Continuing Best Practices

1. Continuing Best Practices • Slide information taken in large part from former Rational Corporation slides. Considerably modified and supplemented for classroom use. 21

2. Verify Quality Practice 5: Verify Software Quality Develop Iteratively Use ComponentArchitectures Manage Requirements Model Visually Control Changes Quality, as used within Rational Unified Process, is defined as “The characteristic of having demonstrated the achievement of producing a product which meets or exceeds agreed upon requirements as measured by an agreed upon measures and criteriaAnd is produced by an agreed upon process. If done this way, the process can be repeated and managed  In most organizations, testing accounts for 30-50% of development costs! Yet most people believe software is not adequately tested when delivered. Testing is difficult; complete testing is impossible; a good process and automated tools help! 21

3. Practice 5: Verify Software Quality Software problems are 100 to 1000 times more costly to find and repair after deployment Cost Development Deployment One of the ways to improve quality: Test early and continuously! Test functionality, reliability; performance; Test architectural decisions early. 21

4. R R R D D D C C C T T T Plan Plan Plan Design Design Design Test Life Cycle Implement Implement Implement Execute Execute Execute Assess! Assess Assess! Iterative Development Permits ContinuousTesting – ensuring higher Quality Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Test Test Test T I M E 21

5. Verifying Quality – and Continuous Testing (continued) • Rather than test one time, spread testing out continuously. • Part of each iteration – BUT (see below) • Each iteration produces an executable release (not necessarily a product release…) • Don’t think of an ‘executable’ as just an .exe or .dll. The executables may be part of an architecture…… • Each iteration is tested and integrated into an evolving application. • Note: Each ‘phase’ has one or more iterations, and each phase has milestones! • Be careful: The ‘extent (how much)’ of R, D, C, T depends on which phase the iteration is in! • (See your drawings of the RUP) 21

6. More…recall – talking about Verifying Quality • Cannot ‘engineer in’ quality; Must be threaded throughout development! • Notice: Continuous Testing and integration! • Distributes testing….ensures higher quality • A fundamental design concept: Divide and Conquer! • At end, entire system tested as a whole. • Many errors can be found early; fixed while repair costs are inexpensive • Architectural decisions (key decisions) tested early avoiding disastrous problems later. • These features greatly reduce risks and liability of delivering poor quality systems. 21

7. Testing in an Iterative Environment Iteration 1 Iteration 2 Iteration 3 Iteration 4 Requirements Continuous integration!!! (one of the major problems of SDLC!) We will produce automated tests (IF AVAILABLE in your ‘environment’) As new requirements are added in iterations, new tests are generated and run. This means that some tests will be rerun – part of ‘Regression Testing.’ Test Suite 1 Test Suite 2 Test Suite 3 Test Suite 4 Automated Tests 21

8. Quality – What is it? • It is an elusive term • Means different things to different people 21 Next few slides from OOSE text slides; modified

9. Software Quality... • Usability - Users can learn it fast and get their job done easily (usually addressed in Interface) • Efficiency - It doesn’t waste resources like CPU time and memory (addressed in execution) • Reliability - It does what it is required to do without failing (MTBF, MTTR…) • Maintainability - It can be easily changed • Reusability - Its parts can be used in other projects, so reprogramming is not needed 21

10. QUALITY SOFTWARE Software Quality...again, means different things to differentstakeholders Customer: User: solves problems at easy to learn; an acceptable cost in efficient to use; terms of money paid and helps get work done resources used Development manager: Developer: sells more and easy to design; pleases customers easy to maintain; while costing less easy to reuse its parts to develop and maintain 21

11. Software Quality • The different qualities can conflict. • Increasing efficiency can reduce maintainability or reusability •  Increasing usability can reduce efficiency •  Increasing usability can reduce maintainability •  Increasing maintainability can reduce efficiency, etc! • Setting objectives for quality is a key engineering activity • Then design to meet these objectives • Avoids ‘over-engineering’ which wastes money • Obtain the highest possible reliability using a fixed budget 21

12. Short Term Vs. Long Term Quality • Short term: • Does the software meet the customer’s immediate needs? • Is it sufficiently efficient for the volume of data we have today? • Long term: • Maintainability • Customer’s future needs • Scalability 21

13. Dimensions of Software Quality Type Why? How? Functionality Reliability Application Performance System Performance Does my app do what’s required? Does my app leak memory? Does my app respond acceptably? Does my system perform under production load? Test cases for each scenario implemented Analysis tools and code instrumentation Check performance for each use-case/scenario implemented Test performance of all use-cases under authentic and worst-case load For each iteration, do the ‘above’ software quality checks. Remember: tests are ‘driven’ by Use Cases and Supplementary Specifications! 21

14. Problems Addressed by Verifying Quality Root Causes Solutions • Insufficient requirements • Ambiguous communications • Brittle architectures • Overwhelming complexity • Subjective assessment • Undetected inconsistencies • Poor testing • Waterfall development • Uncontrolled change • Insufficient automation Testing provides objective project status assessment Objective assessment exposes inconsistencies early (continuous integration helps!) Testing and verification are focused on high risk areas Defects are found earlier and are less expensive to fix (because ‘testing’ is distributed… Automated testing tools provide testing for reliability, functionality, and performance 21

15. Control Changes Practice 6: ControlChanges to Software Develop Iteratively Use ComponentArchitectures Verify Quality Manage Requirements Model Visually Must recognize that we CANNOT STOP CHANGE. Our goal is to Manage Change! The only ‘constant’ is ‘change!’ Must control How and When control is introduced and who introduces the changes. This DOES NOT MEAN that we absolutely accept ALL changes, But…(Discuss!) Want a process that can respond to change…(RUP) Must synchronize Change across development teams and locations too. (What impacts do proposed changes have on our architecture!) 21

16. Practice 6: Control Changes to Software • Consider: we often have: • Multiple developers • Multiple teams • Multiple sites • Multiple iterations • Multiple releases • Multiple projects • Multiple platforms All at the same time! May have multiple developers organized into different teams at multiple sites all working together on multiple iterations, releases, products, and platforms (mostly based on the software architecture) Without explicit control, parallel development degrades to chaos!!!! 21

17. Requirements change workflow is defined and repeatable Change requests facilitate clear communications Isolated workspaces reduce interference from parallel work Change rate statistics are good metrics for objectively assessing project status Workspaces contain all artifacts, facilitating consistency Change propagation is controlled Changes maintained in a robust, customizable system Problems Addressed by Controlling Changes Root Causes Solutions • Insufficient requirements • Ambiguous communications • Brittle architectures • Overwhelming complexity • Subjective assessment • Undetected inconsistencies • Poor testing • Waterfall development • Uncontrolled change • Insufficient automation 21

18. Develop Iteratively Best Practices Reinforce Each Other Ensures users involved as requirements evolve Manage Requirements What does iterative development do?? Use ComponentArchitectures Validates architectural decisions early on. Drives development, planning, change control. …. Addresses complexity of design/implementation incrementally. Need tools/support environment! Model Visually Measures quality early and often. Continuous testing and integration Verify Quality Evolves baselines incrementally Architecture  teams  localizing changes; Need CMS, Conf Control… Control Changes 21 Remember: best practices yield best results WHEN USED COLLECTIVELY!

19. Performance Engineer Develop Iteratively Analyst Use ComponentArchitectures Model Visually Verify Quality Manage Requirements Project Manager Developer Control Changes Tester Release Engineer Summary: Best Practices of Software Engineering The result is software that is • On Time • On Budget • Meets Users Needs 21