KENYA METHODIST UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF CIS & BIT

ODLM QUESTIONS 2nd TRIMESTER, 2011 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING PRINCIPLES

(BBIT 326/CISY 112/DBIT 204)
Lecturer: Gordon AgutuEmail:gagutu@gmail.comTel: +254717392252

INSTRUCTIONS Attempt ALL Questions Submission Deadline: 22nd July, 2011 Total Marks: 105 Marks (This shall be converted after marking to 30 marks) Ensure you send your assignment to the Lecturers email address AND hard copy to DLM office. Penalty for late submission is 10 marks off your total marks.

1. What is the aim of Software Engineering? What does the discipline of Software Engineering Discuss? (4 marks) 2. Explain how a software development effort is initiated and finally terminated in the spiral model(3 marks) 3. Explain with the help of suitable examples, the type of problems for which you would adopt the waterfall model of software development, and the type of problems for which you would adopt the spiral model (8 marks) 4. List the major responsibilities of a software project manager(4 marks) 5. Define Software Process and explain what it involves (4 marks) 6. Suppose you are the manager of a new project charged with developing a 100,000 line embedded system. You have a choice of hiring from two pools of engineers: highly capable programmers with very little experience in the programming language to be used and programmers of lower quality but with more experience in the

programming language used. Enumerate the impact of hiring your engineers either from the first group or from the second group. (7 marks) 7. Discuss the relative advantages of formal and informal requirements specifications? (4 marks) 8. What do you understand by the term top-down decomposition in the context of function-oriented design? (2 marks) 9. Why are the three different levels of testing (unit, integration, and system testing) necessary? (4 marks) 10. What is a prototype model? Under what circumstances is it beneficial to construct a prototype model? Does the construction of a prototype model always increase the overall cost of software development? (5 marks) 11. Compare the relative advantages of the object-oriented and function-oriented approaches to software design? (4 marks) 12. Do you agree with the following statement? The degree of reliability of a software product is inversely proportional to the number of latent defects in it. Justify your answer. (3 marks) 13. According to you, what is a quality software product? What problems are likely to arise if an organization does not document its quality system? (4 marks) 14. To help counter terrorism, many countries are planning the development of computer systems that track large numbers of their citizens and their actions. Clearly, this has privacy implications. Discuss the ethics of developing this type of system (8 marks) 15. Explain why it is important to produce an overall description of a system architecture at an early stage in the system specification process (4 marks) 16. Giving reasons for your answer, suggest the most appropriate generic software process model that might be used as a basis for managing the development of a University Accounting System that replaces an existing system (8 marks) 17. What is the difference between a software process model and a software process? Suggest two ways in which a software process model might be helpful in identifying possible process improvements (4 marks) 18. Explain why a software system that is used in a real-world environment must change or become progressively less useful (5 marks) 19. Clients prefer to use incremental development over other developement processes, with reasons explain your answer (3 marks) 20. From an Engineering and management perspective evolutionery development has three problems. Identify them (3 marks) 21. Read the below attached article that appeared in the Washington Post (Associated Press 1996) and answer the following questions: a) Is this article evidence that we have a software crisis? (6 marks) b) How is aviation better off because of Software Engineering? (4 marks) c) What issues should be addressed during software developemnt so that problems like this will be prevented in the future? (4 marks)

PILOTS COMPUTER ERROR CITED IN PLANE CRASH. AMERICAN AIRLINES SAYS ONE-LETTER CODE WAS REASON JET HIT MOUNTAIN IN COLOMBIA
Dallas, Aug. 23 The captain of an American Airlines jet that crashed in Colombia last December entered an incorrect one-letter computer command that sent the plane into a mountain, the airline said today. The crash killed all but four of the 163 people aboard. Americans investigators concluded that the Captain of the Boeing 757 apparently thought he had entered the coordinates of the intended destination, Cali. But on most South American aeronautical charts, the one-letter codefor Cali is the same as the one for Bogota, 132 miles in the opposite direction. The coordinates for Bogota directed the plane toward the mountain, according to a letter by Cecil Ewell, Americans chief pilot and vice president for flight. The codes for Bogotia and Cali are different in most computer databases, Ewell said. American spokesman John Hotard confirmed that Ewells letter, first reported in the Dallas Morning News, is being delivered this week to all of the airlines pilots to warn them of the coding problem. Americans discovery also prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to issue a bulletin to all airlines, warning them of inconsistencies between some computer databases and aeronautical charts, the newspaper said. The computer error is not the final word on what caused the crash. The Colombian government is investigating and is expected to release its findings by October. Pat Cariseo, spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said Colombian investigators also are examining factors such as flight crew training and air traffic control. The computer mistake was found by investigators for American when they compared data from the jets navigation computer with information from the wreckage , Ewell said. The data showed the mistake went undetected for 66 seconds while the crew scrambled to follow an air traffic controllers orders to take a more direct approach to the Cali airport. Three minutes later, while the plane still was descending and the crew trying to figure out why the plane had turned, it crashed. Ewell said the crash presented two important lessons for pilots. First of all, no matter how many times you go to South America or any other palce the Rocky Mountains you can never, never, never assume anything, he told the newspaper. Second, he said, pilots must understand they cant let automation take over responsibility for flying the airplane.