Software Process

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Software Engineering

 We have specified the problem domain –

industrial strength software
 Besides delivering the software, cost, quality, and
schedule are drivers
 Software engineering is defined as the systematic
approach for development of (industrial strength)
software

Sofware Process 2
Process, People, Technology

 Q&P is an essential goal

 Q&P depends on people, process, and technology
 Processes help people become more productive and
create fewer errors
 Tools help people execute some tasks in the process
more efficiently and effectively
 So, process forms the core

Sofware Process 3
Software Process

 Process is distinct from product – products are

outcomes of executing a process on a project
 SW Engg. focuses on process
 Premise: Proper processes will help achieve
project objectives of high QP

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The software Development Problem

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Project and Process

 A software project is one instance of the

development problem
 Development process takes the project from user
needs to software
 There are other goals of cost schedule and
quality, besides delivering software
 Need other processes

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Software Process…

 Process: A sequence of steps performed to achieve some

goal
 Software Process: The sequence of steps performed to
produce software with high quality, within budget and
schedule
 Many types of activities performed by diff people in a
software project
 Better to view software process as comprising of many
component processes

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Component Software Processes

 Two major processes

 Development – focuses on development and quality steps
needed to engineer the software
 Project management – focuses on planning and controlling
the development process
 Development process is the heart of software process;
other processes revolve around it
 These are executed by different people
 developers execute engg. Process
 project manager executes the mgmt proces
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Component Processes…

 Other processes
 Configuration management process: manages the
evolution of artifacts
 Change management process: how changes are
incorporated
 Process management process: management of
processes themselves
 Inspection process: How inspections are conducted on
artifacts
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Process Specification

 Process is generally a set of phases

 Each phase performs a well defined task and
generally produces an output
 Intermediate outputs – work products
 At top level, typically few phases in a process
 How to perform a particular phase –
methodologies have been proposed

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ETVX Specification

 ETVX approach to specify a step

 Entry criteria: what conditions must be satisfied for
initiating this phase
 Task: what is to be done in this phase
 Verification: the checks done on the outputs of this
phase
 eXit criteria: when can this phase be considered
done successfully
 A phase also produces info for mgmt
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ETVX approach

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Development Process and Process
Models

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Software Project

 Project – to build a sw system within cost and

schedule and with high quality which satisfies
the customer
 Suitable process needed to reach goals
 Process should not just help produce the
software but help achieve the highest Q&P

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Project’ s process and Process Models

 For a project, the project’s process to be

followed is specified during planning
 A process model specifies a general process that
is optimal for a class of problems
 A project may select its process using one of
the process models

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Development Process

 A set of phases and each phase being a sequence of

steps
 Sequence of steps for a phase - methodologies for that
phase.
 Why have phases
 To employ divide and conquer
 each phase handles a different part of the problem
 helps in continuous validation

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Development Process

 Commonly has these activities: Requirements

analysis, architecture, design, coding, testing,
delivery
 Different models perform them in different
manner

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Process Models

 A process model specifies a general process,

usually as a set of stages
 This model will be suitable for a class of
projects
 I.e. a model provides generic structure of the
process that can be followed by some projects
to achieve their goals

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Waterfall Model

 Linear sequence of stages/phases

 Requirements – HLD – DD – Code – Test –
Deploy
 A phase starts only when the previous has
completed; no feedback
 The phases partition the project, each addressing
a separate concern

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Sofware Process 20
 Waterfall…

 Linear ordering implies each phase should have

some output
 The output must be validated/certified
 Outputs of earlier phases: work products
 Common outputs of a waterfall: SRS, project plan,
design docs, test plan and reports, final code,
supporting docs

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Waterfall Advantages

 Conceptually simple, cleanly divides the problem

into distinct phases that can be performed
independently
 Natural approach for problem solving
 Easy to administer in a contractual setup –
each phase is a milestone

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Waterfall disadvantages

 Assumes that requirements can be specified and

frozen early
 May fix hardware and other technologies too
early
 Follows the “big bang” approach – all or
nothing delivery; too risky
 Very document oriented, requiring docs at the
end of each phase
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Waterfall Usage

 Has been used widely

 Well suited for projects where requirements can
be understood easily and technology decisions are
easy
 I.e. for familiar type of projects it still may be
the most optimum

