Introduction

Vũ Thị Hồng Nhạn

(vthnhan@vnu.edu.vn)

Dept. of Software Engineering, FIT, UET

Vietnam National Univ., Hanoi

 Contents
 Professional software development
 What does it mean by software engineering

 Software engineering ethics

 A brief introduction to ethical issues that affect software engineering

 Case studies
 An introduction to three examples that are used in later lectures

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Professional software development

Answer 10 frequently asked questions about SE

 1. What is software?
 Software is a computer program and it’s associated with documents

 But computer program may be part of a system, so there are several

programs within a system

 The documentation is important when we’re doing SE

 We’re not just writing a program

 We’re also creating the documents and the other information we need to use
over a period of time

 Software products can be of 2 kinds, we can have...

 Off-the shell products or apps for general markets

 Customer software for particular customer, which is build exactly based on the
customer’s specification

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 2. What are the attributes of good software?

 Software should do what customers wants

 & should deliver the functionality they want at a reasonable level of

performance

 Should be usable, maintainable, and reliable

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 3. What is SE?
 SE as an engineering discipline that is concerned with all
aspects of software production

 not just coding but everything from understanding what the user
needs to maintaining that software over the lifetime

 Engineering means that systematic and disciplined and

managed approaches are used for the production of software

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 4. What are the fundamental SE activities?

 There are 4 activities that are always part of professional SE

 Software specification

 Software development

 Software validation

 Software evolution

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5. What is the difference between

SE & computer science?

 SE is part of a more general computer science course

 Or fundamentally computer science is the theory of software

 Whereas SE is about the practicalities, is about building of

software

 and it happens that sometimes the theory and the practice don’t
exactly match

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6. What is the difference between

Software & SE?

 We usually talk about Software systems, so what is the difference between

software & SE

 SE is concerned with all aspects of computer-based systems

development

 including the hardware, the software, and process engineering

 Software is a more focused activity

 focuse only on the software, but obviously it’s closely associated and
integrated with the SE process

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 7. Key Challenges facing in SE?
 Firstly, facing with increasing diversity,
 Software is in all sorts of devices from smart watches up to space stations

 We need to understand the characteristics of the device and the computer

that we’re using  to create the most appropriate software for that

 Secondly, the challenge of responsiveness or delivering the software

more quickly
 Because business & people want things to happen quickly (not wait for
several years)

 Finally, delivering trustworthy software

 Software that we can trust will be reliable, resilient, and counter external
cyberattack

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 8. What are the costs of SE?
 This is a hard question to answer!

 Because it varies quite dramatically for all sorts of systems

 If we’re building a critical system in an aircraft , it’s gonna cost an awful lot
per line of code than we’re building an app that’s offered for free in Android
store or itunes

 Roughly 60% of software costs are development costs, 40% are testing
costs (updating as things change so the software remains useful for the
buyer of that software )

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9. What are the best…

engineering techniques & methods

 All software projects have to be professionally managed and

developed, different techniques are appropriate for different types of
systems

 E.g., games should always be developed using a series of prototypes,

whereas safety critical control systems require a complete and
analyzable specification

 Therefore you cannot say that one method is better than another

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10. What differences has the web made to SE?

 Fundamentally the difference the web has made is that has allowed us to
develop and deliver software in a new way

 We can deliver software services rather than systems that are installed
on a user’s own computer

 We can access these services remotely

 It allows us to build a new kind of distributed system to deliver the

functionality that the user needs

 Because of the demands of the web and the need to build highly
distributed systems, this has led to the advances in SE

 New ways of reusing software, a new programming language & development

techniques can be used

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Why SE matters?
 Why?
 Software is everywhere and our society is now totally dependent on
software-intensive systems

Power infrastructure Financial system

telecommunications

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 Why?
 Feeding and housing a growing world
population

 Coping with the problems that come from

people living longer and providing a high
quality of life for our elderly citizens

 Dealing with international terrorism, scourge

on all of our societies

 We need SE, efficient & effective techniques

of developing complex software systems to
maintain our society and to continue to provide
high quality lives for our citizens

