SEPM Question Paper solution Dec 2023

SEPM Question Paper solution Dec 2023

Q1. a) Define software engineering and explain umbrella activities. sepm

Software engineering is the discipline concerned with the systematic approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software. It involves applying engineering principles and practices to software development, aiming to create reliable, efficient, and maintainable software systems.

Umbrella activities in software engineering refer to overarching processes that are applied throughout a software project to manage and control various aspects such as progress, quality, change, and risk. These activities ensure the smooth execution of the project and the delivery of a high-quality product. Here are the typical umbrella activities:

1. Software Project Tracking and Control: This activity enables the software team to monitor progress against the project plan and take necessary actions to maintain the schedule.
2. Risk Management: It involves identifying and assessing risks that may impact the project’s outcome or the quality of the product, and implementing strategies to mitigate those risks.
3. Software Quality Assurance: This activity defines and conducts various processes to ensure the quality of the software, including testing, code reviews, and quality audits.
4. Technical Reviews: Technical reviews are conducted to evaluate software engineering work products and identify errors before they propagate to the next stage of development.
5. Measurement: This activity involves defining and collecting process, project, and product measures to ensure that the software meets stakeholders’ needs and can be used in conjunction with other framework and umbrella activities.
6. Software Configuration Management: It focuses on managing changes throughout the software development process, ensuring that all changes are properly tracked, evaluated, and implemented.
7. Reusability Management: This activity defines criteria for reusing work products, including software components, and establishes mechanisms to achieve reusability.
8. Work Product Preparation and Production: Encompassing activities required to create various work products such as models, documents, logs, and forms, this ensures that all necessary artifacts are prepared and maintained throughout the project lifecycle.

Q1 b) Explain the 4 Ps of project Management.

The 4Ps in project management refer to four key elements that are essential for the success of any project.

1. People:
   • People are the individuals involved in the project, including project managers, team members, stakeholders, and users.
   • Managing people involves leadership, team building, communication, and resolving conflicts to foster a collaborative and productive work environment.
   • Project managers are responsible for assembling the project team, defining roles and responsibilities, motivating team members, and ensuring that everyone has the necessary resources and support to perform their tasks effectively.
   • Effective communication and teamwork among project stakeholders are critical for achieving project goals and delivering value to customers.
2. Product:
   • Product represents the deliverables of the project, which could be a software application, a physical product, or a service.
   • Managing the product involves defining requirements, designing solutions, implementing features, testing functionality, and ensuring customer satisfaction.
   • Product management encompasses activities such as product planning, product development, product testing, and product maintenance.
   • The focus is on delivering a high-quality product that meets customer needs, fulfills business requirements, and aligns with project objectives.
3. Process:
   • Process refers to the set of activities, methodologies, and techniques used to execute the project plan.
   • It involves defining workflows, establishing communication channels, and implementing quality assurance processes to ensure project success.
   • Process management includes defining project phases, creating project schedules, allocating resources, tracking progress, and managing risks.
   • Adopting best practices, standards, and frameworks such as Agile, Scrum, Lean, or Six Sigma can help streamline project processes and improve efficiency.
4. Project:
   • Project management involves planning, organizing, directing, and controlling resources to achieve specific project objectives within defined constraints such as time, cost, scope, and quality.
   • It includes activities such as project initiation, project planning, project execution, project monitoring and controlling, and project closure.
   • Project managers are responsible for defining project scope, developing project plans, managing project budgets and schedules, identifying and managing risks, and ensuring that project deliverables meet stakeholder expectations.
   • Effective project management ensures that projects are delivered on time, within budget, and with the expected level of quality, while also maximizing the use of resources and minimizing risks.

Q1 c) Explain functional and non-functional requirements.

Functional Requirements: These are the essential features and functionalities demanded by the end user, forming the core capabilities of the system. Represented in terms of inputs, operations, and expected outputs, they are directly observable in the final product and are integral to fulfilling the user’s needs. Examples include determining the system’s required features and identifying edge cases for consideration during design.

Non-Functional Requirements: These are the quality constraints mandated by the project contract, dictating the standards the system must meet. They encompass aspects such as portability, security, reliability, and performance, contributing to the overall system’s effectiveness and usability. Examples include specifying minimum latency for request processing and ensuring high system availability.

Functional Requirements	Non-functional Requirements
Define what the system should do.	Define how the system should perform.
Describe specific features or functions.	Specify quality attributes and constraints.
Focus on behavior and functionality.	Focus on performance, reliability, security, etc.
Can be verified through testing.	Often difficult to verify through testing alone.
Expressed as user stories, use cases, or features.	Expressed as quality attributes or constraints.
Examples: User authentication, data entry, search functionality.	Examples: Performance (response time, throughput), reliability, security, usability.

