Software Construction

SWEBOK Chapter 4 Software Construction

Fundamentals • Minimizing Complexity • Anticipating Change • Construction for Verification • Standards in Construction

Minimizing Complexity • One of the strongest drivers in software construction • Required due to human limitations of memory

Minimizing Complexity How is complexity minimized during software construction? Use of standards Coding practices Construction-oriented quality techniques Creation of code that is simple and readable rather than clever

Anticipate Change • Software will change • Coding techniques can be used to make change easier (designing for change is also critical)

Construction for Verification • Built is such a way to allow easy identification of defects • By developers during construction • By testers

Construction for Verification • Techniques • Following coding standards • Unit testing • Organizing code to support automated testing • Restricted use of complex/hard-to-understand language structures

Standards in Construction • Communication methods • Programming languages • Platforms • Tools • External standards • Internal standards

Managing Construction • Construction Models • Construction Planning • Construction Measurement

Construction Models • Linear construction view • Construction only after significant pre-requisite work is complete • Coding is main focus of construction • Interative • Construction occurs at the same time as other development activities • Combination of activities all considered construction

Construction Planning • How are we going to build it? • Affects prerequisite activities • Extent to which they are performed • Order in which they are performed • Degree to which they are expected to be complete before construction begins • Affects project’s ability to minimize complexity, anticipate change, and construct for verification • Defines the order in which components are created and integrated, QA management process, allocation of task assignments, etc.

Construction Measurement • What aspects are being measured? • Code developed (LOC) • Code reused • Code modified • Code complexity • Code inspection statistics • Defects found • Defects fixed • Effort • Scheduling • Story points (velocity) • Why do we need to measure construction?

Practical Considerations • Construction Design • Construction Languages • Coding • Construction Testing • Reuse • Construction Quality • Integration

Construction Design • Design done before construction will be incomplete • Detailed design same as overall design but at a smaller scale

Construction Languages • Anyway that a human can specify execution instructions to a computer • Configuration Languages • Toolkit Languages • Programming Languages

Coding • Understandable source code • Use of classes, enumerated types, variables, named constants, etc • Control structures • Error handling • Prevention of code-level security breaches • Resource usage • Source code organization • Code documentation • Code tuning

Construction Testing • Goal: to reduce the time between defect creation and default detection • Subset of overall testing types performed by the engineer who wrote the code • Unit testing • Integration testing

Reuse • Reuse processes and activities must be formalized into the software life cycle • Selection of what to reuse • Evaluation of code or test reusability • Reporting of reuse information on new code

Construction Quality • Common Techniques • Unit and integration testing • Test-first development • Code stepping • Use of assertions • Debugging • Technical reviews • Static analysis • Focus on code and not overall project

Integration • Plan the sequence in which components will be integrated • Creation of scaffolding and stubs to support interim versions • Determining the degree of testing done on components before they are integrated • Determine when interim versions of the software are tested

Software Construction