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Prototyping

 Prototyping addresses the requirement

specification limitation of waterfall
 Instead of freezing requirements only by
discussions, a prototype is built to understand
the requirements
 Helps alleviate the requirements risk
 A small waterfall model replaces the
requirements stage
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Prototyping

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Prototyping

 Development of prototype
 Starts with initial requirements
 Only key features which need better understanding
are included in prototype
 No point in including those features that are well
understood
 Feedback from users taken to improve the
understanding of the requirements

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Prototyping

 Cost can be kept low

 Build only features needing clarification
 “quick and dirty” – quality not important, scripting
etc can be used
 Things like exception handling, recovery, standards
are omitted
 Cost can be a few % of the total
 Learning in prototype building will help in building,
besides improved requirements
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Prototyping

 Advantages: req will be more stable, req frozen

later, experience helps in the main development
 Disadvantages: Potential hit on cost and schedule
 Applicability: When req are hard to elicit and
confidence in reqs is low; i.e. where reqs are
not well understood

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Iterative Development

 Counters the “all or nothing” drawback of the waterfall

model
 Combines benefit of prototyping and waterfall
 Develop and deliver software in increments
 Each increment is complete in itself
 Can be viewed as a sequence of waterfalls
 Feedback from one iteration is used in the future
iterations

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Iterative Enhancement

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Iterative Development

 Products almost always follow it

 Used commonly in customized development also
 Businesses want quick response for sw
 Cannot afford the risk of all-or-nothing
 Newer approaches like XP, Agile,… all rely on
iterative development

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Iterative Development

 Benefits: Get-as-you-pay, feedback for

improvement,
 Drawbacks: Architecture/design may not be
optimal, rework may increase, total cost may
be more
 Applicability: where response time is important,
risk of long projects cannot be taken, all req
not known

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Another Form of Iterative

 The first iteration does the requirements and

architecture in the waterfall way
 The development and delivery is done
incrementally in iterations

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Another form of Iteration…

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Timeboxing

 Iterative is linear sequence of iterations

 Each iteration is a mini waterfall – decide the
specs, then plan the iteration
 Time boxing – fix an iteration duration, then
determine the specs
 Divide iteration in a few equal stages
 Use pipelining concepts to execute iterations in
parallel
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Time Boxed Iterations

 General iterative development – fix the

functionality for each iteration, then plan and
execute it
 In time boxed iterations – fix the duration of
iteration and adjust the functionality to fit it
 Completion time is fixed, the functionality to be
delivered is flexible

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Time boxed Iteration

 This itself very useful in many situations

 Has predictable delivery times
 Overall product release and marketing can be
better planned
 Makes time a non-negotiable parameter and
helps focus attention on schedule
 Prevents requirements bloating
 Overall dev time is still unchanged
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Timeboxing – Taking Time Boxed
Iterations Further

 What if we have multiple iterations executing in

parallel
 Can reduce the average completion time by
exploiting parallelism
 For parallel execution, can borrow pipelining
concepts from hardware
 This leads to Timeboxing Process Model

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Timeboxing Model – Basics

 Development is done iteratively in fixed duration time

boxes
 Each time box divided in fixed stages
 Each stage performs a clearly defined task that can be
done independently
 Each stage approximately equal in duration
 There is a dedicated team for each stage
 When one stage team finishes, it hands over the
project to the next team
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Timeboxing

 With this type of time boxes, can use pipelining

to reduce cycle time
 Like hardware pipelining – view each iteration
as an instruction
 As stages have dedicated teams, simultaneous
execution of different iterations is possible

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Example

 An iteration with three stages – Analysis, Build,

Deploy
 These stages are appx equal in many situations
 Can adjust durations by determining the boudaries
suitably
 Can adjust duration by adjusting the team size for
each stage
 Have separate teams for A, B, and D

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Pipelined Execution

 AT starts executing it-1

 AT finishes, hands over it-1 to BT, starts
executing it-2
 AT finishes it-2, hands over to BT; BT finishes
it-1, hands over to DT; AT starts it-3, BT
starts it-2 (and DT, it-1)
 …

