UNIT-II: Life cycle phases: Engineering and production stages, inception, Elaboration,

construction, transition phases.

Artifacts of the process: The artifact sets, Management artifacts, Engineering artifacts,
programmatic artifacts.

Characteristic of a successful software development process is the well-defined separation between

"research and development" activities and "production" activities.

• Evolution of the plans, requirements, and architecture, together with well defined
synchronization points
• Risk management and objective measures of progress and quality
• Evolution of system capabilities through demonstrations of increasing functionality

ENGINEERING AND PRODUCTION STAGES

To achieve economies of scale and higher returns on investment, we must move toward a
software manufacturing process driven by technological improvements in process automation and
component-based development. Two stages of the life cycle are:

1. The engineering stage, driven by less predictable but smaller teams doing design and
synthesis activities
2. The production stage, driven by more predictable but larger teams doing construction, test,
and deployment activities

The transition between engineering and production is a crucial event for the various
stakeholders. The production plan has been agreed upon, and there is a good enough understanding
of the problem and the solution that all stakeholders can make a firm commitment to go ahead with
production.
Engineering stage is decomposed into two distinct phases, inception and elaboration, and the
production stage into construction and transition. These four phases of the life-cycle process are
loosely mapped to the conceptual framework of the spiral model as shown in Figure 5-1
INCEPTION PHASE
The overriding goal of the inception phase is to achieve concurrence among stakeholders on the life-
cycle objectives for the project.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
• Establishing the project's software scope and boundary conditions, including an operational
concept, acceptance criteria, and a clear understanding of what is and is not intended to be in
the product
• Discriminating the critical use cases of the system and the primary scenarios of operation that
will drive the major design trade-offs

• Demonstrating at least one candidate architecture against some of the primary scenanos
• Estimating the cost and schedule for the entire project (including detailed estimates for the
elaboration phase)
• Estimating potential risks (sources of unpredictability)
ESSENTIAL ACTMTIES
• Formulating the scope of the project. The information repository should be sufficient to define
the problem space and derive the acceptance criteria for the end product.

• Synthesizing the architecture. An information repository is created that is sufficient to

demonstrate the feasibility of at least one candidate architecture and an, initial baseline of
make/buy decisions so that the cost, schedule, and resource estimates can be derived.

• Planning and preparing a business case. Alternatives for risk management, staffing, iteration
plans,
and cost/schedule/profitability trade-offs are evaluated.

PRIMARY EVALUATION CRITERIA

• Do all stakeholders concur on the scope definition and cost and schedule estimates?
• Are requirements understood, as evidenced by the fidelity of the critical use cases?
• Are the cost and schedule estimates, priorities, risks, and development processes credible?
• Do the depth and breadth of an architecture prototype demonstrate the preceding criteria?
(The primary value of prototyping candidate architecture is to provide a vehicle for
 understanding the scope and assessing the credibility of the development group in solving the
particular technical problem.)
• Are actual resource expenditures versus planned expenditures acceptable

5.2 ELABORATION PHASE

At the end of this phase, the "engineering" is considered complete. The elaboration phase activities
must ensure that the architecture, requirements, and plans are stable enough, and the risks
sufficiently mitigated, that the cost and schedule for the completion of the development can be
predicted within an acceptable range. During the elaboration phase, an executable architecture
prototype is built in one or more iterations, depending on the scope, size, & risk.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
• Baselining the architecture as rapidly as practical (establishing a configuration-managed
snapshot in which all changes are rationalized, tracked, and maintained)
• Baselining the vision
• Baselining a high-fidelity plan for the construction phase
• Demonstrating that the baseline architecture will support the vision at a reasonable cost in a
reasonable time

ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES
• Elaborating the vision.
• Elaborating the process and infrastructure.
• Elaborating the architecture and selecting components.

PRIMARY EVALUATION CRITERIA

• Is the vision stable?
• Is the architecture stable?
• Does the executable demonstration show that the major risk elements have been addressed
and credibly resolved?
• Is the construction phase plan of sufficient fidelity, and is it backed up with a credible basis of
estimate?
• Do all stakeholders agree that the current vision can be met if the current plan is executed to
develop the complete system in the context of the current architecture?
• Are actual resource expenditures versus planned expenditures acceptable?

