swe 316: software design and architecture objectives lecture # 22 software evolution swe 316:...
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Obj
ecti
ves
Lecture # 22Software Evolution
SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
To explain why change is inevitable if software systems are to remain useful
To discuss software maintenance and maintenance cost factors
To describe the processes involved in software evolution
Handout
The material of this presentation is adopted from: “Software Engineering,” by Somerville, Ian, 6th Ed., Addison-Wesley, 2001.
SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Software change Software change is inevitable
New requirements emerge when the software is used;
The business environment changes; Errors must be repaired; New computers and equipment is added to the
system; The performance or reliability of the system may
have to be improved.
A key problem for organizations is implementing and managing change to their existing software systems.
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Importance of evolution Organizations have huge investments in their
software systems - they are critical business assets.
To maintain the value of these assets to the business, they must be changed and updated.
The majority of the software budget in large companies is devoted to evolving existing software rather than developing new software.
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
3/16
SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Software maintenance Modifying a program after it has been
put into use.
Maintenance does not normally involve major changes to the system’s architecture.
Changes are implemented by modifying existing components and adding new components to the system.
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Maintenance is inevitable The system requirements are likely to change
while the system is being developed because the environment is changing. Therefore a delivered system won't meet its requirements!
Systems are tightly coupled with their environment. When a system is installed in an environment it changes that environment and therefore changes the system requirements.
Systems MUST be maintained therefore if they are to remain useful in an environment.
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Types of maintenance Corrective maintenance are activities of handling
problems resulting from faults.
Adaptive Maintenance involves adjusting the application to changes in the environment, or changes from other parts of the system.
Perfective maintenance involves making changes to improve some aspect of the system, even when the changes are not suggested by faults.
Preventive maintenance involves changing some aspect of the system to prevent failures.
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Distribution of maintenance effort
Corrective21%
Perfective50%
Adaptive25%
Preventive4%
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Maintenance costs Usually greater than development costs (2* to
100* depending on the application).
Affected by both technical and non-technical factors.
Increases as software is maintained. Maintenance corrupts the software structure so makes further maintenance more difficult.
Ageing software can have high support costs (e.g. old languages, compilers etc.).
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Maintenance cost factors Team stability: maintenance costs are reduced if
the same staff are involved with them for some time.
Contractual responsibility: the developers of a system may have no contractual responsibility for maintenance so there is no incentive to design for future change.
Staff skills: maintenance staff are often inexperienced and have limited domain knowledge.
Program age and structure: as programs age, their structure is degraded and they become harder to understand and change.
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Maintenance prediction Maintenance prediction is concerned with
assessing which parts of the system may cause problems and have high maintenance costs Change acceptance depends on the
maintainability of the components affected by the change;
Implementing changes degrades the system and reduces its maintainability;
Maintenance costs depend on the number of changes and costs of change depend on maintainability.
Introduction Maintenance Maintenance Prediction
Evolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Maintenance prediction (cont...)
Predictingmaintainability
Predicting systemchanges
Predictingmaintenance
costs
What will be the lifetimemaintenance costs of this
system?
What will be the costs ofmaintaining this system
over the next year?
What parts of the systemwill be the most expensive
to maintain?
How many changerequests can be
expected?
What parts of the system aremost likely to be affected by
change requests?
Introduction Maintenance Maintenance Prediction
Evolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Evolution processes Evolution processes depend on
The type of software being maintained; The development processes used; The skills and experience of the people involved.
Proposals for change are the driver for system evolution. Change identification and evolution continue throughout the system lifetime.
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Change identification and evolution
Change proposalsNew system
Change identificationprocess
Software evolutionprocess
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
The system evolution process
Releaseplanning
Changeimplementation
Systemrelease
Impactanalysis
Changerequests
Platformadaptation
Systemenhancement
Fault repair
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Urgent change requests Urgent changes may have to be implemented
without going through all stages of the software engineering process If a serious system fault has to be repaired;
If changes to the system’s environment (e.g. an OS upgrade) have unexpected effects;
If there are business changes that require a very rapid response (e.g. the release of a competing product).
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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SWE 316: Software Design and Architecture
Summary Software development and evolution should be a
single iterative process.
For custom systems, maintenance costs usually exceed development costs.
The process of evolution is driven by requests for changes from system stakeholders.
Types of software maintenances: corrective, adaptive, perfective, and preventive.
Introduction MaintenanceMaintenance
PredictionEvolution Processes
Urgent Change Requests
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