UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS: 2014/2015
ORDINARY EXAMINATION FOR THE BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
BIT 2106 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
DATE: APRIL, 2015 TIME: 2 HOURS
INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question ONE and any other TWO
QUESTION ONE [30 marks]
a) After a major release of a software system, there often follows a period of corrective
maintenance. Discuss why this can occur and how it could be avoided or if it is
inevitable. (4 marks)
b) You have recently gained employment in a large organization which is seeking to
improve their software development processes and, by so doing, gain international
recognition.
i) Present an outline of a continuous process improvement framework that
might be adopted by the organization. You should highlight in your answer,
the possible benefits and challenges that may result. (9 marks)
ii) Outline two different approaches to process assessment, and assess their
application and adoption by organizations nationally and internationally.
(8marks)
c) Give brief outlines of the following software metrics and, using specific examples,
explain how each might be used to perform the quantitative assessment of software
quality.
i) architectural design metrics;
ii) object-oriented design metrics;
iii) analysis metrics. (9 marks)
QUESTION TWO [20 marks]
a) Explain what is meant by a legacy system and why such systems may be critical to
the operation of an organization. Discuss ways in which an organization can lessen
their reliance on a legacy system. (10 marks)
b) Outline the process of preventative maintenance and discuss why such maintenance is
needed. (10marks)
QUESTION THREE [20 marks]
A company is looking to develop an Invoice Processing System (IPS) for its worldwide
business. As a software engineer,
a) Suggest and justify an architectural design solution for IPS, based on the repository
model of software architecture giving due consideration to the users’ requirements for
performance, availability, and maintainability. (11 marks)
b) Compare and contrast the use of architectural reference models and design patterns for
the rapid development of high quality systems. (9 marks)
QUESTION FOUR [20 marks]
Defects in software that result from the actions of those involved in the software
engineering process, have led to the belief that the quality of software is determined by
the quality of its developers in terms of their knowledge, discipline, and commitment.
a) Explain the typical project manager’s problem of people selection, motivation, and
team effectiveness in an IT department, and discuss the extent to which the Personal
Software Process model can provide a solution. (10 marks)
b) Discuss whether managing Software engineering projects is any different to the management of projects in other sectors of society today. (10 marks)
QUESTION FIVE [20 marks]
a) A company is in need of an online ordering service for electrical goods from its existing Online Catalogue. Discuss how such a system might be delivered successfully
with the prototyping lifecycle model. (10 marks)
a) Briefly explain how evolutionary development generally, and agile methods specifically, might handle the system requirements that are evolving over a period of time.
(10 marks)