CONSTRUCTION PHASE
During the construction phase, all remaining components and application features are integrated
into the application, and all features are thoroughly tested. Newly developed software is integrated
where required. The construction phase represents a production process, in which emphasis is placed on
managing resources and controlling operations to optimize costs, schedules, and quality.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
 • Minimizing development costs by optimizing resources and avoiding unnecessary scrap and
rework
• Achieving adequate quality as rapidly as practical
• Achieving useful versions (alpha, beta, and other test releases) as rapidly as practical

ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES

• Resource management, control, and process optimization

• Complete component development and testing against evaluation criteria
• Assessment of product releases against acceptance criteria of the vision
PRIMARY EVALUATION CRITERIA
• Is this product baseline mature enough to be deployed in the user community? (Existing
defects are not obstacles to achieving the purpose of the next release.)
• Is this product baseline stable enough to be deployed in the user community? (Pending
changes are not obstacles to achieving the purpose of the next release.)
• Are the stakeholders ready for transition to the user community?
• Are actual resource expenditures versus planned expenditures acceptable?

TRANSITION PHASE
The transition phase is entered when a baseline is mature enough to be deployed in the end-user
domain. This typically requires that a usable subset of the system has been achieved with
acceptable quality levels and user documentation so that transition to the user will provide positive
results. This phase could include any of the following activities:

1. Beta testing to validate the new system against user expectations

2. Beta testing and parallel operation relative to a legacy system it is replacing
3. Conversion of operational databases
4. Training of users and maintainers
The transition phase concludes when the deployment baseline has achieved the complete vision.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES
• Achieving user self-supportability
• Achieving stakeholder concurrence that deployment baselines are complete and consistent
with the evaluation criteria of the vision
• Achieving final product baselines as rapidly and cost-effectively as practical

ESSENTIAL ACTIVITIES
• Synchronization and integration of concurrent construction increments into consistent
deployment baselines
• Deployment-specific engineering (cutover, commercial packaging and production, sales rollout
kit development, field personnel training)
 • Assessment of deployment baselines against the complete vision and acceptance criteria in the
requirements set

EVALUATION CRITERIA
• Is the user satisfied?
• Are actual resource expenditures versus planned expenditures acceptable ?

. Artifacts of the process

6.1 THE ARTIFACT SETS
To make the development of a complete software system manageable, distinct collections of
information are organized into artifact sets. Artifact represents cohesive information that typically is
developed and reviewed as a single entity.
Life-cycle software artifacts are organized into five distinct sets that are roughly partitioned by
the underlying language of the set: management (ad hoc textual formats), requirements (organized
text and models of the problem space), design (models of the solution space), implementation
(human-readable programming language and associated source files), and deployment (machine-
process able languages and associated files). The artifact sets are shown in Figure 6-1.

6.1.1 THE MANAGEMENT SET

The management set captures the artifacts associated with process planning and execution. These
artifacts use ad hoc notations, including text, graphics, or whatever representation is required to
capture the "contracts" among project personnel (project management, architects, developers,
testers, marketers, administrators), among stakeholders (funding authority, user, software project
manager, organization manager, regulatory agency), and between project personnel and
stakeholders. Specific artifacts included in this set are the work breakdown structure (activity
breakdown and financial tracking mechanism), the business case (cost, schedule, profit
expectations), the release specifications (scope, plan, objectives for release baselines), the software
development plan (project process instance), the release descriptions (results of release baselines),
the status assessments (periodic snapshots of project progress), the software change orders
(descriptions of discrete baseline changes), the deployment documents (cutover plan,
trainingcourse, sales rollout kit), and the environment(hardware and software tools, process
automation, & documentation).
Management set artifacts are evaluated, assessed, and measured through a combination of
the following: Relevant stakeholder review
• Analysis of changes between the current version of the artifact and previous versions
• Major milestone demonstrations of the balance among all artifacts and, in particular, the
accuracy of the business case and vision artifacts

6.1.2 THE ENGINEERING SETS

The engineering sets consist of the requirements set, the design set, the implementation set, and
the deployment set.