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Timeboxing Execution

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Timeboxing execution

 First iteration finishes at time T

 Second finishes at T+T/3; third at T+2 T/3,
and so on
 In steady state, delivery every T/3 time
 If T is 3 weeks, first delivery after 3 wks, 2nd
after 4 wks, 3rd after 5 wks,…
 In linear execution, delivery times will be 3 wks,
6 wks, 9 wks,…
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Timeboxing execution

 Duration of each iteration still the same

 Total work done in a time box is also the same
 Productivity of a time box is same
 Yet, average cycle time or delivery time has
reduced to a third

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Team Size

 In linear execution of iterations, the same team

performs all stages
 If each stage has a team of S, in linear
execution the team size is S
 In pipelined execution, the team size is three
times (one for each stage)
 I.e. the total team size in timeboxing is larger;
and this reduces cycle time
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Team Size

 Merely by increasing the team size we cannot

reduce cycle time - Brook’s law
 Timeboxing allows structured way to add
manpower to reduce cycle time
 Note that we cannot change the time of an
iteration – Brook’s law still holds
 Work allocation different to allow larger team
to function properly
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Work Allocation of Teams

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Timeboxing

 Advantages: Shortened delivery times, other adv

of iterative, distr. execution
 Disadvantages: Larger teams, proj mgmt is
harder, high synchronization needed, CM is
harder
 Applicability: When short delivery times v. imp.;
architecture is stable; flexibility in feature
grouping

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RUP Model

 Rational Unified Process is another iterative model

 Software development is divided into cycles, each cycle
delivering a fully working system
 Each cycle executed as separate project
 Execution of a cycle is broken into four consecutive
phases, each phase ending with a milestone
achievement

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Phases in a Project

 Phases in a project
 Inception phase: ends with Lifecycle Objectives milestone;
vision and high level capability of system defined
 Elaboration phase: Lifecycle architecture milestone; most
requirements defined and architecture designed
 Construction phase: Initial operational capability milestone
 Transition phase: Product release; transition product from
development to production

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Phases and Milestones

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Execution of phases

 Each phase itself can be done in multiple

iterations, each iteration having an external/
internal customer
 Generally construction has multiple iterations;
elaboration can also be meaningfully done in
multiple iterations

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Core workflows and phases

 Engineering tasks are called core process

workflows
 These sub processes correspond to tasks of
requirements, design, implementation, testing,
proj mgmt, etc
 Many sub processes may be active in a phase,
the volume of activity generally differs depending
on the project

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Sub processes and phases

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RUP

 Sub processes are active in all phases

 Volume of activity in each phase differs depending on
the project
 Hence, a project can use RUP to implement waterfall
by having requirements process be active only in the
elaboration phase
 Or prototyping by having a lot of construction activity
in the elaboration phase
 RUP is therefore a flexible framework

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Extreme Programming or Agile
Process Model
 Agile approaches developed in 90s as a reaction to document
driven approaches
 Most agile approaches have some common principles
 Working software is the measure of progress
 Software should be delivered in small increments
 Even late changes should be allowed
 Prefer face to face commn over documentation
 Continuous feedback and customer involvement is necessary
 Prefer simple design which evolves
 Delivery dates are decided by the empowered teams
 …

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XP…

 Many agile methodologies have been proposed;

extreme programming (XP) is one of the most
popular
 An XP project starts with user stories, which
are short descr of user needs
 Details are not included
 Each user story written on a separate card so they
can be combined in diff ways
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Overall Process

 Team estimates how long it will take to implement a

user story
 Estimates are rough
 Release planning is done
 Defines which stories are to be built in which release, and
dates for release
 Frequent and small releases encouraged
 Acceptance tests also built from user stories; used to test
before release
 Bugs found in AT are fixed in next release

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Overall Process

 Development done in iterations of a few weeks

each
 Iteration starts with planning, in which stories to be
implemented are selected – high risk high value are
chosen first
 Details of stories obtained during the development
and implemented
 Failed AT of previous iteration are also fixed

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XP – Overall Process

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An Iteration

 An iteration execution has some unique practices

 Pair programming: programming is done in pairs of
programmers
 Test driven development – automated unit tests
written before the code
 Simple solutions, refactoring for improving the design
when need arises
 Frequent integration

