Software Evolution ,Reengineering and Refactoring

Question 1

Why is the evolution of software important for an organization

Answer 1

-For the business value of the software to be maintained
-The majority of the software budget is allotted to the changing and evolving of existing software

Question 2

Can Urgent changes be implemented without going through all stages

Answer 2

Urgent changes may be implemented without going through all stages

Question 3

How does evolution happen when agile methods are used?

Answer 3

Agile methods are based on incremental development so the transition from development to evolution is seamless

Question 4

What kind of testing is particularly valuable when changes are made to a system?

Answer 4

Automated regression testing is particularly valuable when changes are made to a system

Question 5

What is automated regression testing?

Answer 5

is a form of testing that makes sure that new software upgrades do not break the existing software application

Question 6

Can additional user stories be created to reflect changes?

Answer 6

Changes may be expressed as additional user stories

Question 7

What are legacy systems?

Answer 7

These are older systems that rely on languages and technologies that are no longer used for the development of new systems

Question 8

What is the problem with legacy systems

Answer 8

They may be very dependent on older hardware ,software ,libraries, business processes

Question 9

What are the layers of a legacy system

Answer 9

hardware,platform and infrastructure software,application software, business processes

Question 10

Why is it hard to replace legacy systems

Answer 10

It is risky and expensive ,the legacy system does not have complete system system specification,Everything is tighly coupled(that is the system and business processes,Some business rules are undocumented,new software may be late and /or over budget

Question 11

What is business value assessment

Answer 11

is a detailed planning process to assess the product will provide whether its value to its users, company, or financial values as well

Question 12

What is system quality assessment

Answer 12

process to determine whether a product meets quality standards

Question 13

What professional field does system quality assessment

Answer 13

Quality Assurance

Question 14

What are some issues we may find when we conduct a business value assessment?

Answer 14

The system is not used as much, the system does not support useful business processes, The system does not work when the users need it(not dependable),and system has high business value

Question 15

What are some things that are assessed when assessing the quality of a system?

Answer 15

-Assessing the the business processes to see how it supports the current goals of the business.
-How effective is the systems environment (.e.g. AWS servers) and how expensive is it it to maintain?
-Application assessment
what is the quality of the application software

Question 16

What is software maintenance and what does it involve?

Answer 16

Maintenance does not normally involve major changes, it is modifying a program after it has been put into use

Question 17

What kind of products does maintenance refer to?

Answer 17

Maintenance is used to refer mostly to changing custom software(modify existing components and add new components ). Generic software products are said to evolve

Question 18

What are the types of maintenance

Answer 18

-Repairs faults(fix bugs0
-Environmental adaptation: So it operates in different environment(computer ,OS)
-Functionality addition and modification: Modify the system to satisfy new requirements

Question 19

How is the maintenance costs compared to development costs?

Answer 19

Usually greater than development costs(1 times to 100 times depending on the application)

Question 20

What is software reengineering

Answer 20

restructuring or rewriting part of all of a legacy system without changing its functionality to make it easier to maintain

Question 21

Advantages of software reengineering?

Answer 21

-It is often cheaper to reengineer than to create new software.
-There is reduced risk in reengineering compared to creating completely new software.

Question 22

What are some reengineering process activities?

Answer 22

-Convert code to new language,
- reverse engineering(analyze the program to understand it)
-Restructure program and make it more modular and open to modification
-Restructure and clean up data

Question 23

What is refactoring

Answer 23

make improvements to the program so that its not easy for it to break if a change is made (preventative maintenance)
-improve structure, reduce complexity
-refactoring should not involve the addition of new functionality

Question 24

What’s the difference between Refactoring and reengineering

Answer 24

-Reengineering happens after a system has been maintained for some time and maintenance costs are increasing
-Refactoring is a continuous process of improvement throughout the development and evolution progress

Question 25

What are some bad smells in program code

Answer 25

duplicate code, long methods, switch(case) statements,Data Clumping(different data found together), Speculative generality(developers include generality in case it is required)

Question 26

What is the process of software evolution driven by?

Answer 26

The process of software evolution is driven by requests for changes

Question 27

What is software re-engineering concerned with /

Answer 27

Software reengineering is concerned with re-structuring ad re-documenting software