to pay more
attention to the design of data
structures of a program
● Than to the design of its control
structure.

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 Data Structure-Oriented
Design (Early 70s)
● Techniques which emphasize
designing the data structure:
– Derive program structure from it:
● Are called data structure-
oriented design
techniques.
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 Data Structure Oriented
Design (Early 70s)
● Example of data structure-
oriented design technique:
– Jackson's
Structured
Programming(JSP) methodology
● Developed by Michael Jackson in
1970s.

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 Data Structure Oriented
Design (Early 70s)
● JSP technique:
– Program code structure
should correspond to the
data structure.

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 Data Structure Oriented
Design (Early 70s)
● In JSP methodology:
–A program's data structures are
first designed using notations for
● sequence, selection, and iteration.
– Thendata structure design is
used :
● To derive the program structure.

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 Data Structure Oriented
Design (Early 70s)
● Several other data
structure-oriented
Methodologies also exist:
– e.g., Warnier-Orr
Methodology.

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 Data Flow-Oriented Design
(Late 70s)

● Data flow-oriented techniques

advocate:
– Thedata items input to a system
must first be identified,
– Processing required on the data
items to produce the required
outputs should be determined.

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Data Flow-Oriented Design (Late 70s)
● Data flow technique identifies:
– Different processing stations
(functions) in a system.
– Theitems (data) that flow
between processing stations.

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Data Flow-Oriented Design (Late 70s)

● Data flow technique is a generic

technique:
– Canbe used to model the working of
any system.
● not just software systems.

● A major advantage of the data

flow technique is its simplicity.
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Data Flow Model of a Car
Assembly Unit
Engine Store Door Store
Partly
Chassis with Assembled
Engine Car
Fit Fit Fit Paint and Car
Engine Doors Wheels Assembled Test
Car

Chassis Store Wheel Store

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Object-Oriented Design (80s)

● Object-oriented technique:
– Anintuitively appealing design
approach:
– Naturalobjects (such as employees,
pay-roll-register, etc.) occurring in
a problem are first identified.

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Object-Oriented Design (80s)

● Relationships among objects:

– Such as composition, reference,
and inheritance are determined.
● Each object essentially acts as
–A data hiding (or data
abstraction) entity.

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Object-Oriented Design (80s)
● Object-Oriented Techniques
have gained wide acceptance:
– Simplicity

– Reuse possibilities
– Lower development time and cost
– More robust code
– Easy maintenance
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 Evolution of Design
Techniques
Object-Oriented

Data flow-based

Data structure-
based

Control flow-
based

Ad hoc

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 Evolution of Other Software
Engineering Techniques
● The improvements to the
software design methodologies
– are indeed very conspicuous.
● In additions to the software
design techniques:
– Several other techniques evolved.

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Evolution of Other Software
Engineering Techniques
– life cycle models,
– specification techniques,
– project management techniques,
– testing techniques,
– debugging techniques,
– quality assurance techniques,
– software measurement techniques,
– CASE tools, etc.
59
Differences between the exploratory
style and modern software
development practices

● Use of Life Cycle Models

● Software is developed through
several well-defined stages:
– requirements analysis and
specification,
– design,
– coding,
– testing, etc.
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Differences between the exploratory
style and modern software
development practices

● Emphasis has shifted

– from error correction to error
prevention.
● Modern practices emphasize:
– detection of errors as close to
their point of introduction as
possible.

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Differences between the exploratory
style and modern software
development practices (CONT.)
● In exploratory style,
– errors are detected only
during testing,
● Now,
– focus is on detecting as many
errors as possible in each
phase of development.

62
Differences between the exploratory
style and modern software
development practices (CONT.)

● In exploratory style,
– coding
is synonymous with
program development.
● Now,
– codingis considered only a
small part of program
development effort.
63
 Differences between the exploratory
style and modern software
development practices (CONT.)
● A lot of effort and attention is
now being paid to:
– Requirements specification.
● Also, now there is a distinct design
phase:
– Standard design techniques are being
used.

64
 Differences between the exploratory
style and modern software
development practices (CONT.)
● During all stages of development
process:
– Periodic reviews are being carried out
● Software testing has become
systematic:
– Standard testing techniques are
available.