Requirements Set
Requirements artifacts are evaluated, assessed, and measured through a combination of the
following:

• Analysis of consistency with the release specifications of the management set

• Analysis of consistency between the vision and the requirements models
• Mapping against the design, implementation, and deployment sets to evaluate the consistency
and completeness and the semantic balance between information in the different sets

• Analysis of changes between the current version of requirements artifacts and previous
versions (scrap, rework, and defect elimination trends)
• Subjective review of other dimensions of quality

Design Set
UML notation is used to engineer the design models for the solution. The design set contains
varying levels of abstraction that represent the components of the solution space (their identities,
attributes, static relationships, dynamic interactions). The design set is evaluated, assessed, and
measured through a combination of the following:
• Analysis of the internal consistency and quality of the design model
• Analysis of consistency with the requirements models
• Translation into implementation and deployment sets and notations (for example, traceability,
source code generation, compilation, linking) to evaluate the consistency and completeness
and the semantic balance between information in the sets
• Analysis of changes between the current version of the design model and previous versions
(scrap, rework, and defect elimination trends)
• Subjective review of other dimensions of quality
Implementation set
The implementation set includes source code (programming language notations) that represents the
tangible implementations of components (their form, interface, and dependency relationships)
Implementation sets are human-readable formats that are evaluated, assessed, and measured
through a combination of the following:
• Analysis of consistency with the design models
 • Translation into deployment set notations (for example, compilation and linking) to evaluate
the consistency and completeness among artifact sets
• Assessment of component source or executable files against relevant evaluation criteria
through inspection, analysis, demonstration, or testing
• Execution of stand-alone component test cases that automatically compare expected results
with actual results
• Analysis of changes between the current version of the implementation set and previous
versions (scrap, rework, and defect elimination trends)
• Subjective review of other dimensions of quality

Deployment Set
The deployment set includes user deliverables and machine language notations, executable
software, and the build scripts, installation scripts, and executable target specific data necessary to
use the product in its target environment.
Deployment sets are evaluated, assessed, and measured through a combination of the following:

• Testing against the usage scenarios and quality attributes defined in the requirements set to
evaluate the consistency and completeness and the~ semantic balance between information in
the two sets
• Testing the partitioning, replication, and allocation strategies in mapping components of the
implementation set to physical resources of the deployment system (platform type, number,
network topology)
• Testing against the defined usage scenarios in the user manual such as installation, user-
oriented dynamic reconfiguration, mainstream usage, and anomaly management

• Analysis of changes between the current version of the deployment set and previous versions
(defect elimination trends, performance changes)
• Subjective review of other dimensions of quality
Each artifact set is the predominant development focus of one phase of the life cycle; the other sets
take on check and balance roles. As illustrated in Figure 6-2, each phase has a predominant focus:
Requirements are the focus of the inception phase; design, the elaboration phase; implementation,
the construction phase; and deployment, the transition phase. The management artifacts also
evolve, but at a fairly constant level across the life cycle.
Most of today's software development tools map closely to one of the five artifact sets.
1. Management: scheduling, workflow, defect tracking, change management, documentation,
spreadsheet, resource management, and presentation tools
2. Requirements: requirements management tools
3. Design: visual modeling tools
4. Implementation: compiler/debugger tools, code analysis tools, test coverage analysis tools,
and test management tools
5. Deployment: test coverage and test automation tools, network management tools,
commercial components (operating systems, GUIs, RDBMS, networks, middleware), and
installation tools.
Implementation Set versus Deployment Set
The separation of the implementation set (source code) from the deployment set (executable code)
is important because there are very different concerns with each set. The structure of the
information delivered to the user (and typically the test organization) is very different from the
structure of the source code information. Engineering decisions that have an impact on the quality
of the deployment set but are relatively incomprehensible in the design and implementation sets
include the following:

• Dynamically reconfigurable parameters (buffer sizes, color palettes, number of servers,

number of simultaneous clients, data files, run-time parameters)

• Effects of compiler/link optimizations (such as space optimization versus speed optimization)

• Performance under certain allocation strategies (centralized versus distributed, primary and
shadow threads, dynamic load balancing, hot backup versus checkpoint/rollback)

• Virtual machine constraints (file descriptors, garbage collection, heap size, maximum record
size, disk file rotations)
• Process-level concurrency issues (deadlock and race conditions)
• Platform-specific differences in performance or behavior

6.1.3 ARTIFACT EVOLUTION OVER THE LIFE CYCLE

Each state of development represents a certain amount of precision in the final system
description. Early in the life cycle, precision is low and the representation is generally high.
Eventually, the precision of representation is high and everything is specified in full detail. Each
phase of development focuses on a particular artifact set. At the end of each phase, the overall
system state will have progressed on all sets, as illustrated in Figure 6-3.
The inception phase focuses mainly on critical requirements usually with a secondary focus on an
initial deployment view. During the elaboration phase, there is much greater depth in requirements,
much more breadth in the design set, and further work on implementation and deployment issues.
The main focus of the construction phase is design and implementation. The main focus of the
transition phase is on achieving consistency and completeness of the deployment set in the context
of the other sets.

