University of Mauritius

UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
PAPER NO EXAMINATION DATE
Second Semester 2006/2007
BEEEE/ECE/06S/20 BEng (Hons) Electrical and Saturday

Electronic / Electronic and 26 May 2007
Communication Engineering
BEM/06S/20 BEng (Hons) Mechatronics
BScECS/06S/18 BSc (Hons) Electronics and

Computer Science
BScICT/06S/18 BSc (Hons) Information and

Communication Technologies
Level 3
SERIES PAPER TIME
May 2007 Software Engineering 9:30 – 11:30 Hours

[CSE 2212 / CSE 2212(5)]
This paper contains FIVE (5) Questions. Candidates are required to

answer ANY FOUR (4) Questions.
Each question carries 25 marks.
The following is attached:
Table 1: Albrecht complexity multipliers

Question 1
(a) Based on the type of system given below, suggest the most appropriate
software process model that might be used as a basis for managing the
development of each system. Give reasons for your answer.
(i) A virtual reality system to support software maintenance;
(ii) A university accounting system that replaces an existing system;
(iii) An interactive system that allows railway passengers to find train

times from terminals installed in stations.
[9 marks]
(b) Illustrate the process of incremental delivery by the use of a diagram. What
are the advantages of using such a model?
[4 marks]
(c) Why is it increasingly irrelevant to distinguish between software

development and evolution? [2 marks]
(d) Identify and briefly describe four types of requirements that may be defined
for a computer-based system. Give an example of each.
[4 marks]
(e) Suggest who might be the stakeholders in a university student records

system. Explain why it is almost inevitable that the requirements of different
stakeholders will conflict in some way. Give an example of a conflicting
requirement. [6 marks]
Question 2
(a) Identify and briefly describe the stages in an object-oriented development

process? [3 marks]
(b) Using examples, explain the difference between an object and an object class.
[4 marks]
(c) (i) Develop a sequence diagram showing the interactions involved when a
student registers for a course at a university. Courses may have limited
enrolment, so the registration process must include checks that places
are available.
Assume that the student accesses an electronic course catalogue to find

out about available courses. [6 marks]
(Continued next page)
Page 1 of 4
Question 2(Continued)
(ii) Draw a context model for a patient information system in a hospital.

You may make any reasonable assumptions about the other hospital
systems that are available, but your model must include a patient
admissions system and an image storage system for X-rays, as well as
other diagnostic records.
[4 marks]
(d) Briefly describe the 5 key stages in an object-oriented design process?

[5 marks]
(e) What perspectives may be used for system modelling? Give the purpose of
each.
[3 marks]
Question 3
(a) Giving reasons for your answer, suggest an appropriate structural model for
the following systems:
(i) An automated ticket-issuing system used by passengers at a railway

station.
(ii) A computer-controlled video conferencing system that allows video,
audio and computer data to be visible to several participants at the
same time.
(iii) A robot floor-cleaner that is intended to clean relatively clear spaces
such as corridors. The cleaner must be able to sense walls and other
obstructions.
[9 marks]
(b) Briefly describe the two distinct phases of system testing

[4 marks]
(c) Discuss the differences between verification and validation, and explain why
validation is a particularly a difficult process.
[5 marks]
(d) Explain why it is not necessary for a program to be completely free of defects
before it is delivered to its customers. To what extent can testing be used to
validate that the program is fit for its purpose?
[7 marks]
Page 2 of 4
Question 4
(a) Students on a course are required to produce a written report on an IT-related

topic each semester. If you wanted to create a model to estimate how long it
should take a student to complete such an assignment, what measure of work
content would you use? Some reports might be more difficult to produce than
others: what factors might affect the degree of difficulty?
[6 marks]
(b) As part of a payroll system at XYZ College, Mark the system engineer needs a
program that will extract yearly salaries from the payroll file, and the details
of courses and hours taught on each course by each member of the staff from
two files maintained by the time-tabling system. The program will calculate
the staff costs for each course and put the results into a file that will then be
read by the main accounting system. The program will also produce a report
showing for each course the hours taught by each member of the staff and the
cost of those hours. Using the Albrecht complexity multipliers provided
(Table 1), calculate the Albrecht function points for this subsystem, assuming
that the report is of high complexity, but that all the other elements are of
average complexity.
[10 marks]
(c) What factors might be considered when selecting people for a software
development team?
[4 marks]
(d) What are the strategic objectives of the People Capability Maturity Model (P-
CMM)?
[3 marks]
(e) What is egoless programming?

[2 marks]
Page 3 of 4
Question 5
(a) What are the three main quality management activities? Explain the function
of each.
[3 marks]
(b) Describe two ways in which software product measurements may be used.
[2 marks]
(c) Explain how standards may be used to capture organisational wisdom about
effective methods of software development. Suggest four types of knowledge
that might be captured in organisational standards.
[6 marks]
(d) Assume you work for an organisation that develops database products for
microcomputer systems. This organisation is interested in quantifying its
software development. Write a report suggesting appropriate metrics and
suggest how these can be collected.
[10 marks]
(e) Suggest four risks with supporting explanation that may threaten software
projects.
[4 marks]
END OF QUESTION PAPER
sg/
Page 4 of 4
Table 1
Albrecht Complexity multipliers
Page 5 of 4

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UNIVERSITY OF MAURITIUS

PAPER NO EXAMINATION DATE

Second Semester 2006/2007

BEEEE/ECE/06S/20 BEng (Hons) Electrical and Saturday

BEM/06S/20 BEng (Hons) Mechatronics

BScECS/06S/18 BSc (Hons) Electronics and

BScICT/06S/18 BSc (Hons) Information and

SERIES PAPER TIME

May 2007 Software Engineering 9:30 – 11:30 Hours

This paper contains FIVE (5) Questions. Candidates are required to

Each question carries 25 marks.

The following is attached:

Table 1: Albrecht complexity multipliers

(i) A virtual reality system to support software maintenance;

(ii) A university accounting system that replaces an existing system;

(iii) An interactive system that allows railway passengers to find train

(c) Why is it increasingly irrelevant to distinguish between software

(e) Suggest who might be the stakeholders in a university student records

(a) Identify and briefly describe the stages in an object-oriented development

Assume that the student accesses an electronic course catalogue to find

(Continued next page)

(ii) Draw a context model for a patient information system in a hospital.

(d) Briefly describe the 5 key stages in an object-oriented design process?

(i) An automated ticket-issuing system used by passengers at a railway

(b) Briefly describe the two distinct phases of system testing

(a) Students on a course are required to produce a written report on an IT-related

(e) What is egoless programming?

END OF QUESTION PAPER

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