UNIT-5

Software Maintenance
Software maintenance is a part of the Software Development Life Cycle. Its
primary goal is to modify and update software application after delivery to
correct errors and to improve performance. Software is a model of the real
world. When the real world changes, the software require alteration wherever
possible.

Software Maintenance is an inclusive activity that includes error corrections,

enhancement of capabilities, deletion of obsolete capabilities, and
optimization.

Need for Maintenance

Software Maintenance is needed for:-

o Correct errors
o Change in user requirement with time
o Changing hardware/software requirements
o To improve system efficiency
o To optimize the code to run faster
o To modify the components
o To reduce any unwanted side effects.

Thus the maintenance is required to ensure that the system continues to

satisfy user requirements. Backward Skip
Types of Software Maintenance

1. Corrective Maintenance
Corrective maintenance aims to correct any remaining errors regardless of
where they may cause specifications, design, coding, testing, and
documentation, etc.

2. Adaptive Maintenance
It contains modifying the software to match changes in the ever-changing
environment.

3. Preventive Maintenance
It is the process by which we prevent our system from being obsolete. It
involves the concept of reengineering & reverse engineering in which an old
system with old technology is re-engineered using new technology. This
maintenance prevents the system from dying out.
4. Perfective Maintenance
It defines improving processing efficiency or performance or restricting the
software to enhance changeability. This may contain enhancement of existing
system functionality, improvement in computational efficiency, etc.

SCM Process
It uses the tools which keep that the necessary change has been implemented
adequately to the appropriate component. The SCM process defines a number
of tasks:

o Identification of objects in the software configuration

o Version Control
o Change Control
o Configuration Audit
o Status Reporting
Identification

Basic Object: Unit of Text created by a software engineer during analysis,

design, code, or test.

Aggregate Object: A collection of essential objects and other aggregate

objects. Design Specification is an aggregate object.

Each object has a set of distinct characteristics that identify it uniquely: a

name, a description, a list of resources, and a "realization."

The interrelationships between configuration objects can be described

with a Module Interconnection Language (MIL).

Version Control

Version Control combines procedures and tools to handle different version of

configuration objects that are generated during the software process.
Clemm defines version control in the context of SCM: Configuration
management allows a user to specify the alternative configuration of the
software system through the selection of appropriate versions. This is
supported by associating attributes with each software version, and then
allowing a configuration to be specified [and constructed] by describing the
set of desired attributes.

Change Control

James Bach describes change control in the context of SCM is: Change Control
is Vital. But the forces that make it essential also make it annoying.

We worry about change because a small confusion in the code can create a
big failure in the product. But it can also fix a significant failure or enable
incredible new capabilities.

We worry about change because a single rogue developer could sink the
project, yet brilliant ideas originate in the mind of those rogues, and

A burdensome change control process could effectively discourage them from

doing creative work.

A change request is submitted and calculated to assess technical merit;

potential side effects, the overall impact on other configuration objects and
system functions, and projected cost of the change.

The results of the evaluations are presented as a change report, which is used
by a change control authority (CCA) - a person or a group who makes a final
decision on the status and priority of the change.

The "check-in" and "check-out" process implements two necessary elements

of change control-access control and synchronization control.

Access Control governs which software engineers have the authority to

access and modify a particular configuration object.

Synchronization Control helps to ensure that parallel changes, performed by

two different people, don't overwrite one another.
Configuration Audit

SCM audits to verify that the software product satisfies the baselines
requirements and ensures that what is built and what is delivered.

SCM audits also ensure that traceability is maintained between all CIs and that
all work requests are associated with one or more CI modification.

SCM audits are the "watchdogs" that ensures that the integrity of the
project's scope is preserved.

Status Reporting

Configuration Status reporting (sometimes also called status accounting) providing accurate
status and current configuration data to developers, testers, end users, customers and
stakeholders through admin guides, user guides, FAQs, Release Notes, Installation Guide,
Configuration Guide, etc.

What is Software Engineering?

It is a branch of Computer Science which deals with the design, development, testing,
deployment and maintenance of a software application. Software engineering enables to build
real world software solutions for the end users or customers.

Re — Engineering

1. It is a process to re design a product or a particular component

2. It is also called as software refactoring

3. It is like a modification of the existing product to improve its performance, maintainability

and adaptability

4. It is a cost effective method as a part of the software is altered instead of the entire product

5. Less coding knowledge is required for re-engineering

6. This practice is generally followed for safety issues or to update a new feature into the

product’s existing functionality

 7. Re-engineering takes less time in comparison to Reverse Engineering

Why is Re-Engineering required

1. To adapt to changing business needs: As business requirements changes, it is important to

re-structure the software to support new technology

2. To improve quality of software: Re engineering can help identify and rectify errors and

defects, thus making the software robust and reliable

3. To modernize the software: As technology is dynamic and is constantly changing, it is

important to keep the software updated which can be achieved via the process of re-

engineering

Reverse Engineering –

Reverse Engineering is processes of extracting knowledge or design information from anything

man-made and reproducing it based on extracted information. It is also called back Engineering.