Q1 d) Explain the Agile process model.

Agile Process Model: Agile is an iterative and incremental approach to software development that emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer feedback. The Agile process model involves breaking down the project into small, manageable iterations called sprints. Each sprint typically lasts 2-4 weeks and results in a potentially shippable product increment.

Key characteristics of the Agile process model include:

• Iterative Development: The project is divided into multiple iterations, with each iteration delivering a working product increment.
• Incremental Delivery: The product is developed incrementally, with new features added in each iteration based on changing requirements and feedback.
• Customer Collaboration: Continuous collaboration with customers and stakeholders to gather feedback and adapt to changing needs.
• Adaptive Planning: Emphasis on adaptability and responding to change over following a rigid plan.
• Cross-functional Teams: Self-organizing teams comprising members with diverse skills and expertise work collaboratively to deliver value.

Agile methodologies, such as Scrum and Kanban, provide frameworks and practices to implement the Agile process model effectively, ensuring rapid delivery of high-quality software that meets customer requirements.

Q2 a) Elaborate COCOMO model for Cost estimation.

Add answer here : https://www.doubtly.in/q/elaborate-cocomo-model-cost-estimation/

Q2 b) Illustrate the SCM process of Software quality management .

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:

• Identification of objects in the software configuration
• Version Control
• Change Control
• Configuration Audit
• Status Reporting

Processes involved in SCM – Configuration management provides a disciplined environment for smooth control of work products. It involves the following activities:

1. 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 relationships among items, creating a mechanism to manage multiple levels of control and procedure for the change management system.
2. Version control – Creating versions/specifications of the existing product to build new products with the help of the SCM system. A description of the version is given below:Suppose after some changes, the version of the 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.
3. 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, the 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.
4. 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 tracks action items from the audit to closure.
5. Reporting – Providing accurate status and current configuration data to developers, testers, end users, customers, and stakeholders through admin guides, user guides, FAQs, Release notes, Memos, Installation Guide, Configuration guides, etc.

Importance of Software Configuration Management

1. Effective Bug Tracking: Linking code modifications to issues that have been reported, makes bug tracking more effective.
2. Continuous Deployment and Integration: SCM combines with continuous processes to automate deployment and testing, resulting in more dependable and timely software delivery.
3. Risk management: SCM lowers the chance of introducing critical flaws by assisting in the early detection and correction of problems.
4. Support for Big Projects: Source Code Control (SCM) offers an orderly method to handle code modifications for big projects, fostering a well-organized development process.
5. Reproducibility: By recording precise versions of code, libraries, and dependencies, source code versioning (SCM) makes builds repeatable.
6. Parallel Development: SCM facilitates parallel development by enabling several developers to collaborate on various branches at once.

Q3. a) Describe the waterfall model and incremental process model.

The Waterfall model is one of the earliest and most traditional software development life cycle (SDLC) models. It is a linear and sequential approach to software development, where each phase must be completed before the next phase begins.
Key Characteristics:

1. Linear and Sequential: Each phase depends on the deliverables of the previous one and corresponds to a specialization of tasks.
2. Documentation-Driven: Detailed documentation is produced at each phase and often serves as the primary means of communication between phases.
3. Rigid Structure: Changes are difficult to implement once a phase is completed and approved, making it less flexible compared to iterative models.

Stages of the Waterfall Model:

1. Requirement Analysis:
   • Collecting comprehensive requirements from stakeholders.
   • Documenting requirements in a requirement specification document.
2. System Design:
   • Converting requirements into system design.
   • Creating system architecture and design documents.
3. Implementation (or Coding):
   • Dividing the system design into small units or modules and coding them.
   • Integrating all the modules together after unit testing.
4. Integration and Testing:
   • Testing the integrated system to ensure it meets the specified requirements.
   • Performing different types of testing like system testing, integration testing, and acceptance testing.
5. Deployment:
   • Deploying the completed product to the production environment.
   • Ensuring it is functional in the real-world setting.
6. Maintenance:
   • Performing ongoing maintenance tasks such as bug fixing, updates, and enhancements.
   • Managing changes and new requirements post-deployment.

