Chapter 9

Chapter 9

1. Elements of software development

   • Feasibility study
     • The purpose of a feasibility study is to determine if a project is likely to be successful
       • Reasons for the project not being feasible may include:
         • the budget may not be big enough (Not economically feasible)
         • It may brake laws about data protection (not legally feasible)
         • May go beyond what current hardware or algorithms can achieve (not technically feasible)
   • Requirements specification
     • The process of determining the requirements is called requirements elicitation
     • Requirements are what the end user needs the system to do
     • When the project is signed off it must be tested against the requirements specification (this is acceptance testing)
   • Testing
     • Destructive testing
       • Where testers try to cause a program to crash or behave unexpectedly
     • Alpha testing
       • Used within the company be people who haven't worked on the project
     • Beta testing
       • A small group of people from outside the company test the program
   • Documentation

2. Methodologies

   • The waterfall lifecycle
   • Rapid application development (RAD)
   • Spiral model
   • Agile programming