Lecture 1

Introduction to Software
Engineering
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.
 Engineering discipline
 Using appropriate theories and methods to solve problems
bearing in mind organizational and financial constraints.
 Aspect 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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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; general purpose
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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Software Costs
Software engineering is concerned with cost-
effective software development.
Software costs often dominate the computer
system costs. The costs of software on a PC are
often greater than the hardware cost.
Software costs more to maintain than it does to
develop. For systems with a long life (period),
maintenance costs may be several times than
the development costs.

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FAQ about Software Engineering
Question Answer

Computer programs and associated

documentation. Software products may
What is software? be developed for a particular customer
or may be developed for a general
market.
Software engineering is an engineering
What is software
discipline that is concerned with all
engineering?
aspects of software production.

What are the Software specification, software

fundamental software development, software validation and
engineering activities? software evolution.

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FAQ about Software Engineering
Computer science focuses on theory
What is the difference
and fundamentals; software
between software
engineering is concerned with the
engineering and
practicalities of developing and
computer science?
delivering useful software.
Good software should deliver the
What are the attributes required functionality and performance
of good software? to the user and should be maintainable,
dependable and usable.
System engineering is concerned with
What is the difference all aspects of computer-based systems
between software development including hardware,
engineering and software and process engineering.
system engineering? Software engineering is part of this
more general process.
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Essential attributes of good software

Product Characteristic Description

Software should be written in such a way

so that it can evolve to meet the changing
needs of customers. This is a critical
Maintainability
attribute because software change is an
inevitable requirement of a changing
business environment.
Software dependability includes a range of
characteristics including reliability, security
and safety. Dependable software should
Dependability and
not cause physical or economic damage in
Security
the event of system failure. Malicious users
should not be able to access or damage
the system.
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Essential attributes of good software

Product Characteristic Description

Software should not make wasteful use of

system resources such as memory and
Efficiency processor cycles. Efficiency therefore
includes responsiveness, processing time,
memory utilisation, etc.

Software must be acceptable to the type of

users for which it is designed. This means
Acceptability that it must be understandable, usable and
compatible with other systems that they
use.

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Importance of Software Engineering
 More and more, individuals and society rely on
advanced software systems. We need to be able to
produce reliable and trustworthy systems
economically and quickly.
 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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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.
 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.
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Application Types
 Batch processing systems
 These are business systems that are designed to process
data in large batches. They process large numbers of
individual inputs to create corresponding outputs.
 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, which
include many, separate, interacting objects.

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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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Case Studies
 A personal insulin pump
 An embedded system in an insulin pump used by diabetics to
maintain blood glucose control.
 A mental health case patient management system
 A system used to maintain records of people receiving care for
mental health problems.
 A wilderness weather station
 A data collection system that collects data about weather
conditions in remote areas.

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Insulin pump control system
 Collects data from a blood sugar sensor and calculates
the amount of insulin required to be injected. Calculation
based on the rate of change of blood sugar levels.
Sends signals to a micro-pump to deliver the correct
dose of insulin.
 The system shall be available to deliver insulin when
required. The system shall perform reliably and deliver
the correct amount of insulin to counteract the current
level of blood sugar.
 Safety-critical system as low blood sugars can lead to
brain malfunctioning, coma and death; high-blood sugar
levels have long-term consequences such as eye and
kidney damage.
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Insulin pump hardware architecture

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Activity model of the insulin pump

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Patient information system for mental health care

 A patient information system to support mental health

care is a medical information system that maintains
information about patients suffering from mental health
problems and the treatments that they have received.
 Most mental health patients do not require dedicated
hospital treatment but need to attend specialist clinics
regularly where they can meet a doctor who has detailed
knowledge of their problems.
 To make it easier for patients to attend, these clinics are
not just run in hospitals. They may also be held in local
medical practices or community centres.

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MHC-PMS
 The MHC-PMS (Mental Health Care - Patient
Management System) is an information system that is
intended for use in clinics.
 It makes use of a centralized database of patient
information but has also been designed to run on a PC,
so that it may be accessed and used from sites that do
not have secure network connectivity.
 When the local systems have secure network access,
they use patient information in the database but they can
download and use local copies of patient records when
they are disconnected.
 To provide medical staff with timely information to
support the treatment of patients.
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The organization of the MHC-PMS

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MHC-PMS Key Features
 Individual Care Management
 Clinicians can create records for patients, edit the information in
the system, view patient history, etc. The system supports data
summaries so that doctors can quickly learn about the key
problems and treatments that have been prescribed.
 Patient Monitoring
 The system monitors the records of patients that are involved in
treatment and issues warnings if possible problems are
detected.
 Administrative Reporting
 The system generates monthly management reports showing
the number of patients treated at each clinic, the number of
patients who have entered and left the care system, number of
patients sectioned, the drugs prescribed and their costs, etc.

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MHC-PMS concerns
 Privacy
 It is essential that patient information is confidential and is never
disclosed to anyone apart from authorised medical staff and the
patient themselves.
 Safety
 Some mental illnesses cause patients to become suicidal or a
danger to other people. Wherever possible, the system should
warn medical staff about potentially suicidal or dangerous
patients.
 The system must be available when needed otherwise safety
may be compromised and it may be impossible to prescribe the
correct medication to patients.

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Wilderness weather station
 The government of a country with large areas of
wilderness decides to deploy several hundred weather
stations in remote areas.
 Weather stations collect data from a set of instruments
that measure temperature and pressure, sunshine,
rainfall, wind speed and wind direction.
 The weather station includes a number of instruments that
measure weather parameters such as the wind speed and
direction, the ground and air temperatures, the barometric
pressure and the rainfall over a 24-hour period.
 Each of these instruments is controlled by a software
system that takes parameter readings periodically and
manages the data collected from the instruments.

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Weather Information System

 The weather station system

 This is responsible for collecting weather data, carrying out
some initial data processing and transmitting it to the data
management system.
The data management and archiving system
 This system collects the data from all of the wilderness
weather stations, carries out data processing and analysis
and archives the data.
The station maintenance system
 This system can communicate by satellite with all
wilderness weather stations to monitor the health of these
systems and provide reports of problems.

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The weather station’s environment

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Any Questions??

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 Stay out of the crowd and be your self!!


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