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An Iteration

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XP - Summary

 Well suited for situations where volume and

pace of requirements is high
 Customer is willing to engage heavily with the
team
 The team is collocated and is not too large
(less than 20 or so)
 Requires strong capability in team members

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Summary – waterfall

Strength Weakness Types of Projects

Simple All or nothing – too Well understood problems,
Easy to execute risky short duration projects,
Intuitive and logical Req frozen early automation of existing
Easy contractually May chose outdated manual systems
hardware/tech
Disallows changes
No feedback from users
Encourages req bloating

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Summary – Prototyping

Strength Weakness Types of Projects

Helps req elicitation Front heavy Systems with novice users;
Reduces risk Possibly higher cost and or areas with req
Better and more stable schedule uncertainity.
final system Encourages req bloating Heavy reporting based
Disallows later change systems can benefit from
UI proto

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Summary – Iterative

Strength Weakness Types of Projects

Regular deliveries, leading Overhead of planning For businesses where time
to biz benefit each iteration is imp; risk of long
Can accommodate Total cost may increase projects cannot be taken;
changes naturally System arch and design req not known and
Allows user feedback may suffer evolve with time
Avoids req bloating Rework may increase
Naturally prioritizes req
Allows reasonable exit
points
Reduces risks

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Summary – Timeboxing

Strength Weakness Types of Projects

All benefits of iterative PM becomes more Where very short delivery
Planning for iterations complex times are very important
somewhat easier Team size is larger Where flexibility in
Very short delivery times Complicated – lapses can grouping features
lead to losses Arch is stable

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Summary – RUP

Strength Weakness Types of Projects

All benefits of iterative For each project, one has Can be applied to a wide
Provides a flexible to design the process range as it allows
framework for a range flexibility
of projects

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Summary – XP

Strength Weakness Types of Projects

Agile and responsive Can tend to become ad- Where requirements are
Short delivery cycles hoc changing a lot, customer
Continuous feedback can Lack of documentation is deeply engaged in
lead to better acceptance can be an issue development, and where
Continuous code change is the size of the project is
risky not too large

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Using Process Model in a Project

 Model to be used should be selected based on

the nature of the problem
 Example: Build a small auction system for a
Univ, tight schedule, some core req, customer
time only in start,…
 Suitable model: Iterative delivery – do req in 1st
iter; and two rounds of delivery; minimizes risk,
…

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Using Process Models..

 Example: Highly competitive product; req change

rapidly; outsourcing is desired for reducing cost,
…
 Model: XP not OK as collocated team needed;
iterative may not deliver rapidly enough;
timeboxing best suited

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Summary

 Process is a means to achieve project objectives

of high QP
 Process models define generic process, which can
form basis of project process
 Process typically has stages, each stage focusing
on an identifiable task
 Many models for development process have been
proposed
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Summary

 Development process models discussed

 Waterfall
 Prototyping
 Iterative
 RUP
 Timeboxing
 Agile or XP
 Each has its strengths and weaknesses and will work
well for some types of projects
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Project Management Process

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Background

 Development process divides development into

phases and activities
 To execute it efficiently, must allocate resources,
manage them, monitor progress, take corrective
actions, …
 These are all part of the PM process
 Hence, PM process is an essential part of
executing a project
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PM Process Phases

 There are three broad phases

 Planning
 Monitoring and control
 Termination analysis
 Planning is a key activity that produces a plan,
which forms the basis of monitoring

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Planning

 Done before project begins

 Key tasks
 Cost and schedule estimation
 Staffing
 Monitoring and risk mgmt plans
 Quality assurance plans
 Etc.
 Will discuss planning in detail later
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Monitoring and control

 Lasts for the duration of the project and covers

the development process
 Monitors all key parameters like cost, schedule, risks
 Takes corrective actions when needed
 Needs information on the dev process – provided by
metrics

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Termination Analysis

 Termination analysis is performed when the

development process is over
 Basic purpose: to analyze the perf of the process,
and identify lessons learned
 Also called postmortem analysis

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Relationship with Dev Process

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Summary

 Process has a major impact on the quality and productivity

 Different processes at work in a software project
 We have focused on development process and project
management process
 Process models are general process structures, that work well for
some types of problems
 A project should select a process model that is best suited for it
(and tailor it to meet its requirements)

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