Software Reverse Engineering – Software Reverse Engineering is the process of recovering the
design and the requirements specification of a product from an analysis of it’s code. Reverse
Engineering is becoming important, since several existing software products, lack proper
documentation, are highly unstructured, or their structure has degraded through a series of
maintenance efforts.

Why Reverse Engineering?

 Providing proper system documentation.

 Recovery of lost information.
 Assisting with maintenance.
 Facility of software reuse.
 Discovering unexpected flaws or faults.

 Uses of Software Reverse Engineering – Software Reverse Engineering is used in

software design, reverse engineering enables the developer or programmer to add new
features to the existing software with or without knowing the source code.
 Reverse engineering is also useful in software testing, it helps the testers to study the
virus and other malware code .

Cost of Maintenance

 Reports suggest that the cost of maintenance is high. A study on estimating software
maintenance found that the cost of maintenance is as high as 67% of the cost of entire
software process cycle.

 On an average, the cost of software maintenance is more than 50% of all SDLC phases.
There are various factors, which trigger maintenance cost go high, such as:
Real-world factors affecting Maintenance Cost.
 The standard age of any software is considered up to 10 to 15 years.
 Older softwares, which were meant to work on slow machines with less memory and
storage capacity cannot keep themselves challenging against newly coming enhanced
softwares on modern hardware.
 As technology advances, it becomes costly to maintain old software.
 Most maintenance engineers are newbie and use trial and error method to rectify
problem.
 Often, changes made can easily hurt the original structure of the software, making it hard
for any subsequent changes.
 Changes are often left undocumented which may cause more conflicts in future.

Software-end factors affecting Maintenance Cost

Structure of Software Program

 Programming Language
 Dependence on external environment
 Staff reliability and availability

Maintenance Activities
IEEE provides a framework for sequential maintenance process activities. It can be used
in iterative manner and can be extended so that customized items and processes can be
included.

These activities go hand-in-hand with each of the following phase:

Identification & Tracing - It involves activities pertaining to identification of

requirement of modification or maintenance. It is generated by user or system may itself
report via logs or error messages. Here, the maintenance type is classified also.

Analysis - The modification is analyzed for its impact on the system including safety and
security implications. If probable impact is severe, alternative solution is looked for. A
set of required modifications is then materialized into requirement specifications. The
cost of modification/maintenance is analyzed and estimation is concluded.

Design - New modules, which need to be replaced or modified, are designed against
requirement specifications set in the previous stage. Test cases are created for validation
and verification.

Implementation - The new modules are coded with the help of structured design created
in the design step. Every programmer is expected to do unit testing in parallel.

System Testing - Integration testing is done among newly created modules. Integration
testing is also carried out between new modules and the system. Finally the system is
tested as a whole, following regressive testing procedures.
Acceptance Testing - After testing the system internally, it is tested for acceptance with
the help of users. If at this state, user complaints some issues they are addressed or noted
to address in next iteration.

Delivery - After acceptance test, the system is deployed all over the organization either
by small update package or fresh installation of the system. The final testing takes place
at client end after the software is delivered. Training facility is provided if required, in
addition to the hard copy of user manual.

Maintenance management - Configuration management is an essential part of system

maintenance. It is aided with version control tools to control versions, semi-version or
patch management.

Software Re-engineering

When we need to update the software to keep it to the current market, without impacting
its functionality, it is called software re-engineering. It is a thorough process where the
design of software is changed and programs are re-written.

Legacy software cannot keep tuning with the latest technology available in the market.
As the hardware become obsolete, updating of software becomes a headache. Even if
software grows old with time, its functionality does not.
For example, initially Unix was developed in assembly language. When language C
came into existence, Unix was re-engineered in C, because working in assembly language
was difficult.

Other than this, sometimes programmers notice that few parts of software need more
maintenance than others and they also need re-engineering.
Re-Engineering Process

 Decide what to re-engineer. Is it whole software or a part of it?

 Perform Reverse Engineering, in order to obtain specifications of existing software.
Restructure Program if required. For example, changing function-oriented programs
into object oriented programs.
 Re-structure data as required.
 Apply Forward engineering concepts in order to get re-engineered software.