6.1.4 TEST ARTIFACTS

• The test artifacts must be developed concurrently with the product from inception through
deployment. Thus, testing is a full-life-cycle activity, not a late life-cycle activity.
• The test artifacts are communicated, engineered, and developed within the same artifact sets
as the developed product.
• The test artifacts are implemented in programmable and repeatable formats (as software
programs).
• The test artifacts are documented in the same way that the product is documented.
• Developers of the test artifacts use the same tools, techniques, and training as the software
engineers developing the product.
Test artifact subsets are highly project-specific, the following example clarifies the relationship
between test artifacts and the other artifact sets. Consider a project to perform seismic data
processing for the purpose of oil exploration. This system has three fundamental subsystems: (1) a
sensor subsystem that captures raw seismic data in real time and delivers these data to (2) a
technical operations subsystem that converts raw data into an organized database and manages
queries to this database from (3) a display subsystem that allows workstation operators to examine
seismic data in human-readable form. Such a system would result in the following test artifacts:

• Management set. The release specifications and release descriptions capture the objectives,
evaluation criteria, and results of an intermediate milestone. These artifacts are the test plans
and test results negotiated among internal project teams. The software change orders capture
 test results (defects, testability changes, requirements ambiguities, enhancements) and the
closure criteria associated with making a discrete change to a baseline.

• Requirements set. The system-level use cases capture the operational concept for the system
and the acceptance test case descriptions, including the expected behavior of the system and
its quality attributes. The entire requirement set is a test artifact because it is the basis of all
assessment activities across the life cycle.

• Design set. A test model for nondeliverable components needed to test the product baselines
is captured in the design set. These components include such design set artifacts as a seismic
event simulation for creating realistic sensor data; a "virtual operator" that can support
unattended, afterhours test cases; specific instrumentation suites for early demonstration of
resource usage; transaction rates or response times; and use case test drivers and component
stand-alone test drivers.

• Implementation set. Self-documenting source code representations for test components and
test drivers provide the equivalent of test procedures and test scripts. These source files may
also include human-readable data files representing certain statically defined data sets that
are explicit test source files. Output files from test drivers provide the equivalent of test
reports.

• Deployment set. Executable versions of test components, test drivers, and data files are
provided.

6.2 MANAGEMENT ARTIFACTS

The management set includes several artifacts that capture intermediate results and ancillary
information necessary to document the product/process legacy, maintain the product,
improve the product, and improve the process.

Business Case
The business case artifact provides all the information necessary to determine whether the
project is worth investing in. It details the expected revenue, expected cost, technical and
management plans, and backup data necessary to demonstrate the risks and realism of the
plans. The main purpose is to transform the vision into economic terms so that an organization
can make an accurate ROI assessment. The financial forecasts are evolutionary, updated with
more accurate forecasts as the life cycle progresses. Figure 6-4 provides a default outline for a
business case.
Software Development Plan
The software development plan (SDP) elaborates the process framework into a fully detailed
plan. Two indications of a useful SDP are periodic updating (it is not stagnant shelfware) and
understanding and acceptance by managers and practitioners alike. Figure 6-5 provides a
default outline for a software development plan.
Work Breakdown Structure
Work breakdown structure (WBS) is the vehicle for budgeting and collecting costs. To monitor and
control a project's financial performance, the software project man1ger must have insight into
project costs and how they are expended.The structure of cost accountability is a serious project
planning constraint.

Software Change Order Database

Managing change is one of the fundamental primitives of an iterative development process. With
greater change freedom, a project can iterate more productively. This flexibility increases the
content, quality, and number of iterations that a project can achieve within a given schedule.
Change freedom has been achieved in practice through automation, and today's iterative
development environments carry the burden of change management. Organizational processes that
depend on manual change management techniques have encountered major inefficiencies.

