Software Engineering

2. The Waterfall Development Model should be avoided if

All of the above

Incremental process models

are iterative in nature and produce working ver- sions of software quite rapidly. Evolutionary process models recognize the itera- tive, incremental nature of most software engineering projects and are designed to accommodate change. Evolutionary models, such as prototyping and the spiral model, produce incremental work products (or working versions of the software) quickly. These models can be adopted to apply across all software engineering activities—from concept development to long-term system maintenanc

3. High-quality software is best described as software that:

correctly and reliably meets the customer's needs

Waterfall Model

sometimes called the classic life cycle, suggests a system- atic, sequential approach2 to software development that begins with customer specification of requirements and progresses through planning, modeling, construction, and deployment, culminating in ongoing support of the completed software (Figure 4.1).

sequential process models

such as the waterfall and V-models, are the oldest software engineering paradigms. They suggest a linear process flow that is often inconsistent with modern realities (e.g., continuous change, evolving systems, tight time lines) in the software world. They do, however, have applicability in situations where requirements are well defined and stab

3. Which of these is not an example of Risk Transfer?

Contract out the development of the risky module with a "Time and Materials" contract

3. Which of these is a textual analysis tool used to describe, in detail, a particular user scenario?

Detailed Use Case.

1. What is the chief difference between functional and non-functional requirements?

Functional requirements deal with the specific functionality of the software while non-functional requirements specify characteristics that the system must possess.

scope

1. A narrative description of software scope is developed after communica- tion with all stakeholders. 2. A set of use cases3 is developed by end user

waterfall method

1. Real projects rarely follow the sequential flow that the model proposes. Although the linear model can accommodate iteration, it does so indi- rectly. As a result, changes can cause confusion as the project team proceed It is often difficult for the customer to state all requirements explicitly. The waterfall model requires this and has difficulty accommodating the natu- ral uncertainty that exists at the beginning of many projects. . A major blunder, if undetected until the working program is reviewed, can be disastrou

2. Which of the following is NOT a good source of requirements?

All of the above

three important points

An effective software process establishes the infrastructure that supports any effort at building a high-quality software product. A useful product delivers the content, functions, and features that the end user desires, but as important, it delivers these assets in a reliable, error-free way. By adding value for both the producer and user of a software product, high-quality software provides benefits for the software organization and the end-user community. T

Evolutionary process models

Despite the unquestionable benefits of evolutionary software processes, we have some concerns. The first concern is that prototyping [and other more sophisticated evolutionary processes] poses a problem to project planning because of the uncertain number of cycles required to construct the product . . . Second, evolutionary software processes do not establish the maximum speed of the evolution. If the evolutions occur too fast, without a period of relaxation, it is cer- tain that the process will fall into chaos. On the other hand if the speed is too slow then productivity could be affected . . . Third, [evolutionary] software processes should be focused on flexibility and extensibility rather than on high quality. This assertion sounds scary.

1. While an entry-level software engineer's job may be limited to writing code, an experienced software engineer will do all of these jobs except:

Execute final system testing to ensure every requirement is implemented correctly

3. Which of the following steps is most likely to contribute to scope creep?

Meet with the customer (or their proxy) and have detailed discussions as to what the product/project will include.

Prototyping

Often, a customer defines a set of general objectives for software, but does not identify detailed requirements for functions and features. In other cases, the developer may be unsure of the efficiency of an algorithm, the adapt- ability of an operating system, or the form that human-machine interaction should take. In these, and many other situations, a prototyping paradigm may offer the best approach.

2. Which of the following is not a way of handling risk that was mentioned this week?

Postpone the risks

2. If you are planning a project that will operate under a defined development process, where should exceptions to the process be defined? For example, if you are doing a software only project and your development process defines hardware related documents, where do you say, "We aren't doing them"?

Project Plan