There are few important terms used in Software re-engineering;

Reverse Engineering

It is a process to achieve system specification by thoroughly analyzing,

understanding the existing system. This process can be seen as reverse SDLC
model, i.e. we try to get higher abstraction level by analyzing lower abstraction
levels.

An existing system is previously implemented design, about which we know

nothing. Designers then do reverse engineering by looking at the code and try to
get the design. With design in hand, they try to conclude the specifications. Thus,
going in reverse from code to system specification.
Program Restructuring

It is a process to re-structure and re-construct the existing software. It is all about

re-arranging the source code, either in same programming language or from one
programming language to a different one. Restructuring can have either source
code-restructuring and data-restructuring or both.

Re-structuring does not impact the functionality of the software but enhance
reliability and maintainability. Program components, which cause errors very
frequently can be changed, or updated with re-structuring.

The dependability of software on obsolete hardware platform can be removed via

re-structuring.

Forward Engineering

Forward engineering is a process of obtaining desired software from the

specifications in hand which were brought down by means of reverse
engineering. It assumes that there was some software engineering already done in
the past. Forward engineering is same as software engineering process with only
one difference – it is carried out always after reverse engineering.

Component reusability

A component is a part of software program code, which executes an independent

task in the system. It can be a small module or sub-system itself.

Example The login procedures used on the web can be considered as components,
printing system in software can be seen as a component of the software.

Components have high cohesion of functionality and lower rate of coupling, i.e.
they work independently and can perform tasks without depending on other
modules.

In OOP, the objects are designed are very specific to their concern and have
fewer chances to be used in some other software.

In modular programming, the modules are coded to perform specific tasks which
can be used across number of other software programs.
 There is a whole new vertical, which is based on re-use of software component,
and is known as Component Based Software Engineering (CBSE).

Re-use can be done at various levels

 Application level - Where an entire application is used as sub-system of new

software.
 Component level - Where sub-system of an application is used.
 Modules level - Where functional modules are re-used.

Software components provide interfaces, which can be used to establish

communication among different components.

Reuse Process

Two kinds of method can be adopted: either by keeping requirements same and
adjusting components or by keeping components same and modifying
requirements.

 Requirement Specification - The functional and non-functional

requirements are specified, which a software product must comply to,
with the help of existing system, user input or both.
 Design - This is also a standard SDLC process step, where requirements
are defined in terms ofsoftware parlance. Basic architecture of system as a
whole and its sub-systems are created.
 Specify Components - By studying the software design, the designers
segregate the entire system into smaller components or sub-systems. One
complete software design turns into a collection of a huge set of
components working together.
 Search Suitable Components - The software component repository is
referred by designers to search for the matching component, on the basis
of functionality and intended software requirements.
Incorporate Components - All matched components are packed
together to shape them as complete software.

System Configuration Management (SCM) is an arrangement of

exercises which controls change by recognizing the items for change,
setting up connections between those things, making/characterizing
instruments for overseeing diverse variants, controlling the changes being
executed in the current framework, inspecting and revealing/reporting on
the changes made. It is essential to control the changes in light of the fact
that if the changes are not checked legitimately then they may wind up
undermining a well-run programming. In this way, SCM is a fundamental
piece of all project management activities.

Processes involved in SCM – Configuration management provides a

disciplined environment for smooth control of work products.

It involves the following activities:

Identification and Establishment – Identifying the configuration items

from products that compose baselines at given points in time (a baseline is
a set of mutually consistent Configuration Items, which has been formally
reviewed and agreed upon, and serves as the basis of further
development). Establishing relationship among items, creating a
mechanism to manage multiple level of control and procedure for change
management system.

Version control – Creating versions/specifications of the existing product

to build new products from the help of SCM system. A description of
version is given below:
Suppose after some changes, the version of configuration object changes
from 1.0 to 1.1. Minor corrections and changes result in versions 1.1.1 and
1.1.2, which is followed by a major update that is object 1.2. The
development of object 1.0 continues through 1.3 and 1.4, but finally, a
noteworthy change to the object results in a new evolutionary path,
version 2.0. Both versions are currently supported.

Change control – Controlling changes to Configuration items (CI). The

change control process is explained in Figure below:
 A change request (CR) is submitted and evaluated to assess technical merit, potential side
effects, overall impact on other configuration objects and system functions, and the projected cost
of the change. The results of the evaluation are presented as a change report, which is used by a
change control board (CCB) —a person or group who makes a final decision on the status and
priority of the change. An engineering change Request (ECR) is generated for each approved
change.

Also CCB notifies the developer in case the change is rejected with proper reason. The ECR
describes the change to be made, the constraints that must be respected, and the criteria for
review and audit. The object to be changed is ―checked out‖ of the project database, the
change is made, and then the object is tested again. The object is then ―checked in‖ to the
database and appropriate version control mechanisms are used to create the next version of the
software.