 Dealing with the problems in the 21st century can

only be done with software-intensive systems

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 Software products
 Generic products
 Stand-alone systems that are marketed and sold to any customer who wishes
to buy them

 E.g. PC software such as graphics programs, project management tools,

CAD(Computer-Aided Designs) software, software for specific markets such as
appointment systems for dentists

 Customized products
 Software that is commissioned by a specific customer to meet their own needs

 E.g., embedded control systems, air traffic control software, traffic

monitoring systems

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 Product specification
 Generic products
 The specification of what the software should do is owned by the software
developer

 and decisions on software change are made by the developer

 Customized products
 The specification of what the software should do is owned by the customer

 and they make decisions on software changes

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Essential attributes of good software
Product Description
characteristic
Maintainability Software should be written in such a way so that it can evolve to meet the
changing needs of customers. This is a critical attribute because
software change is an inevitable requirement of a changing business
environment
Dependability & Software dependability includes a range of characteristics including
security reliability, security, and safety. Dependable software shouldn’t cause
physical or economic damage in the event of system failure. Malicious
users shouldn’t be able to access or damage the system

Efficiency Software shouldn’t make wasteful use of system resources such as

memory or processor cycles. Efficiency therefore includes responsiveness,
processing time, memory utilization, etc.

Acceptability Software must be acceptable to the type of users for which it is designed.
This means that it must be understandable, usable, and compatible with
others systems that they use

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 SE
 SE is an engineering discipline that is concerned with all aspects of
software production from the early stages of system specification
through to maintaining the system after it has gone into use

 Engineering discipline

 Using appropriate theories and methods to solve problems bearing in mind

organizational and financial constraints

 All aspects of software products

 Not just technical process of development

 Also, project management and development of tools, methods, etc. to support

software production

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 Software process activities
 Software specification, Where customers and engineers define the
software that is to be produced and the constraints on its operation

 Software development, where the software is designed and programmed

 Software validation, where the software is checked to ensure that it is

what the customer requires (i.e. do the right things)

 Software evolution, where the software is modified to reflect changing

customer and market requirements

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 General issues that affect software

 Heterogeneity

 Increasingly, systems are required to operate as distributed systems across

networks that include different types of computer and mobile devices

 Business & social change

 Business & society are changing incredibly quickly as emerging economies

develop and new technologies become available

 They need to be able to change their existing software and to rapidly develop
new software

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 General issues that affect software...

 Security & trust

 As software is intertwined with all aspects of our lives, it is essential

that we can trust that software

 Scale

 Software has to be developed across a very wide range of scales,

from very small embedded systems in portable or wearable devices
through to Internet-scale, cloud-based systems that serve a global
community

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 SE diversity
 There are many different types of software systems and there’s no
universal set of software techniques that is applicable to all of these

 The SE methods and tools used depend on the type of application

being developed, the requirements of the customer and the
background of the development team

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 Application types
 Stand-alone applications
 These are application systems that run on a local computer, such as a PC

 They include all necessary functionality and do not need to be connected to a

network

 Interactive transaction-based applications

 Applications that execute on a remote computer and are accessed by users
from their own PCs or terminals

 These include web applications such as e-commerce applications

 Embedded control systems

 These are software control systems

that control and manage hardware devices

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 Application types...
 Batch processing systems
 These are business systems that are designed to
process data in large batches

 They process large numbers of individual inputs

to create corresponding outputs

 Entertainment systems
 These are systems that are primarily for
personal use and which are intended to
entertain the user

 Systems for modeling and simulation

 These are systems that are developed by
scientists and engineers to model physical
processes or situations, which include many
separate interacting objects

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 Application types...
 Data collection systems

 These are systems that collect data

from their environment using a set
of sensors and send that data to
other systems for processing
Forest fire detection
 Systems of systems

 These are that are composed of a

number of other software systems

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 SE fundamentals
 Some fundamental principles applied to all types of software systems,
irrespective of the development techniques used

 Systems should be developed using a managed and understood

development process. Of course, different processes are used for different
types of software

 Dependability and performance are important for all types of system

 Understanding and managing the software specification and requirements

are important

 Where appropriate, you should reuse software that has already been
developed rather than rewriting new software

