Chapter 2 – Software Processes

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Topics covered

 Software process models

 Process activities
 Coping with change
 Process improvement

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The software process

 A structured set of activities required to develop a

software system.
 Many different software processes but all involve:
 Specification – defining what the system should do;
 Design and implementation – defining the organization of the
system and implementing the system;
 Validation – checking that it does what the customer wants;
 Evolution – changing the system in response to changing
customer needs.
 A software process model is an abstract representation
of a process. It presents a description of a process from
some particular perspective.
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Software process descriptions

 When we describe and discuss processes, we usually

talk about the activities in these processes such as
specifying a data model, designing a user interface, etc.
and the ordering of these activities.
 Process descriptions may also include:
 Products, which are the outcomes of a process activity;
 Roles, which reflect the responsibilities of the people involved in
the process;
 Pre- and post-conditions, which are statements that are true
before and after a process activity has been enacted or a
product produced.

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Plan-driven and agile processes

 Plan-driven processes are processes where all of the

process activities are planned in advance and progress
is measured against this plan.
 In agile processes, planning is incremental and it is
easier to change the process to reflect changing
customer requirements.
 In practice, most practical processes include elements of
both plan-driven and agile approaches.
 There are no right or wrong software processes.

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 Software process models

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Software process models

 The waterfall model

 Plan-driven model. Separate and distinct phases of specification
and development.
 Incremental development
 Specification, development and validation are interleaved. May
be plan-driven or agile.
 Integration and configuration
 The system is assembled from existing configurable
components. May be plan-driven or agile.
 In practice, most large systems are developed using a
process that incorporates elements from all of these
models.
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The waterfall model

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Waterfall model phases

 There are separate identified phases in the waterfall

model:
 Requirements analysis and definition
 System and software design
 Implementation and unit testing
 Integration and system testing
 Operation and maintenance
 The main drawback of the waterfall model is the difficulty
of accommodating change after the process is
underway. In principle, a phase has to be complete
before moving onto the next phase.

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Waterfall model problems

 Inflexible partitioning of the project into distinct stages

makes it difficult to respond to changing customer
requirements.
 Therefore, this model is only appropriate when the requirements
are well-understood and changes will be fairly limited during the
design process.
 Few business systems have stable requirements.
 The waterfall model is mostly used for large systems
engineering projects where a system is developed at
several sites.
 In those circumstances, the plan-driven nature of the waterfall
model helps coordinate the work.

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Incremental development

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Incremental development benefits

 The cost of accommodating changing customer

requirements is reduced.
 The amount of analysis and documentation that has to be
redone is much less than is required with the waterfall model.
 It is easier to get customer feedback on the development
work that has been done.
 Customers can comment on demonstrations of the software and
see how much has been implemented.
 More rapid delivery and deployment of useful software to
the customer is possible.
 Customers are able to use and gain value from the software
earlier than is possible with a waterfall process.
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Incremental development problems

 The process is not visible.

 Managers need regular deliverables to measure progress. If
systems are developed quickly, it is not cost-effective to produce
documents that reflect every version of the system.
 System structure tends to degrade as new increments
are added.
 Unless time and money is spent on refactoring to improve the
software, regular change tends to corrupt its structure.
Incorporating further software changes becomes increasingly
difficult and costly.

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Integration and configuration

 Based on software reuse where systems are integrated

from existing components or application systems
(sometimes called COTS -Commercial-off-the-shelf)
systems)

e.g ERP—Enterprise Resource Planning packages.

CRM—Customer Relationship Management packages.
POS—Point of Sale packages.

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Integration and configuration

 Reused elements may be configured to adapt their

behaviour and functionality to a user’s requirements
 Reuse is now the standard approach for building many
types of business system

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Types of reusable software

 Stand-alone application systems (sometimes called

COTS) that are configured for use in a particular
environment.
 Collections of objects that are developed as a package
to be integrated with a component framework such
as .NET or J2EE (platform-independent, Java-centric
environment for building and deploying Web-based enterprise
applications online).
 Web services that are developed according to service
standards and which are available for remote invocation.

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Reuse-oriented software engineering

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Key process stages

 Requirements specification
 Software discovery and evaluation
 Requirements refinement
 Application system configuration
 Component adaptation and integration

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Advantages and disadvantages

 Reduced costs and risks as less software is developed

from scratch
 Faster delivery and deployment of system
 But requirements compromises are inevitable so system
may not meet real needs of users
 Loss of control over evolution of reused system elements

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SPIRAL MODEL

The spiral model is similar to the incremental model, with more

emphasis placed on risk analysis. A software project repeatedly
passes through these phases in iterations (called Spirals in this
model).
The spiral, starting in the planning phase, requirements are
gathered and risk is assessed. Each subsequent spirals builds on
the baseline spiral.

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SPIRAL MODEL

 The most important feature of the model is its ability to

manage unknown risks after the project has started ;
creating a prototype makes this feasible.

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The spiral model has four phases:

 Planning: Requirements are gathered during the planning

phase. Requirements like ‘BRS’ that is ‘Business Requirement
Specifications’ and ‘SRS’ that is ‘System Requirement
specifications’.
 Risk analysis: In the risk analysis phase, a process is
undertaken to identify risk and alternate solutions. A
prototype is produced at the end of the risk analysis phase. If
any risk is found during the risk analysis then alternate
solutions are suggested and implemented.

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 Engineering: In this phase software is developed, along with
testing at the end of the phase. Hence in this phase the
development and testing is done.
 Evaluation: This phase allows the customer to evaluate the
output of the project to date before the project continues to the
next spiral.

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Uses of the spiral model

 the spiral model is best used in large, expensive and

complicated projects. Other uses include:
 projects in which frequent releases are necessary;
 projects in which changes may be required at any time;
 long term projects that are not feasible due to altered
economic priorities;
 medium to high risk projects;
 projects in which cost and risk analysis is important;
 projects that would benefit from the creation of a
prototype; and projects with unclear or complex
requirements.
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Key points

 Software processes are the activities involved in

producing a software system. Software process models
are abstract representations of these processes.
 General process models describe the organization of
software processes.
 Examples of these general models include the ‘waterfall’ model,
incremental development, and reuse-oriented development.

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