Configuration auditing –
A software configuration audit complements the formal technical review of the process and
product. It focuses on the technical correctness of the configuration object that has been
modified. The audit confirms the completeness, correctness and consistency of items in the
SCM system and track action items from the audit to closure.
Reporting –

Providing accurate status and current configuration data to developers, tester, end users,
customers and stakeholders through admin guides, user guides, FAQs, Release notes, Memos,
Installation Guide, Configuration guide etc .

SCM Tools –

Different tools are available in market for SCM like: CFEngine, Bcfg2 server, Vagrant,
SmartFrog, CLEAR CASETOOL (CC), SaltStack, CLEAR QUEST TOOL, Puppet,
SVNSubversion, Perforce, TortoiseSVN, IBM Rational team concert, IBM Configuration
management version management, Razor, Ansible, etc. There are many more in the list. It is
recommended that before selecting any configuration management tool, have a proper
understanding of the features and select the tool which best suits your project needs and be
clear with the benefits and drawbacks of each before you choose one to use.

Difference between Forward Engineering and Reverse Engineering

Forward Engineering:

Forward Engineering is a method of creating or making an application with the help of the
given requirements. Forward engineering is also known as Renovation and Reclamation.
Forward engineering is required high proficiency skill. It takes more time to construct or
develop an application.

Reverse Engineering:

Reverse Engineering is also known as backward engineering, is the process of forward engineering in
reverse. In this, the information are collected from the given or exist application. It takes less time than
forward engineering to develop an application. In reverse engineering the application are broken to
extract knowledge or its architecture.
Difference between Forward Engineering and Reverse Engineering:
.
Software Re-engineering

Software Re-engineering is a process of software development which is done to improve the

maintainability of a software system. Re-engineering is the examination and alteration of a
system to reconstitute it in a new form. This process encompasses a combination of
subprocesses like reverse engineering, forward engineering, reconstructing etc. Re-engineering
is the reorganizing and modifying existing software systems to make them more maintainable.

Objectives of Re-engineering:

To describe a cost-effective option for system evolution

 To describe the activities involved in the software maintenance process.
 To distinguish between software and data re-engineering and to explain the problems of data
re-engineering.

Steps involved in Re-engineering:

1. Inventory Analysis
2. Document Reconstruction
3. Reverse Engineering
4. Code Reconstruction
5. Data Reconstruction
6. Forward Engineering

Diagrammatic Representation:
Re-engineering Cost Factors:

The quality of the software to be re-engineered.

The tool support available for re-engineering
The extent of the required data conversion
The availability of expert staff for re-engineering

Advantages of Re-engineering:

Reduced Risk: As the software is already existing, the risk is less as compared to new
software development. Development problems, staffing problems and specification problems
are the lots of problems which may arise in new software development.

Reduced Cost: The cost of re-engineering is less than the costs of developing new software.

Software Engineering:

Software engineering covers not only the technical aspects of building software systems, but
also management issues, such as directing programming teams, scheduling, and budgeting.

Software engineering is an engineering branch associated with development of software

product using well-defined scientific principles, methods and procedures. The outcome of
software engineering is an efficient and reliable software product.

Software project management has wider scope than software engineering process as it involves
communication, pre and post-delivery support etc.

The need of software engineering arises because of higher rate of change in user requirements
and environment on which the software is working.

 Large software- It is easier to build a wall than to a house or building, likewise, as the
size of software become large engineering has to step to give it a scientific process.
 Scalability- If the software process were not based on scientific and engineering
concepts, it would be easier to re-create new software than to scale an existing one.

 Cost- As hardware industry has shown its skills and huge manufacturing has lower
down the price of computer and electronic hardware. But the cost of software remains
high if proper process is not adapted.

 Dynamic Nature- The always growing and adapting nature of software hugely depends
upon the environment in which user works. If the nature of software is always changing,
new enhancements need to be done in the existing one. This is where software
engineering plays a good role.
 Quality Management- Better process of software development provides better and
quality software product.
RE Engineering:

• Restructuring or rewriting part or all of a system without changing its functionality

• Applicable when some (but not all) subsystems of a larger system require frequent
maintenance
• Reengineering involves putting in the effort to make it easier to maintain
• The reengineered system may also be restructured and should be re-documented

When do you decide to reengineer?

• When system changes are confined to one subsystem, the subsystem needs to be reengineered
• When hardware or software support becomes obsolete
• When tools to support restructuring are readily available

Economics of Reengineering:

• Cost of maintenance: cost annual of operation and maintenance over application lifetime
• Cost of reengineering: predicted return on investment reduced by cost of implementing
changes and engineering risk factors
• Cost benefit: Cost of re engineering - Cost of maintenance

Re-engineering advantages:

Reduced risk

There is a high risk in new software development. There may be development problems,
staffing problems and specification problems.

