HW16: Chapter 9

Software Maintenance and Lasting Professionals

Three different types of software maintenance.

Fault repairs to fix bugs and vulnerabilities involves fixing existing problems with the code itself, the design of the system, or requirements issues. Coding errors are the simplest to fix and the financial and time costs go up when fixing design and requirements problems. A design error may require the developer to re-write many components and requirements errors may require a system overhaul to bring it within acceptable operating levels.

Environmental adaptation to adapt the software to new platforms and environments. I tend to think of this as updates to the 'things' the software runs on such as hardware or other software such as the operating system or some other piece of software that the system interfaces with. These changes may require changes to the system to allow continued operation.

Functionality addition to add new features and to support new requirements. These are typically responses to changes to the requirements due to changes in the organization utilizing the system. These could require extensive changes to the system and cost-benefit analysis should be thought about to ensure adapting the system to the new requirement is the best course of action, or if developing a new system will be more beneficial.

The differences in these maintenance types can be difficult to discern as they often accompany each other. If a system requires environmental adaptations, it is likely that new functionality will be considered at the same time. This can and will likely lead to coding errors and, hopefully not, design and requirements errors that need to be fixed as the process goes forward.

Do software engineers have a professional responsibility to develop code that can be easily maintained even if their employer does not explicitly request it?

I believe that it is important for a professional to perform their job to the best of their abilities and that means in part developing software to promote the longevity of it. Creating a system that is difficult to maintain or even poorly designed leads to a poor reputation for the developing team and will likely leave a bad taste in the mouths of the employer for future development efforts. The poor execution now will likely lead to second and third-order effects down the road and these should be mitigated whenever possible.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

HW10: Chapter 5

Image
System Modeling 5.3. You have been asked to develop a system that will help with planning large-scale events and parties such as weddings, graduation celebrations, and birthday parties. Using an activity diagram, model the process context for such a system that shows the activities involved in planning a party ( booking a venue, organizing invitations, etc.) and the system elements that might be used at each stage. This diagram does not include food, drinks, decorations, chairs, equipment, DJ, photography, or the other myriad of things possible at a party. It simply goes through the process of determining the size, date, venue, guest list, and invitations.     5.5 Develop a sequence diagram showing the interactions involved when a student registers for a course in a university. Courses may have limited enrollment, so the registration process must include checks that places are available. Assume that the student accesses an electronic course catalog to find out about a...
Read more

HW11: Chapter 6

Image
This is my take on the conceptual and process views of 3 different machines. I found myself having difficulty distinguishing between the two in some instances. I seemed to want to go directly to the process view and skip the conceptual view altogether. I'd like to find some simple, real-world examples of conceptual and then process view diagrams of the same system to see the differences. 6.4: Draw diagrams showing a conceptual view and a process view of the architectures of the following systems: A ticket machine used by passengers at a railway station. A computer-controlled video conferencing system that allows video, audio, and computer data to be visible to several participants at the same time. 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. %3CmxGraphModel%3E%3Croot%3E%3CmxCell%20id%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3CmxCell%20id%3D%221%22%20parent%3D%220%22%2...
Read more

HW26:Chapter 24

24.6. Explain why program inspections are an effective technique for discovering errors in a program. what types of errors are unlikely to be discovered through inspections? Program inspections are essentially peer reviews of code that take place during development. Teams collaborate and walk through code line-by-line in search of bugs, exceptions, erroneous conditions, in house compliance issues, as well as things the team deems worthy to discuss. They are considered good practice because they bring together a diverse set of engineers to review the code and it can also help create a company culture that understands the importance of acknowledging errors and moving forward to improving. Sommerville states that during program inspections, there is broad use of checklists to help guide the process. These checklists are typically language-based and cover a wide range of common errors found in the past. This could lead to a reliance on such lists and overlook some more technical issue...
Read more