Chapter 1- Introduction

Miss Zara Hassan

 Why Software Engineering?
• The economies of ALL developed nations are
dependent on software.
• More and more systems are software
controlled
• Expenditure on software represents a
significant fraction of GNP in all developed
countries.
 Software Costs
• The costs of software on a PC are often greater
than the hardware cost.
Why??
• Software costs more to maintain than it does to
develop.
– For systems with a long life, maintenance costs may
be several times development costs.
• Software engineering is concerned with cost-
effective software development.
 Software products
• Generic products
– Stand-alone systems that are marketed and sold to any
customer who wishes to buy them.
– Examples – PC software such as graphics programs, project
management tools; CAD software; software for specific
markets such as appointments systems for dentists.
• Customized products
– Software that is commissioned by a specific customer to
meet their own needs.
– Examples – 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 for the software and
they make decisions on software changes that are
required.

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 FAQs About Software Engineering

Question Answer
What is software? Computer programs and associated documentation.
Software products may be developed for a particular
customer or may be developed for a general market.
What are the attributes of good software? Good software should deliver the required functionality
and performance to the user and should be
maintainable, dependable and usable.
What is software engineering? Software engineering is an engineering discipline that is
concerned with all aspects of software production.
What are the fundamental software Software specification, software development, software
engineering activities? validation and software evolution.
What is the difference between software Computer science focuses on theory and fundamentals;
engineering and computer science? software engineering is concerned with the practicalities
of developing and delivering useful software.
What is the difference between software System engineering is concerned with all aspects of
engineering and system engineering? computer-based systems development including
hardware, software. Software engineering is part of this
more general process.

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 FAQs About Software Engineering
Question Answer
What are the key challenges facing Coping with increasing diversity, demands for reduced
software engineering? delivery times and developing trustworthy software.
What are the costs of software Roughly 60% of software costs are development costs,
engineering? 40% are testing costs. For custom software, evolution
costs often exceed development costs.
What are the best software engineering While all software projects have to be professionally
techniques and methods? managed and developed, different techniques are
appropriate for different types of system. For example,
games should always be developed using a series of
prototypes whereas safety critical control systems require
a complete and analyzable specification to be developed.
You can’t, therefore, say that one method is better than
another.
What differences has the web made to The web has led to the availability of software services
software engineering? and the possibility of developing highly distributed
service-based systems. Web-based systems
development has led to important advances in
programming languages and software reuse.

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Essential attributes of good software

Product characteristic Description

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 and Software dependability includes a range of characteristics
security including reliability, security and safety. Dependable software
should not cause physical or economic damage in the event of
system failure. Malicious users should not be able to access or
damage the system.
Efficiency Software should not make wasteful use of system resources such
as memory and processor cycles. Efficiency therefore includes
responsiveness, processing time, memory utilisation, 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 other systems that they use.

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 Software Engineering
Software engineering 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.
• All aspects of software production
– Not just technical process of development. Also
project management and the development of tools,
methods etc. to support software production.

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 Importance of software engineering

• It is usually cheaper, in the long run, to use

software engineering methods and techniques
for software systems rather than just write the
programs as if it was a personal programming
project.
• For most types of system, the majority of costs
are the costs of changing the software after it
has gone into use.

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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.
• Software evolution: where the software is modified to
reflect changing customer and market requirements.

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 General issues that affect most software
• Heterogeneity
– Increasingly, systems are required to operate as distributed systems
across networks that include different types of computer and
mobile devices.
• Business and social change
– Business and 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.
• Security and trust
– As software is intertwined with all aspects of our lives, it is essential
that we can trust that software.

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 Software engineering diversity
• There are many different types of software
system and there is no universal set of software
techniques that is applicable to all of these.
• The software engineering 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.
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 Application types
• Embedded control systems
– These are software control systems that control
and manage hardware devices.
– Numerically, there are probably more embedded
systems than any other type of system.
• Batch processing systems
– These are business systems that are designed to
process data in large batches.

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 Application types

• Entertainment systems
– These are systems that are primarily for personal
use and which are intended to entertain the user.
• Systems for modelling and simulation
– These are systems that are developed by scientists
and engineers to model physical processes or
situations.

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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.
• Systems of systems
– These are systems that are composed of a number
of other software systems.

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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
processes.
• The fundamental notions of software engineering are
universally applicable to all types of system development.

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