Reduced cost :The cost of re-engineering is often significantly less than the costs of
developing new software
The complete Software Re-Engineering lifecycle includes:

Product Management: Risks analysis, root cause analysis, business analysis, requirements
elicitation and management, product planning and scoping, competitive analysis.

Research and Innovation: Definition of a problem, data gathering and analysis, identifying a
solution and developing best-of-breed or innovative algorithms, verification of quality for data
and results, patent preparation .

Product Development: Technology analysis and selection, software architecture and design,
data architecture, deployment architecture, prototyping and production code development,
comprehensive software testing, data quality testing, and product packaging and deployment
preparation.

Product Delivery and Support: Hardware/Platform analysis and selection, deployment and
release procedures definition, installations and upgrades, tracking support issues, organizing
maintenance releases.

Project Management: Brings efficiency and productivity to your software re-engineering

project by utilizing modern, practical software project management, software quality assurance,
data quality assurance, and advanced risk management techniques.

Reverse Engineering:

Reverse engineering is taking apart an object to see how it works in order to duplicate or
enhance the object. The practice, taken from older industries, is now frequently used on
computer hardware and software. Software reverse engineering involves reversing a program's
machine code (the string of 0s and 1s that are sent to the logic processor) back into the source
code that it was written in, using program language statements. Reverse-engineering is used for
many purposes: as a learning tool; as a way to make new, compatible products that are cheaper
than what's currently on the market; for making software interoperate more effectively or to
bridge data between different operating systems or databases; and to uncover the
undocumented features of commercial products.

Following are reasons for reverse engineering a part or product:

1. The original manufacturer of a product no longer produces a product

2. There is inadequate documentation of the original design
3. The original manufacturer no longer exists, but a customer needs the product
4. The original design documentation has been lost or never existed
5. Some bad features of a product need to be designed out. For example, excessive wear might
indicate where a product should be improved
6. To strengthen the good features of a product based on long-term usage of the product
7. To analyze the good and bad features of competitors' product
8. To explore new avenues to improve product performance and features
 9. To gain competitive benchmarking methods to understand competitor's products and
develop better products
10. The original CAD model is not sufficient to support modifications or current manufacturing
methods
11. The original supplier is unable or unwilling to provide additional parts
12. The original equipment manufacturers are either unwilling or unable to supply replacement
parts, or demand inflated costs for sole-source parts
13. To update obsolete materials or antiquated manufacturing processes with more current,
less-expensive technologies.

Software Project Management (SPM)

Software Project Management (SPM) is a proper way of planning and leading software
projects. It is a part of project management in which software projects are planned,
implemented, monitored and controlled.

Need of Software Project Management:

Software is an non-physical product. Software development is a new stream in business and

there is very little experience in building software products. Most of the software products are
made to fit client’s requirements. The most important is that the basic technology changes and
advances so frequently and rapidly that experience of one product may not be applied to the
other one. Such type of business and environmental constraints increase risk in software
development hence it is essential to manage software projects efficiently.

It is necessary for an organization to deliver quality product, keeping the cost within client’s
budget constrain and deliver the project as per scheduled. Hence in order, software project
management is necessary to incorporate user requirements along with budget and time
constraints.

Software Project Management consists of several different type of managements:

1. Conflict Management: Conflict management is the process to restrict the negative features
of conflict while increasing the positive features of conflict. The goal of conflict management is
to improve learning and group results including efficacy or performance in an organizational
setting. Properly managed conflict can enhance group results.
2. Risk Management: Risk management is the analysis and identification of risks that is
followed by synchronized and economical implementation of resources to minimize, operate
and control the possibility or effect of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of
opportunities.
3. Requirement Management: It is the process of analyzing, prioritizing, tracing and
documenting on requirements and then supervising change and communicating to pertinent
stakeholders. It is a continuous process during a project.
4. Change Management: Change management is a systematic approach for dealing with the
transition or transformation of an organization’s goals, processes or technologies. The purpose
of change management is to execute strategies for effecting change, controlling change and
helping people to adapt to change.
5. Software Configuration Management: Software configuration management is the process
of controlling and tracing changes in the software, part of the larger cross-disciplinary field of
configuration management. Software configuration management include revision control and
the inauguration of baselines.
6. Release Management: Release Management is the task of planning, controlling and
scheduling the build in deploying releases. Release management ensures that organization
delivers new and enhanced services required by the customer, while protecting the integrity of
existing services.

Aspects of Software Project Management:

Advantages of Software Project Management:

It helps in planning of software development.

