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CSCI 361 SWE > Chapter 2 > Flashcards

Chapter 2 Flashcards

1
Q

What is software process?

A

A software process is a structured set of activities required to develop a software system. Note that we are talking about a “software process” – not a “software development process.”

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2
Q

What are four types of fundamental activities in software processes?

A

Software specification - defining what the system should do;
Software design and implementation - defining the organization of the system and implementing the system;
Software validation - checking that it does what the customer wants;
Software evolution - changing the system in response to changing customer needs.

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3
Q

Process descriptions may include:

A

Products (what), which are the outcomes of a process activity;
Roles (who), which reflect the responsibilities of the people involved in the process;
Pre- and post-conditions (how), which are statements that are true before and after a process activity has been enacted or a product produced.

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4
Q

What are Plan-driven processes?

A

Plan-driven processes are processes where all of the process activities are planned in advance and progress is measured against this plan.

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5
Q

What are Agile processes?

A

In agile processes, planning is incremental and it is easier to change the process to reflect changing customer requirements.

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6
Q

What is software process model?

A

A software process model is an abstract representation of a process

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7
Q

What types of Software process models are there?

A

The waterfall model
Incremental development
Integration and configuration

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8
Q

What are features of the Waterfall model?

A

Plan-driven model. Separate and distinct phases of specification, software design, implementation, testing, and maintenance.

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9
Q

What are features of the Incremental development model?

A

Specification, development and validation are interleaved. The system is developed as a series of versions (increments), with each version adding functionality to the previous version. May be plan-driven or agile.

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10
Q

What are features of the Integration and configuration model?

A

Based on the existence of a significant number of reusable components/systems. The system development process focuses on integrating these components into a system rather than developing them from scratch. May be plan-driven or agile.

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11
Q

In practice, most large systems are developed using…

A

a process that incorporates elements from all Software process models.

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12
Q

What are phases of Waterfall model?

A

Requirements analysis and definition
System and software design
Implementation and unit testing
Integration and system testing
Operation and maintenance

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13
Q

What are drawbacks of waterfall model?

A

Difficult to address change
Very few real-world applications

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14
Q

Benefits of incremental development are:

A

Lower cost of changes
Frequent feedback
Faster delivery

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15
Q

Problems with incremental development (from the management perspective):

A

The process is not visible
System structure tends to degrade as new increments are added

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16
Q

Integration and configuration

A

This approach is based on systematic reuse where systems are integrated from existing components or COTS (Commercial-off-the-shelf) systems.

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17
Q

Process stages of Integration and configuration:

A

Component analysis;
Requirements modification;
System design with reuse;
Development and integration.

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18
Q

Types of reusable software components:

A

Web services that are developed according to service standards and which are available for remote invocation.
Collections of objects that are developed as a package to be integrated with a component framework such as .NET or J2EE.
Stand-alone commercial-off-the-shelf systems (COTS) that are configured for use in a particular environment.

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19
Q

Real software processes are …

A

inter-leaved sequences of technical, collaborative and managerial activities with the overall goal of specifying, designing, implementing and testing a software system.

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20
Q

What is Software specification?

A

The process of establishing what services are required and the constraints on the system’s operation and development.

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21
Q

Requirements engineering process:

A

Feasibility study: is it technically and financially feasible to build the system?
Requirements elicitation and analysis: what do the system stakeholders require or expect from the system?
Requirements specification: defining the requirements in detail
Requirements validation: checking the validity of the requirements

22
Q

The activities of design and implementation are …

A

closely related and may be interleaved.

23
Q

Design activities include:

A

Architectural design
Interface design
Component design
Database design

24
Q

Architectural design:

A

identify the overall structure of the system, the principal components (sometimes called sub-systems or modules), their relationships and how they are distributed.

25
Q

Interface design:

A

define the interfaces between system components.

26
Q

Component design:

A

take each system component and design how it will operate.

27
Q

Database design:

A

design the system data structures and how these are to be represented in a database.

28
Q

Verification and validation (V & V) is intended to …

A

show that a system conforms to its specification and meets the requirements of the system customer.

29
Q

Validation:

A

are we building the right product (what the customer wants)?

30
Q

Verification:

A

are we building the product right?

31
Q

System testing involves …

A

executing the system with test cases that are derived from the specification of the real data to be processed by the system.

