Software Process

Sofware Process 1
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

Sofware Process 2
Software Process…
 Process: A particular method, generally involving
a number of steps
 Software Process: A set of steps, along with
ordering constraints on execution, to produce
software with desired outcome
 Many types of activities performed by diff people
in a software project
 Better to view software process as comprising of
many component processes

Sofware Process 3
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

Sofware Process 4
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

Sofware Process 5
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
Sofware Process 6
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

Sofware Process 7
ETVX approach

Sofware Process 8
Desired Process Properties
 Provide high Q&P
 Support testability as testing is the most
expensive task; testing can consume 30 to 50%
of total development effort
 Support maintainability as maintenance can be
more expensive than development; over life up
to 80% of total cost
 Remove defects early, as cost of removing
defects increases with latency

Sofware Process 9
High Q&P: Early Defect Removal…
 Cost of a defect increases with latency
 I.e. fixing a req defect in operation can
cost a 100 times the cost of fixing it in
requirements itself
 Hence, for high Q&P, the process must
support early defect removal
 That is why there is a V in ETVX, and
quality control tasks in the sw process

Sofware Process 10
Early Defect Removal…

Sofware Process 11
Desired Properties…
 Predictability and repeatability
 Process should repeat its performance when
used on different projects
 I.e. outcome of using a process should be
predictable
 Without predictability, cannot estimate, or say
anything about quality or productivity
 With predictability, past performance can be
used to predict future performance

Sofware Process 12
Predictability…
 Predictable process is said to be under
statistical control
 Repeatedly using the process produces similar
results
 Results – properties of interest like quality,
productivity, …
 To consistently develop sw with high Q&P,
process must be in control

Sofware Process 13
Predictability…

Sofware Process 14
Support Change
 Software changes for various reasons
 Requirements change is a key reason
 Requirement changes cannot be wished
away or treated as “bad”
 They must be accommodated in the
process for sw development

Sofware Process 15
Summary
 Process – method for doing something
 Process typically has stages, each stage
focusing on an identifiable task
 Stages have methodologies
 Software process is the methods for
developing software
 Best to view it as comprising of multiple
processes
Sofware Process 16
Summary
 Goal is to produce software with high
quality and productivity
 Process is the means
 Development process is central process
 Mgmt process is for controlling dev
 Other supporting processes
 Sw process should have high Q&P,
predictability, and support for change

Sofware Process 17
Development Process and
Process Models

Sofware Process 18
Software Project
 Project – to build a sw system within cost
and schedule and with high quality which
satisfies the customer
 Project goals – high Q and high P
 Suitable process needed to reach goals
 For a project, the process to be followed is
specified during planning

Sofware Process 19
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

Sofware Process 20
Development Process
 Commonly has these activities:
Requirements analysis, architecture,
design, coding, testing, delivery
 Different models perform them in different
manner

Sofware Process 21
Requirement Analysis

 To understand state the problem precisely

 Forms the basis of agreement between user
and developer
 specifies “ what “ , not “ how “.
 Not an easy task, as needs often understood.
 Requirement specifications of even medium
systems can be many hundreds of pages
 Output is the sw req spec (SRS) document
Sofware Process 22
Design

 A major step in moving from problem domain to

solution domain; three main tasks
 Architecture design – components and connectors that
should be there in the system
 High level design – modules and data structures
needed to implement the architecture
 Detailed design – logic of modules
 Most methodologies focus on architecture or
high level design
 Outputs are arch/des/logic design docs
Sofware Process 23
 Coding
 Converts design into code in specific
language
 Goal: Implement the design with simple and
easy to understand code.
 Code should be simple and readable.
 The coding phase affects both testing and
maintenance. Well written code can reduce
the testing and maintenance effort.
 Output is code
Sofware Process 24
Testing
 Defects are introduced in each phase
 They have to be found and removed to achieve
high quality
 Testing plays this important role
 Goal: Identify most of defects
 Is a very expensive task; has to be properly
planned and executed.
 Outputs are Test plans/results, and the final
tested (hopefully reliable) code
Sofware Process 25
Effort Distribution

 Distribution of effort :
 Req. - 10-20%
 Design - 10-20%
 Coding - 20-30%
 Testing - 30-50%
 Coding is not the most expensive.