 Implementation of software development is made easy.
 Monitoring and controlling are aspects of software project management
. It overall manages to save time and cost for software development

Feasibility is defined as the practical extent to which a project can be performed successfully.
To evaluate feasibility, a feasibility study is performed, which determines whether the solution
considered to accomplish the requirements is practical and workable in the software.
Information such as resource availability, cost estimation for software development, benefits of
the software to the organization after it is developed and cost to be incurred on its maintenance
are considered during the feasibility study. The objective of the feasibility study is to establish
the reasons for developing the software that is acceptable to users, adaptable to change and
conformable to established standards.

Various other objectives of feasibility study are listed below.

• To analyze whether the software will meet organizational requirements.

• To determine whether the software can be implemented using the current technology and
within the specified budget and schedule.
• To determine whether the software can be integrated with other existing software.

Types of Feasibility

Various types of feasibility that are commonly considered include technical feasibility,
operational feasibility, and economic feasibility.

Technical feasibility assesses the current resources (such as hardware and software) and
technology, which are required to accomplish user requirements in the software within the
allocated time and budget. For this, the software development team ascertains whether the
current resources and technology can be upgraded or added in the software to accomplish
specified user requirements. Technical feasibility also performs the following tasks.

• Analyzes the technical skills and capabilities of the software development team members.
• Determines whether the relevant technology is stable and established.
• Ascertains that the technology chosen for software development has a large number of users
so that they can be consulted when problems arise or improvements are required.
 Operational feasibility assesses the extent to which the required software performs a series of
steps to solve business problems and user requirements. This feasibility is dependent on human
resources (software development team) and involves visualizing whether the software will
operate after it is developed and be operative once it is installed. Operational feasibility also
performs the following tasks.

• Determines whether the problems anticipated in user requirements are of high priority.
• Determines whether the solution suggested by the software development team is acceptable.
• Analyzes whether users will adapt to a new software.
• Determines whether the organization is satisfied by the alternative solutions proposed by the
software development team.

Economic feasibility determines whether the required software is capable of generating

financial gains for an organization. It involves the cost incurred on the software development
team, estimated cost of hardware and software, cost of performing feasibility study, and so on.
For this, it is essential to consider expenses made on purchases (such as hardware purchase)
and activities required to carry out software development. In addition, it is necessary to
consider the benefits that can be achieved by developing the software. Software is said to be
economically feasible if it focuses on the issues listed below.
• Cost incurred on software development to produce long-term gains for an organization.
• Cost required to conduct full software investigation (such as requirements elicitation and
requirements analysis).
• Cost of hardware, software, development team, and training.

Feasibility Study Process

Feasibility study comprises the following steps.

• Information assessment: Identifies information about whether the system helps in achieving
the objectives of the organization. It also verifies that the system can be implemented using
new technology and within the budget and whether the system can be integrated with the
existing system.

• Information collection: Specifies the sources from where information about software can be
obtained. Generally, these sources include users (who will operate the software), organization
(where the software will be used), and the software development team (which understands user
requirements and knows how to fulfill them in software).

• Report writing: Uses a feasibility report, which is the conclusion of the feasibility study by
the software development team. It includes the recommendations whether the software
development should continue. This report may also include information about changes in the
software scope, budget, and schedule and suggestions of any requirements in the system.

• General information: Describes the purpose and scope of feasibility study. It also describes
system overview, project references, acronyms and abbreviations, and points of contact to be
used. System overview provides description about the name of the organization responsible for
the software development, system name or title, system category, operational status, and so on.
Project references provide a list of the references used to prepare this document such as
documents relating to the project or previously developed documents that are related to the
project. Acronyms and abbreviations provide a list of the terms that are used in this document
along with their meanings. Points of contact provide a list of points of organizational contact
with users for information and coordination. For example, users require assistance to solve
problems (such as troubleshooting) and collect information such as contact number, e-mail
address, and so on.

Management summary: Provides the following information.

• Environment: Identifies the individuals responsible for software development. It provides

