TEB2014 Software Engineering

Lab Assignment 1 – Software Myths

[40 marks]
Student names & IDs:
1. Nur Alysha Ismady, 19000372 4.
2. 5.
3. 6.
Instruction: Discuss and answer the following.

1. What is the definition of software myths?

[2 marks]

According to Pressman (1997), software myths is described as a number of

common beliefs or myths that software managers, customers, and
developers believe falsely. He describes these myths as ‘’misleading
attitudes that have caused serious problems.’’

2. Why is it necessary for software engineer to know these myths?

[3 marks]

It is necessary for a software engineer to know these myths because they

have caused significant problems for both managers and technical people.
Misinformation and confusion are spread by software myths. These myths
are examined to determine why they are untrue and contribute to problems.
3. Study the following table. Determine if the statement is a good/bad advice and
identify who (management, developer, customer) category of the statement is
for:

No Statement Good/bad Category

1 The developer should start writing bad customer
programs immediately once the
general statement objectives are
known as we (clients) can fill in the
details later.
2 Once we write the program and get it bad developer
to work, our job is done.
3 Having state-of-the-art software good management
development tools does not ensure
success of the software project.
4 Adding extra features at any point of good customer
development is serious and should be
allowed after analysing the impacts.
5 When getting behind schedule, bad management
adding more programmers will help
catching up.
6 We do not have to wait for the good developer
program to start running in order to
assess the quality.
7 A successful project focuses on a bad developer
working program as the only
deliverable.
8 We already have a book that's full of bad management
standards and procedures for building
software, it does provide my people
with everything they need to know.
9 Software engineering will make us bad developer
create voluminous and unnecessary
documentation and will invariably
slow us down.
10 If I decide to outsource the software bad management
project to a third party, I can just relax
and let that firm build it.
4. Based on the cartoon strip, infer the myth that is related.
a.

[3 marks]
One of the customer myths is that project specifications are constantly
changing. However, the software is versatile so these changes can be easily
accommodated. A change can result in a significant additional cost. Besides
that, changes after release will require a huge amount of labor and it can be
much more costly.

b.
 [3 marks]
This cartoon strip relates to the management myths. When they get behind
schedule, they can just add more people to the team. This will slow their
progress even if it sounds intuitive as they have to educate the newcomers. In
other words, their production efficiency would be decreased.

c.

[3 marks]
The myth that is related to this fall under the customer myths which is “A
general statement of objectives is sufficient to begin writing programs”. A
complete and detailed requirement are needed for developers to satisfy their
customers.
d.

[3 marks]
Agile programming promotes agile responses to change and adaptive
preparation, evolutionary growth, early implementation, and continuous
improvement. The myth that is best describe the above cartoon strip is
“Project success depends solely on the quality of the delivered program.”
under the developer myths. Quality of the program relies heavily on
documentation and software configuration details.
e.

[3 marks]
The myth related to the cartoon slip is the developer myths where the
developer’s job is to only write code.

=End of Questions=