Advantages of the Waterfall Model:

1. Simplicity and Ease of Use: The straightforward, sequential approach is easy to understand and manage.
2. Clear Milestones: Each phase has clear objectives and deliverables, making progress easy to track.
3. Well-Documented: Comprehensive documentation helps in better understanding and communication of requirements and designs.
4. Structured Approach: The model is disciplined and the process is well-defined, which is beneficial for projects with fixed requirements.

Disadvantages of the Waterfall Model:

1. Lack of Flexibility: Difficult to accommodate changes once the project is in the later stages.
2. Late Testing: Testing phase comes late in the development cycle, increasing the risk of encountering significant issues late in the process.
3. Customer Involvement: Limited customer involvement during the development process, which may lead to a product that does not fully meet customer needs.
4. Assumes Requirements are Fixed: It assumes that all requirements can be gathered upfront, which is often not the case in real-world projects.

When to Use the Waterfall Model:

• Projects with well-understood and stable requirements.
• Projects where requirements are not expected to change.
• Shorter projects where the simplicity of the Waterfall model can be an advantage.
• Projects that require thorough documentation and where the team is familiar with the domain.

Incremental processmodel

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/software-engineering-incremental-process-model

Q3 b) What is Risk management? Discuss RMMM plan for risk management.

Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and mitigating risks that could potentially impact the success of a project or an organization.

Steps in Risk Management:

1. Risk Identification:
   • This step involves identifying potential risks that could arise during the course of the project. Risks can come from various sources such as technical, organizational, external, or environmental factors.
   • Techniques like brainstorming, checklists, interviews, and documentation review are commonly used to identify risks.
2. Risk Analysis:
   • Once risks are identified, they need to be analyzed to determine their potential impact and likelihood of occurrence. This step helps in understanding the severity of each risk and prioritizing them for further action.
   • Risk analysis involves assessing the consequences of risks if they occur and the probability of their occurrence.
3. Risk Planning:
   • After analyzing risks, a plan is developed to mitigate, avoid, transfer, or accept them. Risk planning involves developing strategies and action plans to address identified risks.
   • Strategies could include risk avoidance (eliminating the risk altogether), risk mitigation (reducing the impact or likelihood of the risk), risk transfer (shifting the risk to a third party, like insurance), or risk acceptance (accepting the consequences if the risk occurs).
4. Risk Monitoring:
   • Risk management is an ongoing process throughout the project lifecycle. Risk monitoring involves tracking identified risks, assessing their status, and evaluating the effectiveness of risk mitigation strategies.
   • It’s important to regularly review and update the risk management plan as new risks emerge or existing risks evolve.

RMMM stands for Risk Mitigation, Monitoring, and Management. It is a plan developed as part of risk management in software engineering to identify, assess, and address potential risks that may affect the success of a project. The RMMM plan outlines strategies for mitigating risks, monitoring their status throughout the project lifecycle, and managing them effectively. H

1. Risk Identification:

• The first step in risk management is identifying potential risks that could impact the project. Risks can include technical, schedule, budget, resource, and external factors.
• Techniques such as brainstorming, risk checklists, historical data analysis, and expert judgment are used to identify risks.

1. Risk Analysis and Assessment:

• Once risks are identified, they are analyzed to assess their likelihood of occurrence and potential impact on the project objectives.
• Risks are prioritized based on their severity and likelihood, using techniques such as qualitative risk analysis (probability and impact matrix) and quantitative risk analysis (Monte Carlo simulation).

1. Risk Mitigation:

• Risk mitigation involves developing strategies to reduce the probability or impact of identified risks.
• Strategies for risk mitigation may include avoiding, transferring, reducing, or accepting the risk.
• Contingency plans are developed to address high-priority risks that cannot be fully mitigated.

1. Risk Monitoring:

• Risks are monitored throughout the project lifecycle to track their status, identify new risks, and assess the effectiveness of mitigation strategies.
• Regular risk review meetings are conducted to review the status of identified risks, update risk registers, and discuss any emerging risks.

1. Risk Management:

• Risk management involves implementing the RMMM plan and ensuring that risk mitigation strategies are executed as planned.
• Responsibilities for risk management are assigned to specific individuals or teams, and communication channels are established to facilitate timely risk reporting and resolution.

1. Documentation and Reporting:

• All aspects of risk management, including risk identification, analysis, mitigation strategies, and monitoring activities, are documented in the RMMM plan.
• Regular risk reports are generated to communicate the status of identified risks, the effectiveness of mitigation efforts, and any changes in risk exposure to stakeholders.

Part 2 : https://www.doubtly.in/sepm-question-paper-solution-dec-2023-part-2/

SEPM Question Paper solution Dec 2023 – Part 2