information about input and output requirements, processing requirements of the software and
the interaction of the software with other software. It also identifies system security
requirements and the system's processing requirements
• Current functional procedures: Describes the current functional procedures of the existing
system, whether automated or manual. It also includes the data-flow of the current system and
the number of team members required to operate and maintain the software.
• Functional objective: Provides information about functions of the system such as new
services, increased capacity, and so on.
• Performance objective: Provides information about performance objectives such as reduced
staff and equipment costs, increased processing speeds of software, and improved controls.
• Assumptions and constraints: Provides information about assumptions and constraints such
as operational life of the proposed software, financial constraints, changing hardware, software
and operating environment, and availability of information and sources.
• Methodology: Describes the methods that are applied to evaluate the proposed software in
order to reach a feasible alternative. These methods include survey, modeling, benchmarking,
etc.
• Evaluation criteria: Identifies criteria such as cost, priority, development time, and ease of
system use, which are applicable for the development process to determine the most suitable system
option.
• Recommendation: Describes a recommendation for the proposed system. This includes the
delays and acceptable risks.
• Proposed software: Describes the overall concept of the system as well as the procedure to
be used to meet user requirements. In addition, it provides information about improvements,
time and resource costs, and impacts. Improvements are performed to enhance the functionality
and performance of the existing software. Time and resource costs include the costs associated
with software development from its requirements to its maintenance and staff training. Impacts
describe the possibility of future happenings and include various types of impacts as listed
below.
• Equipment impacts: Determine new equipment requirements and changes to be made in the
currently available equipment requirements.
• Software impacts: Specify any additions or modifications required in the existing software
and supporting software to adapt to the proposed software.
• Organizational impacts: Describe any changes in organization, staff and skills requirement.
• Operational impacts: Describe effects on operations such as user-operating procedures, data
processing, data entry procedures, and so on.

• Developmental impacts: Specify developmental impacts such as resources required to

develop databases, resources required to develop and test the software, and specific activities to
be performed by users during software development.

• Security impacts: Describe security factors that may influence the development, design, and
continued operation of the proposed software.

• Alternative systems: Provide description of alternative systems, which are considered in a

feasibility study. This also describes the reasons for choosing a particular alternative system to
develop the proposed software and the reason for rejecting alternative systems.

Project Planning

Once a project is found to be possible, computer code project managers undertake project
designing. Project designing is undertaken and completed even before any development activity
starts. Project designing consists of subsequent essential activities:

Estimating the subsequent attributes of the project:

Project size:
 What’s going to be downside quality in terms of the trouble and time needed to develop the
product?
Cost:
 What proportion is it reaching to value to develop the project?
Duration:
 However long is it reaching to want complete development?
Effort:
 What proportion effort would be required?

The effectiveness of the following designing activities relies on the accuracy of those
estimations.

planning force and alternative resources

 workers organization and staffing plans
 Risk identification, analysis, and abatement designing
 Miscellaneous arranges like quality assurance plan, configuration, management arrange, etc.

Precedence ordering among project planning activities:

The different project connected estimates done by a project manager have already been
mentioned. The below diagram shows the order during which vital project coming up with
activities is also undertaken. It may be simply discovered that size estimation is that the 1st
activity. It’s conjointly the foremost basic parameter supported that all alternative coming up
with activities square measure dispensed, alternative estimations like the estimation of effort,
cost, resource, and project length also are vital elements of the project coming up with.
Sliding Window Planning:

Project designing needs utmost care and a spotlight since commitment to unrealistic time and
resource estimates end in schedule slippage. Schedule delays will cause client discontent and
adversely have an effect on team morale. It will even cause project failure.
However, project designing could be a terribly difficult activity. particularly for giant comes,
it’s pretty much troublesome to create correct plans. A region of this issue is thanks to the
actual fact that the correct parameters, the scope of the project, project workers, etc. might
amendment throughout the span of the project. So as to beat this drawback, generally project
managers undertake project designing little by little. Designing a project over a variety of
stages protects managers from creating huge commitments too early. This method of staggered
designing is thought of as window designing. Within the window technique, beginning with
associate initial set up, the project is planned additional accurately in sequential development
stages.

At the beginning of a project, project managers have incomplete information concerning the
main points of the project. Their info base step by step improves because the project progresses
through completely different phases. When the completion of each section, the project
managers will set up every ulterior section additional accurately and with increasing levels of
confidence.

Software Project Manager

A software project manager is a person who undertakes the responsibility of executing the
software project. Software project manager is thoroughly aware of all the phases of SDLC that
the software would go through. Project manager may never directly involve in producing the
end product but he controls and manages the activities involved in production. A project
manager closely monitors the development process, prepares and executes various plans,
arranges necessary and adequate resources, maintains communication among all team members
in order to address issues of cost, budget, resources, time, quality and customer satisfaction.

Let us see few responsibilities that a project manager shoulders

- Managing People
Act as project leader
 Liaison with stakeholders
 Managing human resource
s Setting up reporting hierarchy etc

Managing Project

Defining and setting up project scope

 Managing project management activities
 Monitoring progress and performance
 Risk analysis at every phase
 Take necessary step to avoid or come out of problems
 Act as project spokesperson

Software Management Activities

Software project management comprises of a number of activities, which contains planning of

project, deciding scope of software product, estimation of cost in various terms, scheduling of
tasks and events, and resource management.

