F17-Bikers Portal Project Report Chapter 2

 

 

 

 

                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER 2

Planning the Project

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.1    Introduction

          

It is very important phase in the development of any software. The planning stage establishes a bird's eye view of the intended software product, and uses this to establish the basic project structure, evaluate feasibility and risks associated with the project, and describe appropriate management and technical approaches. The outputs of the project planning stage are the configuration management plan, the quality assurance plan, and the project plan and schedule, with a detailed listing of scheduled activities for the upcoming requirements stage, and high-level estimates of effort for the out stages.

 

2.2        Methodology

2.3 Available Methodologies

 

 

Following are the methodologies that are used for software development.

1. Build-and-fix Model
2. Waterfall Model
3. The V Model
4. Rapid Prototyping Model
5. Incremental Model
6. Spiral Model

 

Build-and-fix model:

 

It is unfortunate that many products are developed using what is known as the build-and-fix model. In this model the product is constructed without specification or any attempt at design. The developers simply build a product that is reworked as many times as necessary to satisfy the client. This model may work for small projects but is totally unsatisfactory for products of any reasonable size. The cost of build-and fix is actually far greater than the cost of properly specified and carefully designed product.

 

 

Maintenance of the product can be extremely in the absence of any documentation.

 

·        Advantages

 

Cost efficient for very small projects of limited complexity.

 

·        Disadvantages

 

1. Cost is higher for larger projects.
2. Product will not be delivered on time most of the times.
3. Low quality result will produce.
4. No documentation is produced.

 

 

Waterfall Model:

 

This is the traditional life cycle model. It assumes that all phases in a software project are carried out sequentially and that each phase is completed before the next is taken up. It was a great step forward in software development as an engineering discipline. The figure also depicts the single-level feedback paths that were not part of the original model but that have been added to all subsequent improvements of the model; they are described here. The original waterfall model had little or no feedback between stages, just as water does not reverse or flow uphill in a cascade but is drawn ever downward by gravity. This method might work satisfactorily if design requirements could be perfectly addressed before flowing down to design creation, and if the design were perfect when program implementation began, and if the code were perfect before testing began, and if testing guaranteed that no bugs remained in the code before the users applied it, and of course if the users never changed their minds about requirements.

 

 

Advantages:

 

1. Easy to understand even by non-technical persons i.e., customers.
2. Easy to use as software development proceeds.
3. Each stage has well defined deliverables or milestones.

 

Disadvantages

 

1.     The biggest drawback of Waterfall model is that it does not support iteration.

2.     Another disadvantage of Waterfall model is that it is sequential in nature. One cannot start with a stage till preceding stage is completed e.g., one cannot start with the system design till all the requirements are understood and represented.

3.     Customer gets opportunity to review the product very late in life cycle because the working version of product is available very late in software development life cycle.

4.     The Waterfall model also has difficulty in accommodating changes in the product after the development process starts.

5.     Amount of documentation produced is very high.

 

 

 

The V-Model:

 

This model was developed to relate the analysis and design activities with the testing activities and thus focuses on verification and validation activities of the product. As this model relates the analysis and design phase to testing phase, testing activities are planned early in software lifecycle. The dotted lines in the figure indicate that the corresponding phases must be carried out in parallel. As in the case of waterfall model, V model should be used, when all the requirements of the project are available in the beginning of the project.

 

Advantages:

 

1. The model is simple and easy to use.
2. The V model focuses on testing of all intermediate products, not only the final software.
3. The model plans for verification and validation activities early in the life cycle thereby enhancing the probability of building an error free and good quality product.

 

Disadvantages:

 

1. The model does not support iteration of phases and change in requirements throughout the life cycle.
2. The V model is used for systems in which reliability is very important e.g., systems developed to monitor the state of the patients, software used in radiation therapy machines.
3. It does not take into account risk analysis.

 

 

 

Rapid Prototyping Model:

 

Rapid prototyping has long been used in the development of one-off programs, based on the familiar model of the chemical engineer’s pilot plant. More recently it has been used to prototype larger systems in two variants—the “throwaway” model and the “operational” model, which is really the incremental model to be discussed later. This development process produces a program that performs some essential or perhaps typical set of functions for the final product. If this technology is completely viable, the prototype may become the basis of the final product development, but normally it is merely a vehicle to arrive at a completely secure functional specification.

 

Advantages:

 

1. Customers get a chance to see the product early in the life cycle and thus give necessary feedback.
2. New requirements can be easily accommodated, as there is scope for refinement.
3. Requirements become clearer resulting into an accurate product.
4. As user is involved from the starting of the project, he tends to be more secure, comfortable and satisfied.

