Principles That Guide Practice

Principles that Guide Practice
Principle #1. Divide and conquer. Stated in a more technical manner,

analysis and design should always emphasize separation of concerns
(SoC).
Principle #2. Understand the use of abstraction. At it core, an abstraction is

a simplification of some complex element of a system used to
communication meaning in a single phrase
Principle #3. Strive for consistency. A familiar context makes software

easier to use.
Principle #4. Focus on the transfer of information. Pay special attention to

the analysis, design, construction, and testing of interfaces.
Principles that Guide Practice
Principle #5. Build software that exhibits effective modularity. Separation of

concerns (Principle #1) establishes a philosophy for software.
Modularity provides a mechanism for realizing the philosophy.
Principle #6. Look for patterns. Brad Appleton [App00] suggests that:
The goal of patterns within the software community is to create a
body of literature to help software developers resolve recurring
problems encountered throughout all of software development.
Principle #7. When possible, represent the problem and its solution from a
number of different perspectives.
Principle #8. Remember that someone will maintain the software.
Communication Principles
Principle #1. Listen. Try to focus on the speakers words, rather than
formulating your response to those words.
Principle # 2.
Prepare before you communicate.
Spend the time to
understand the problem before you meet with others.
Principle # 3. Someone should facilitate the activity. Every communication

meeting should have a leader (a facilitator) to keep the conversation
moving in a productive direction; (2) to mediate any conflict that does
occur, and (3) to ensure than other principles are followed.
Principle #4. Face-to-face communication is best. But it usually works

better when some other representation of the relevant information is
present.
3
Communication Principles
Principle # 5. Take notes and document decisions. Someone participating in the

communication should serve as a recorder and write down all important points and
decisions.
Principle # 6. Strive for collaboration. Collaboration and consensus occur when the
collective knowledge of members of the team is combined
Principle # 7. Stay focused, modularize your discussion. The more people involved in
any communication, the more likely that discussion will bounce from one topic to the
next.
Principle # 8. If something is unclear, draw a picture.
Principle # 9. (a) Once you agree to something, move on; (b) If you cant agree to something,
move on; (c) If a feature or function is unclear and cannot be clarified at the moment, move on.
Principle # 10. Negotiation is not a contest or a game. It works best when both parties win.
Planning Principles
Principle #1. Understand the scope of the project. Its impossible to use a
roadmap if you dont know where youre going. Scope provides the
software team with a destination.
Principle #2. Involve the customer in the planning activity. The customer
defines priorities and establishes project constraints.
Principle #3. Recognize that planning is iterative. A project plan is never

engraved in stone. As work begins, it very likely that things will change.
Principle #4. Estimate based on what you know. The intent of estimation is
to provide an indication of effort, cost, and task duration, based on the
teams current understanding of the work to be done.
Planning Principles
Principle #5. Consider risk as you define the plan. If you have identified risks
that have high impact and high probability, contingency planning is necessary.
Principle #6. Be realistic. People dont work 100 percent of every day.
Principle #7. Adjust granularity as you define the plan. Granularity refers to
the level of detail that is introduced as a project plan is developed.
Principle #8. Define how you intend to ensure quality. The plan should identify
how the software team intends to ensure quality.
Principle #9. Describe how you intend to accommodate change.
Principle #10. Track the plan frequently and make adjustments as required.
Software projects fall behind schedule one day at a time.
Modeling Principles
In software engineering work, two classes of models can be
created:
Requirements models (also called analysis models)
represent the customer requirements by depicting the
software in three different domains:
The information domain(Problem )
The functional domain(Main functions)
Behavioral domain. (External interfaces)
Design models represent characteristics of the software
that help practitioners to construct it effectively: the
architecture, the user interface, and component-level
detail.
7
Requirements Modeling Principles

Principle #1. The information domain of a
problem must be represented and understood.
Principle #2. The functions that the software
performs must be defined.
Principle #3. The behavior of the software (as a
consequence of external events) must be represented.
Principle #4. The models that depict information,
function, and behavior must be partitioned
Principle #5. The analysis task should move from
essential information toward implementation detail.
8
Design Modeling Principles

Principle #1.
Design should be traceable to the
requirements model.
Principle #2.
Always consider the architecture of
the system to be built.