Release Specifications
The scope, plan, and objective evaluation criteria for each baseline release are derived from the
vision statement as well as many other sources (make/buy analyses, risk management concerns,
architectural considerations, shots in the dark, implementation constraints, quality thresholds).
These artifacts are intended to evolve along with the process, achieving greater fidelity as the life
cycle progresses and requirements understanding matures. Figure 6-6 provides a default outline for
a release specification

Release Descriptions
Release description documents describe the results of each release, including performance against
each of the evaluation criteria in the corresponding release specification. Release baselines should
be accompanied by a release description document that describes the evaluation criteria for that
configuration baseline and provides substantiation (through demonstration, testing, inspection, or
analysis) that each criterion has been addressed in an acceptable manner.Figure 6-7 provides a
default outline for a release description.

Status Assessments
Status assessments provide periodic snapshots of project health and status, including the software
project manager's risk assessment, quality indicators, and management indicators.Typical status
assessments should include a review of resources, personnel staffing, financial data (cost and
revenue), top 10 risks, technical progress (metrics snapshots), major milestone plans and results,
total project or product scope & action items

Environment
An important emphasis of a modern approach is to define the development and maintenance
environment as a first-class artifact of the process. A robust, integrated development environment
must support automation of the development process. This environment should include
requirements management, visual modeling, document automation, host and target programming
tools, automated regression testing, and continuous and integrated change management, and
feature and defect tracking.

Deployment
A deployment document can take many forms. Depending on the project, it could include several
document subsets for transitioning the product into operational status. In big contractual efforts in
which the system is delivered to a separate maintenance organization, deployment artifacts may
include computer system operations manuals, software installation manuals, plans and procedures
for cutover (from a legacy system), site surveys, and so forth. For commercial software products,
deployment artifacts may include marketing plans, sales rollout kits, and training courses.
Management Artifact Sequences
In each phase of the life cycle, new artifacts are produced and previously developed artifacts are
updated to incorporate lessons learned and to capture further depth and breadth of the solution.
Figure 6-8 identifies a typical sequence of artifacts across the life-cycle phases.
6.3 ENGINEERING ARTIFACTS
Most of the engineering artifacts are captured in rigorous engineering notations such as UML,
programming languages, or executable machine codes. Three engineering artifacts are explicitly
intended for more general review, and they deserve further elaboration .

Vision Document
The vision document provides a complete vision for the software system under development and.
supports the contract between the funding authority and the development organization. A project
vision is meant to be changeable as understanding evolves of the requirements, architecture, plans,
and technology. A good vision document should change slowly. Figure 6-9 provides a default outline
for a vision document.

Architecture Description
The architecture description provides an organized view of the software architecture under
development. It is extracted largely from the design model and includes views of the design,
implementation, and deployment sets sufficient to understand how the operational concept of the
requirements set will be achieved. The breadth of the architecture description will vary from project
to project depending on many factors.Figure 6-10 provides a default outline for an architecture
description.
Software User Manual
The software user manual provides the user with the reference documentation necessary to support
the delivered software. Although content is highly variable across application domains, the user
manual should include installation procedures, usage procedures and guidance, operational
constraints, and a user interface description, at a minimum. For software products with a user
interface, this manual should be developed early in the life cycle because it is a necessary
mechanism for communicating and stabilizing an important subset of requirements.The user manual
should be written by members of the test team, who are more likely to understand the user's
perspective than the development team.

6.4 PRAGMATIC ARTIFACTS

People want to review information but don't understand the language of the artifact. Many
interested reviewers of a particular artifact will resist having to learn the engineering language in
which the artifact is written. It is not uncommon to find people (such as veteran software managers,
veteran quality assurance specialists, or an auditing authority from a regulatory agency) who react
as follows: "I'm not going to learn UML, but I want to review the design of this software, so give me
a separate description such as some flowcharts and text that I can understand."
People want to review the information but don't have access to the tools. It is not very common
for the development organization to be fully tooled; it is extremely rare that the/other stakeholders
have any capability to review the engineering artifacts on-line. Consequently, organizations are
forced to exchange paper documents. Standardized formats (such as UML, spreadsheets, Visual
Basic, C++, and Ada 95), visualization tools, and the Web are rapidly making it economically feasible
for all stakeholders to exchange information electronically.
Human-readable engineering artifacts should use rigorous notations that are complete,
consistent, and used in a self-documenting manner. Properly spelled English words should be used
for all identifiers and descriptions. Acronyms and abbreviations should be used only where they are
well accepted jargon in the context of the component's usage. Readability should be emphasized
and the use of proper English words should be required in all engineering artifacts. This practice
enables understandable representations, browse able formats (paperless review), more-rigorous
notations, and reduced error rates.
Useful documentation is self-defining: It is documentation that gets used.