32
Q

Testing includes:

A

Development or component testing
System testing
Acceptance testing

33
Q

Development or component testing:

A

individual components are tested independently; components may be functions or objects or coherent groupings of these entities.

34
Q

System testing:

A

testing of the system as a whole, testing of emergent properties is particularly important.

35
Q

Acceptance testing:

A

testing with customer data to check that the system meets the customer’s needs.

36
Q

Two strategies to reduce the costs of rework:

A

Change avoidance
Change tolerance

37
Q

Change avoidance

A

The software process includes activities that can anticipate possible changes before significant rework is required. For example, a prototype system may be developed to show some key features of the system to customers.

38
Q

Change tolerance

A

The process is designed so that changes can be accommodated at relatively low cost. This normally involves some form of incremental development. Proposed changes may be implemented in increments that have not yet been developed. If this is impossible, then only a single increment (a small part of the system) may have be altered to incorporate the change.

39
Q

A prototype can be used in:

A

The requirements engineering process to help with requirements elicitation and validation;
In design processes to explore options and develop a UI design;
In the testing process to run back-to-back tests.

40
Q

Benefits of prototyping:

A

Improved system usability.
A closer match to users’ real needs.
Improved design quality.
Improved maintainability.
Reduced development effort.

41
Q

Prototypes:

A

should focus on areas of the product that are not well-understood;
Error checking and recovery may not be included in the prototype;
Focus on functional rather than non-functional requirements such as reliability and security.

42
Q

Prototypes should be … after development as they are …

A

Prototypes should be discarded after development as they are not a good basis for a production system

43
Q

Why prototypes should be discarded after development?

A

It may be impossible to tune the system to meet non-functional requirements;
Prototypes are normally undocumented;
The prototype structure is usually degraded through rapid change;
The prototype probably will not meet normal organizational quality standards.

44
Q

Incremental development/delivery

A

Rather than deliver the system as a single delivery, the development and delivery is broken down into increments with each increment delivering part of the required functionality. User requirements are prioritized and the highest priority requirements are included in early increments. Once the development of an increment is started, the requirements are frozen though requirements for later increments can continue to evolve.

45
Q

Advantages of incremental delivery:

A

Customer value can be delivered with each increment so system functionality is available earlier.
Early increments act as a prototype to help elicit requirements for later increments.
Lower risk of overall project failure.
The highest priority system services tend to receive the most testing.

46
Q

Incremental delivery problems:

A

Most systems require a set of basic facilities that are used by different parts of the system. As requirements are not defined in detail until an increment is to be implemented, it can be hard to identify common facilities that are needed by all increments.
The essence of iterative processes is that the specification is developed in conjunction with the software. However, this conflicts with the procurement model of many organizations, where the complete system specification is part of the system development contract.

47
Q

Process improvement (wtf is that)

A

Process improvement means understanding existing processes and changing these processes to increase product quality and/or reduce costs and development time. Many software companies have turned to software process improvement as a way of enhancing the quality of their software, reducing costs or accelerating their development processes.

48
Q

Process maturity approach:

A

Focuses on improving process and project management and introducing good software engineering practice. The level of process maturity reflects the extent to which good technical and management practice has been adopted in organizational software development processes.

49
Q

Agile approach

A

Focuses on iterative development and the reduction of overheads in the software process. The primary characteristics of agile methods are rapid delivery of functionality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements.

50
Q

Process improvement activities form a continuous cycle with a feedback loop:

A

Measure one or more attributes of the software process or product. These measurements forms a baseline that help decide if process improvements have been effective.
Analyze the current process and identify any bottlenecks.
Change the process to address some of the identified process weaknesses. These are introduced and the cycle resumes to collect data about the effectiveness of the changes.

51
Q

Process measurement:

A

Wherever possible, quantitative process data should be collected.
Process measurements should be used to assess process improvements.
Metrics may include:
Time taken for process activities to be completed, e.g. calendar time or effort to complete an activity or process.
Resources required for processes or activities, e.g. total effort in person-days.
Number of occurrences of a particular event, e.g. number of defects discovered.

52
Q

The SEI capability maturity model:

A

Initial: Essentially uncontrolled
Repeatable: Product management procedures defined and used
Defined: Process management procedures and strategies defined and used
Managed: Quality management strategies defined and used
Optimizing: Process improvement strategies defined and used

CSCI 361 SWE (10 decks)

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