Sofware Process 26
Distribution of effort…

 How programmers spend their time

 Writing programs - 13%
 Reading programs and manuals - 16%
 Job communication - 32%
 Others - 39%
 Programmers spend more time in reading
programs than in writing them.
 Writing programs is a small part of their lives.

Sofware Process 27
 Defects

 Distribution of error occurrences by phase is

 Req. - 20%
 Design - 30%
 Coding - 50%
 Defects can be injected at any of the major
phases.
 Cost of latency: Cost of defect removal
increases exponentially with latency time.

Sofware Process 28
Defects…

Cost to fix
Error ( log scale)

Time
 Cheapest way to detect and remove defects
close to where it is injected.
 Hence must check for defects after every
phase.

Sofware Process 29
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

Sofware Process 30
Projects Process
 If a project chooses a model, it will generally tailor it to
suit the project
 This produces the spec for the projects process
 This process can then be followed in the project
 I.e. process is what is actually executed; process spec is
plan about what should be executed; process model is a
generic process spec
 Many models have been proposed for the development
process

Sofware Process 31
Typical Student Process Model
 Get problem stmt – Code – do some
testing – deliver/demo
 Why this process model cannot be used
for commercial projects?
 Produces student-software, which is not what
we are after
 Cannot ensure desired quality for industrial-
strength software

Sofware Process 32
Common Process Models
 Waterfall – the oldest and widely used
 Prototyping
 Iterative – currently used widely
 Timeboxing

Sofware Process 33
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

Sofware Process 34
Sofware Process 35
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
Sofware Process 36
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

Sofware Process 37
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

Sofware Process 38
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

Sofware Process 39
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

Sofware Process 40
Prototyping

Sofware Process 41
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

Sofware Process 42
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

Sofware Process 43
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

Sofware Process 44
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

Sofware Process 45
Iterative Enhancement

Sofware Process 46
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

Sofware Process 47
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

Sofware Process 48
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

Sofware Process 49
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
Sofware Process 50
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
Sofware Process 51
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

Sofware Process 52
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

Sofware Process 53
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

Sofware Process 54
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

Sofware Process 55
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)
…

Sofware Process 56
Timeboxing Execution

Software

Requirements Build Deploy

TB1

Requirements Build Deploy

TB2

Requirements Build Deploy

TB3

Requirements Build Deploy

TB4

Sofware Process 57
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,…

Sofware Process 58
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

Sofware Process 59
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

Sofware Process 60
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
Sofware Process 61
Work Allocation of Teams

Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements

Team Analysis for TB1 Analysis for TB2 Analysis for TB3 Analysis for TB4

Build Team Build for TB1 Build for TB2 Build for TB3 Build for TB4

Deployment
Deployment for TB1Deployment for TB2 Deployment for TB3
Team

Sofware Process 62
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

Sofware Process 63
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
Sofware Process 64
Summary – waterfall

Strength Weakness Types of Projects

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

Sofware Process 65
Summary – Prototyping
Strength Weakness Types of Projects

Helps req elicitation Front heavy Systems with novice

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

Sofware Process 66
Summary – Iterative

Strength Weakness Types of Projects

Regular deliveries, Overhead of For businesses
leading to biz benefit planning each where time is imp;
Can accommodate iteration risk of long projects
changes naturally Total cost may cannot be taken; req
Allows user feedback increase not known and
evolve with time
Avoids req bloating System arch and
Naturally prioritizes design may suffer
req Rework may
Allows reasonable increase
exit points
Reduces risks
Sofware Process 67
Summary – Timeboxing
Strength Weakness Types of Projects

All benefits of iterative PM becomes more Where very short

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

Sofware Process 68