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 Internet SE
 The web is now a platform for running application and
organizations are increasingly developing web-based systems rather
than local systems

 Web services allow application functionality to be accessed over the

web and internet

 Cloud computing is an approach to the provision of computer services

where applications run remotely on the cloud

 users do not buy software but pay according to use

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 Web-based SE
 Web-based systems are complex distributed systems but the

fundamental principles of SE discussed previously are applicable to

them (the same way they are applied to other types of system)

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 Web SE
 Software reuse
 Software reuse is the dominant approach for constructing web-based systems

 When building these systems, you think about how you can assemble them
from pre-existing software components & systems

 Incremental & agile development

 Web-based systems should be developed and delivered incrementally

 It’s now generally recognized that it’s impractical to specify all the
requirements for such systems in advance

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 Web SE...
 Service-oriented systems

 Software may be implemented using service-oriented SE, where the

software components are stand-alone web services

 Rich interfaces

 Interface development technologies such as AJAX and HTML5 have emerged

that support the creation of rich interfaces within a web browser

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SE Ethics
 What is Ethics?
 Ethics & codes of ethics related to professions in computing &
science is fairly simple
 it’s behavior that we consciously make, that has positive or negative
impacts on society and citizens and the environment (cultural &
natural) and so on

 Generally there are 2 kinds of ethics

 Minimalism doesn’t cause harm

 Idealism: a fun side of computing which says I can actually prevent

harm, maybe actually do some positive things and then sometimes
get labeled as ethical

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 SE ethics
 SE involves wider responsibilities than simply the application of
technical skills

 Software engineers must behave in an honest and ethically responsible

way if they are to be able to be respected as professionals

 Ethical behavior is more than simply upholding the law but involves
following a set of principles that are morally correct

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 Issues of professional responsibility

 Confidentiality (bảo mật)

 Engineers should normally respect the confidentiality of their employers or

clients irrespective of whether or not a formal confidentiality agreement has
been signed

 Competence (chức vụ/năng lực/thẩm quyền)

 Engineers shouldn’t misrepresent their level of competence

 They shouldn’t knowingly accept work which is out with their competence

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 Issues of professional responsibility
 Intellectual property rights
 Engineers should be aware of local laws governing the use of intellectual
property such as patents, copyright, etc.

 They should be careful to ensure that their intellectual property of employers

and clients is protected

 Computer misuse
 Software engineers shouldn’t use their technical skills to misuse other people’s
computers

 Computer misuse ranges from relatively trivial (game playing on an employer’s

machine, say) to extremely serious (dissemination of viruses )

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Case studies
 case studies
 A personal insulin pump
 An embedded system in an insulin pump used by diabetics to maintain
blood glucose control

 A mental health care patients management system

 Mentcare: a system used to maintain records of people receiving care for
mental health problems

 A wilderness weather station

 A data collection system that collects data about weather conditions in
remote areas

 iLearn: a digital learning environment

 service-oriented systems

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 Insulin pump control system
 Collects data from a blood sugar sensor and
calculates the amount of insulin required to be
injected

 Calculation based on the rate of change of blood

sugar levels

 Sends signals to a micro-pump to deliver the correct

dose of insulin

 Safety-critical system as low blood sugar levels can

lead to brain malfunctioning, coma and death; high-
blood sugar levels have long-term consequences such
as eye and kidney damage

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 Insulin pump hardware architecture

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 Essential high-level requirements
 The system shall be available to deliver insulin when required

 The system shall perform reliably and deliver the correct amount of
insulin to counteract the current level of blood sugar

 The system must therefore be designed and implemented to ensure that

the system always meets these requirements

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Mentcare
A patient information system for mental health care

 A patient information system to support mental health care is a medical

information system
 that maintains information about patients suffering from mental health
problems and the treatments that they have received

 Most mental health patients do not require dedicated hospital

treatment
 but need to attend specialist clinics regularly where they can meet a doctor who
has detailed knowledge of their problems

 To make it easier for patients to attend, these clinics are not just run in
hospitals
 they may be held in local medical practices or community centers