 

Disadvantages:

 

1. After seeing an early prototype end users demand the actual system to be delivered soon.
2. End users may not like to know the difference between a prototype and a well-engineered fully developed system.
3. Developers in a hurry to build prototypes may end up with sub-optimal solutions.
4. If not managed properly, the iterative process of prototype demonstration and refinement can continue for long duration.

 

Incremental Model:

 

The incremental model recognizes that software development steps are not discrete.

Instead, Build 0 (a prototype) is improved and functionality is added until it becomes Build 1, which becomes Build 2, and so on. These builds are not the versions released to the public but are merely staged compilations of the developing system at a new level of functionality or completeness. The incremental model is a variant of the waterfall and rapid prototyping models. It is intended to deliver an operational-quality system at each build stage, but it does not yet complete the functional specification.

 

Advantages:

1. As product is to be delivered in parts, total cost of project is distributed.
2. Limited number of persons can be put on project because work is to be delivered in parts.
3. As development activities for next release and use of early version of product is done simultaneously, if found errors can be corrected.
4. Customers or end users get the chance to see the useful functionality early in the software development life cycle.
5. As functionality is incremented in steps, testing also becomes easy.
6. Risk of failure of a product is decreased as users start using the product early.

 

Disadvantages:

1. As product is delivered in parts, total development cost is higher.
2. Well defined interfaces are required to connect modules developed with each phase.
3. The model requires well defined project planning schedule to distribute the work properly.
4. Testing of modules also results into overhead and increased cost.

 

 

 

 

The Spiral Model:

 

Another evolutionary life cycle model that combines the linear nature of the Waterfall model and the iterative nature of the Prototyping model is the spiral model. The project life cycle is divided into phases, and each phase is executed in all of the iteration of the Spiral Model.

The radial coordinate in the diagram represents the total costs incurred till date. Each loop of the spiral represents one phase of the development. The model is divided into four quadrants, each with a specific purpose. Each spiral represents the progress made in the project. In the first quadrant, objectives, alternative means to develop product and constraints imposed on the product are identified. The next quadrant (right upper) deals with identification of risks and strategies to resolve the risks. The third bottom right quadrant represents the Waterfall model consisting of activities like design, detailed design, coding and test. With each phase after customer evaluates the product, requirements are further refined and so is the product. It is to be noted that number of loops through the quadrants are not fixed and vary from project to project.

 

Spiral model is also termed as process model generator or Meta model. For example if any project requirements are not clear models like Prototyping or Incremental can be derived from the spiral model.

 

Advantages:

 

1. The model tries to resolve all possible risks involved in the project starting with the highest risk.
2. End users get a chance to see the product early in life cycle.
3. With each phase as product is refined after customer feedback, the model ensures a good quality product.
4. The model makes use of techniques like reuse, prototyping and component based design.

Disadvantages:

 

1. The model requires expertise in risk management and excellent management skills.
2. The model is not suitable for small projects as cost of risk analysis may exceed the actual cost of the project.
3. Different persons involved in the project may find it complex to use.

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.4           Chosen Methodology:

 

VU Process Model:

Having detailed knowledge about pros and cons of each model keeping view the nature of our project the methodology I have adopted is a combination of water fall and spiral model. Combination is very helpful to complete the project successfully It is VU process model. In his model each stage of waterfall is preceded by identification of alternatives and risk analysis and is then followed by evaluation and planning for next phase .Vu process model is hybrid approach. It enhances considerable quality of project through documentation of each phase and minimizes risk by doing risk analysis.

 

Vu process model has 4 phases which are as following

1.         Gathering and analyzing requirement & planning

2.         Analyzing and design phase

3.         Development

4.         Final report

 

 

 

2.5 Reason for choosing VU Process Model:

 

It derives the benefits of predictability from the milestone base planning of the waterfall model, as well as the benefits of feedback and creativity from the spiral model.

ü  It is sequential model with backward repetition.

ü  It is more concise and advanced model then waterfall model because we can go back at any stage of development which is not allowed in waterfall model.

ü  All the activities are performed in a sequence in VU Process Model.

ü  F17-Bikers Portal is large scalable Project.

ü  All the requirement are well understood from the given software F17-Bikers Portal Management Requirements are so clear and unambiguous that we have web application in hang from where we already identify all the functional requirements and there are very less chances of wrong understanding of requirements.

ü  If we want to do correction at any stage if we want betterment and repetition whenever necessary then we can choose VU Process Model.

ü  VU Process Model is heavily dependent on risk analysis and evaluation in each phase.

ü  This project run for long time.so maintenance required.

ü  The deadline for the given project is good enough. So we can easily choose selected methodology to work upon.

 

 

2.6 Work Plan (Use MS Project to create Work Plan)

 

 

 

 

2.3     Project Structure

 

  2.7.1 Team Structure

  Group ID: < F1802A85AC >

                          Student ID: < BC140401332>