Page 29 - DCAP405_SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING

Software Engineering

Notes Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. Different processes can also be divided into different activities and activities
into…………………….

2. Case combines software, hardware and …………………….. database to create software
engineering analogous to computer-aided design or CAD for hardware.
3. The two prominent delivered technologies using case tools are …………………………….
and PC-based workstations.

2.2 A Process Framework

Software engineering approach pivots around the concept of process. A process means “a
particular method of doing something, generally involving a number of steps or operations.” In
software engineering, the phrase software process refers to the method of developing software.

Software process specifies how one can manage and plan a software development project taking
constraints and boundaries into consideration. A software process is a set of activities, together
with ordering constraints among them, such that if the activities are performed properly and in
accordance with the ordering constraints, the desired result is produced. The desired result is
high-quality software at low cost. Clearly, if a process does not scale up and cannot handle large
software projects or cannot produce good-quality software, it is not a suitable process.
Major software development organizations typically have many processes executing
simultaneously. Many of these do not concern software engineering, though they do impact
software development. These could be considered non-software engineering process models.
Business process models, social process models, and training models, are all examples of processes
that come under this. These processes also affect the software development activity but are
beyond the purview of software engineering.
The process that deals with the technical and management issues of software development is
called a software process. Clearly, many different types of activities need to be performed to
develop software. As we have seen earlier, a software development project must have at least
development activities and project management activities. All these activities together comprise
the software process.
As different type of activities are being performed, which are frequently done by different
people, it is better to view the software process as consisting of many in component processes,
each consisting of a certain type of activity. Each of these component processes typically has a
different objective, though these processes obviously cooperate with each other to satisfy the
overall software engineering objective.

Did u know? What did the software process framework does?
Software Process framework is a set of guidelines, concepts and best practices that describes
high level processes in software engineering. It does not talk about how these processes are
carried out and in what order.
A software process, as mentioned earlier, specifies a method of developing software. A software
project, on the other hand, is a development project in which a software process is used. Software
products are the outcomes of a software project. Each software development project starts with
some needs and is expected to end with some software that satisfies those needs. A software

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