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 Mentcare
 Mentcare is an information system that is intended for use in clinics

 It makes use of a centralized database of patient information

 but has also been designed to run on a PC,

 so that it may be accessed and used from sites that don’t have secure network
connectivity

 When the local systems have secure network access, they use patient
information in the database,
 they can download and use copies of patient records when they are
disconnected

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 Mentcare goals
 To generate management information that allows health service
managers to assess performance against local and government targets

 To provide medical staff with timely information to support the treatment

of patients

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 The organization of the Mentcare system

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 Key features of the Mentcare system
 Individual care management
 Clinicians can support records for patients, edit the information in the
system, view patient history, etc.

 The system supports data summaries so that doctors can quickly learn about
their key problems and treatments that have been prescribed

 Patient monitoring
 The system monitors the records of patients that are involved in treatment
and issues warnings if possible problems are detected

 Administrative reporting, the system generates monthly management

reports ...
 showing the number of patients treated at each clinic,
 the number of patients who have entered and left the care system,
 number of patients sectioned/admitted to hospital,
 the drugs prescribed and their costs, etc.
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 Mentcare system concerns
 Privacy
 It is essential that patient information is confidential and is never disclosed to
anyone apart from authorized medical staff and the patient themselves

 Safety
 Some mental illness cause patients to become suicidal or a danger to other
people

 Whenever possible, the system should warn medical staff about potentially
suicidal or dangerous patients

 The system must be available when needed, otherwise patient safety may
be compromised and it may be impossible to prescribe the correct medication
to patients

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 Wilderness weather station
 The government of a country with a large area of
wilderness decides to deploy several hundred
weather stations in remote areas

 Weather stations collect data from a set of

instruments that...
 measure weather parameters such as the wind speed
and directions, the ground and air temperatures, the
barometric pressure and the rainfall over a 24 hour
period

 Each of these instruments is controlled by a software

system that takes parameter readings periodically
and manages the data collected from the instruments
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 The weather station’s environment

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 Weather information system
 The weather station system
 This is responsible for collecting weather data,
carrying out some initial data processing and
transmitting it to the data management
system

 The data management and archiving system

 This system collects the data from all of the
wilderness weather stations, carries out
data processing and analysis and archives
the data

 The station maintenance system

 This system can communicate by satellite with
all wilderness weather stations to monitor
the health of these systems and provide
reports of problems

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 iLearn: a digital learning environment

 A digital learning environment is a framework in which

 a set of general-purpose and specialty designed tools for learning may be
embedded

 plus a set of applications that are geared to the needs to the learners using the
system

 The tools included in each version of the environment are chosen by

teachers and learners to suit their specific needs
 These can be general applications such as spreadsheets

 learning management applications such as a Virtual Learning Environment to

mange homework submission and assessment, games and simulations

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 iLearn: service-oriented systems
 The system is a service-oriented system with all system components
considered to be a replaceable service

 This allows the system to be updated incrementally as new services

become available

 It also makes it possible to rapidly configure the system to create

versions of the environment for different groups such as very young
children who cannot read, senior students, etc.

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 iLearn services
 Utility services that provide basic application-independent
functionality and which may be used by other services in the system

 Application services that provide specific applications such as email,

conferencing, photo sharing etc. and access to specific educational
content such as scientific films or historical resources

 Configuration services that are used to adapt the environment with a

specific set of application services and do define how services are
shared between students, teachers, and their parents

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 iLearn architecture

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 iLearn service integration
 Integrated services are services which offer an API and which can be
accessed by other services through that API

 Direct service-to-service communication is therefore possible

 Independent services are services which are simply accessed through

a browser interface and which operate independently of other services

 Information can only be shared with other services through explicit user
actions such as copy and paste;

 re-authentication may be required for each independent service

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 Key points
 Software engineering is an engineering discipline that is concerned with all
aspects of software production

 Essential software product attributes are maintainability, dependability

and security, efficiency and acceptability

 The high-level activities of specification, development, validation and

evolution are part of all software process

 The fundamental notions of SE are universally applicable to all types of

system development

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