65
 Differences between the exploratory
style and modern software
development practices (CONT.)
● There is better visibility of design and
code:
– Visibility means production of good quality,
consistent and standard documents.
– In the past, very little attention was being given
to producing good quality and consistent
documents.
– We will see later that increased visibility
makes software project management easier.

66
 Differences between the exploratory
style and modern software
development practices (CONT.)
● Because of good documentation:
– fault diagnosis and maintenance are
smoother now.
● Several metrics are being used:
– help in software project management,
quality assurance, etc.

67
 Differences between the exploratory
style and modern software
development practices (CONT.)
● Projects are being thoroughly
planned:
– estimation,
– scheduling,
– monitoring mechanisms.
● Use of CASE tools.

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 Software Life Cycle
● Software life cycle (or software
process):
– Series of identifiable stages that a
software product undergoes during its
life time:
● Feasibility study
● Requirements analysis and specification,
● Design,
● Coding,
● Testing
● maintenance. 69
 Life Cycle Model
● A software life cycle model (or
process model):
– a descriptive and diagrammatic model of
software life cycle:
– identifies all the activities required for product
development,
– establishes a precedence ordering among the
different activities,
– Divides life cycle into phases.

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 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● Several different activities may

be carried out in each life cycle
phase.
– For example, the design stage might
consist of:
● structured analysis activity followed by
● structured design activity.

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 Why Model Life Cycle ?
● A written description:
– Forms a common understanding of
activities among the software
developers.
– Helps in identifying inconsistencies,
redundancies, and omissions in the
development process.
– Helps in tailoring a process model for
specific projects.
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 Why Model Life Cycle ?

● Processes are tailored for

special projects.
– A documented process model

● Helps to identify where the

tailoring is to occur.

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 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● The development team must identify a

suitable life cycle model:
– and then adhere to it.
– Primary advantage of adhering to a life
cycle model:
● Helps development of software in a
systematic and disciplined manner.

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 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● When a program is developed by

a single programmer ---
– hehas the freedom to decide his
exact steps.

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 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● When a software product is being

developed by a team:
– there must be a precise understanding
among team members as to when to do
what,
– otherwise it would lead to chaos and
project failure.

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 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● A software project will never

succeed if:
– one engineer starts writing code,
– another concentrates on writing the
test document first,
– yet another engineer first defines the
file structure
– another defines the I/O for his
portion first.
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 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● A life cycle model:

– defines entry and exit criteria
for every phase.
– A phase is considered to be
complete:
● only when all its exit criteria are
satisfied.

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 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● The phase exit criteria for the software

requirements specification phase:
– Software Requirements Specification (SRS)
document is complete, reviewed, and
approved by the customer.

● A phase can start:

– only if its phase-entry criteria have been
satisfied.

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 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● It becomes easier for software

project managers:
– tomonitor the progress of the
project.

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 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● When a life cycle model is adhered

to,
– the project manager can at any time
fairly accurately tell,
● at which stage (e.g., design, code, test,
etc. ) of the project is.
– Otherwise, it becomes very difficult
to track the progress of the project
● the project manager would have to
depend on the guesses of the team 81
members.
 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● This usually leads to a problem:

– knownas the 99% complete
syndrome.

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 Life Cycle Model (CONT.)

● Many life cycle models have been proposed.

● We will confine our attention to a few
important and commonly used models.
– Classical waterfall model
– Iterative waterfall,
– Evolutionary,
– Prototyping, and
– Spiral model

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 Summary

● Software engineering is:

– Systematiccollection of programming
experiences over decades
– Togetherwith the innovations made
by researchers.

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 Summary

● A fundamental necessity while

developing any large software
product:
– Adoption of a life cycle model.

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 Summary
● Adherence to a software life cycle
model:
– Helps to do various development
activities in a systematic and
disciplined manner.
– Also makes it easier to manage a
software development effort.

86
 Reference
● R. Mall, “Fundamentals of Software
Engineering,” Prentice-Hall of India,
2004, CHAPTER 1.

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