Project management activities may include:

 Project Planning
 Scope Management
 Project Estimation

Project Planning

Software project planning is task, which is performed before the production of software
actually starts. It is there for the software production but involves no concrete activity that has
any direction connection with software production; rather it is a set of multiple processes,
which facilitates software production.

Project planning may include the following:

Scope Management

It defines the scope of project; this includes all the activities, process need to be done in order
to make a deliverable software product. Scope management is essential because it creates
boundaries of the project by clearly defining what would be done in the project and what would
not be done. This makes project to contain limited and quantifiable tasks, which can easily be
documented and in turn avoids cost and time overrun.

During Project Scope management, it is necessary to –

Define the scope
 Decide its verification and control
 Divide the project into various smaller parts for ease of management.
 Verify the scope
 Control the scope by incorporating changes to the scope

Project Estimation

For an effective management accurate estimation of various measures is a must. With correct
estimation managers can manage and control the project more efficiently and effectively.
Project estimation may involve the following:

Software size estimation

Software size may be estimated either in terms of KLOC (Kilo Line of Code) or by calculating
number of function points in the software. Lines of code depend upon coding practices and
Function points vary according to the user or software requirement.

Effort estimation

 The managers estimate efforts in terms of personnel requirement and man-hour required to
produce the software. For effort estimation software size should be known. This can either be
derived by managers’ experience, organization’s historical data or software size can be
converted into efforts by using some standard formulae.

Time estimation
 Once size and efforts are estimated, the time required to produce the software can be
estimated. Efforts required is segregated into sub categories as per the requirement
specifications and interdependency of various components of software. Software tasks are
divided into smaller tasks, activities or events by Work Breakthrough Structure (WBS). The
tasks are scheduled on day-to-day basis or in calendar months. The sum of time required to
complete all tasks in hours or days is the total time invested to complete the project
Cost estimation

 This might be considered as the most difficult of all because it depends on more elements
than any of the previous ones. For estimating project cost, it is required to consider –
o Size of software
o Software quality
o Hardware
o Additional software or tools, licenses etc.
o Skilled personnel with task-specific skills
o Travel involved
o Communication
o Training and support

Project Estimation Techniques

We discussed various parameters involving project estimation such as size, effort, time and cost.
Project manager can estimate the listed factors using two broadly recognized techniques –

Decomposition Technique

This technique assumes the software as a product of various compositions.

There are two main models –

 Line of Code Estimation is done on behalf of number of line of codes in the software product.
 Function Points Estimation is done on behalf of number of function points in the software product
.

Empirical Estimation Technique

This technique uses empirically derived formulae to make estimation.

These formulae are based on LOC or FPs.

Putnam Model
This model is made by Lawrence H. Putnam, which is based on Norden’s frequency distribution
(Rayleigh curve). Putnam model maps time and efforts required with software size.

COCOMO COCOMO stands for COnstructive COst MOdel, developed by Barry W. Boehm. It
divides the software product into three categories of software: organic, semi-detached and embedded.

Project Scheduling

Project Scheduling in a project refers to roadmap of all activities to be done with specified order and
within time slot allotted to each activity. Project managers tend to define various tasks, and project
milestones and arrange them keeping various factors in mind. They look for tasks lie in critical path in
the schedule, which are necessary to complete in specific manner (because of task interdependency) and
strictly within the time allocated. Arrangement of tasks which lies out of critical path are less likely to
impact over all schedule of the project. For scheduling a project, it is necessary to - Break down the
project tasks into smaller, manageable form
 Find out various tasks and correlate them
 Estimate time frame required for each task Divide time into work-units
 Assign adequate number of work-units for each task
 Calculate total time required for the project from start to finish
 Resource management

All elements used to develop a software product may be assumed as resource for that project. This may
include human resource, productive tools and software libraries. The resources are available in limited
quantity and stay in the organization as a pool of assets. The shortage of resources hampers the
development of project and it can lag behind the schedule. Allocating extra resources increases
development cost in the end. It is therefore necessary to estimate and allocate adequate resources for the
project.
Resource management includes - Defining proper organization project by creating a project team and
allocating responsibilities to each team member
Determining resources required at a particular stage and their availability
 Manage Resources by generating resource request when they are required and de-allocating them
 when they are no more needed.

Project Risk Management Risk management involves all activities pertaining to identification, analyzing
and making provision for predictable and non-predictable risks in the project. Risk may include the
following: Experienced staff leaving the project and new staff coming in.
 Change in organizational management.
 Requirement change or misinterpreting requirement
. Under-estimation of required time and resources.
 Technological changes, environmental changes, business competition.
 Risk Management Process