Principle #3.
Design of data is as important as
design of processing functions.

Principle #4. User interface design should be tuned
9
Agile Modeling Principles

Principle #1. The primary goal of the
software team is to build software, not
create models.
Principle #2. Travel lightdont create
more models than you need.
Principle
#3.
Strive
to
produce
the
simplest model that will describe the

problem or the software.
10
Construction Principles
The construction activity encompasses a set of
coding
and
testing
tasks
that
lead
to
operational software that is ready for delivery

to the customer or end-user.
Coding principles and concepts are closely

aligned
programming
style,
programming
languages, and programming methods.
Testing principles and concepts11 lead to the
Preparation Principles
Before you write one line of code, be sure you:
Understand of the problem youre trying to
solve.
Understand basic design principles and
concepts.
Pick a programming language that meets the
needs of the software to be built and the
environment in which it will operate.
12
Select a programming environment that
Coding Principles
As you begin writing code, be sure you:
Constrain your algorithms by following structured programming
[Boehm's] practice.
Consider the use of pair programming
Select data structures that will meet the needs of the design.
Understand the software architecture and create interfaces that are
consistent with it.

Keep conditional logic as simple as possible.
Create nested loops in a way that makes them easily testable.
Select meaningful variable names and follow other local coding
standards.
Write code that is self-documenting.
Create a visual layout (e.g., indentation and blank lines) that aids
understanding.
13
Validation Principles
After youve completed your first coding pass, be sure you:
Conduct a code walkthrough when

appropriate.
Perform unit tests and correct errors
youve uncovered.
14
Testing Principles
Al Davis [Dav95] suggests the following:
Principle #1. All tests should be traceable to customer

requirements.
Principle #2. Tests should be planned long before testing begins.
Principle #3. The Pareto principle applies to software testing.
Principle #4. Testing should begin in the small and progress
toward testing in the large.
Principle #5. Exhaustive (All possible data combinations are
used) testing is not possible.
15
Deployment Principles
Principle #1.
Customer expectations for the software must be managed.
Too often, the customer expects more than the team has promised to deliver,
and disappointment occurs immediately.
Principle #2. A complete delivery package should be assembled and tested.
Principle #3.
delivered.
A support regime must be established before the software is
An end-user expects responsiveness and accurate information
when a question or problem arises.

Principle #4. Appropriate instructional materials must be provided to endusers.
Principle #5. Buggy software should be fixed first, delivered late r.
16

Principles That Guide Practice

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Principles That Guide Practice

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What principles guide software development practices?

What principles guide software development practices?

What principles guide effective communication?

What principles guide effective communication?

Principles that Guide Practice

Principle #1. Divide and conquer. Stated in a more technical manner,

Principle #2. Understand the use of abstraction. At it core, an abstraction is

Principle #3. Strive for consistency. A familiar context makes software

Principle #4. Focus on the transfer of information. Pay special attention to

Principles that Guide Practice

Principle #5. Build software that exhibits effective modularity. Separation of

Principle #8. Remember that someone will maintain the software.

Prepare before you communicate.

Spend the time to

understand the problem before you meet with others.

Principle # 3. Someone should facilitate the activity. Every communication

Principle #4. Face-to-face communication is best. But it usually works

Principle # 5. Take notes and document decisions. Someone participating in the

Principle # 8. If something is unclear, draw a picture.

Principle #3. Recognize that planning is iterative. A project plan is never

Principle #9. Describe how you intend to accommodate change.

Requirements Modeling Principles

Design Modeling Principles

Design should be traceable to the

Always consider the architecture of

the system to be built.

Design of data is as important as

design of processing functions.

Agile Modeling Principles

simplest model that will describe the

operational software that is ready for delivery

Coding principles and concepts are closely

languages, and programming methods.

Testing principles and concepts11 lead to the

Select a programming environment that

As you begin writing code, be sure you:

Constrain your algorithms by following structured programming

consistent with it.

After youve completed your first coding pass, be sure you:

Conduct a code walkthrough when

Principle #1. All tests should be traceable to customer

Customer expectations for the software must be managed.

A support regime must be established before the software is

An end-user expects responsiveness and accurate information

when a question or problem arises.

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