SE - Process model for small projects

What do you think of my process model for small projects - "one person projects". Do you have any good ideas or improvements? Did anyone find it useful?

This is a simple model that I used when I got a small software project on my hands. Not small enugth to only write the code. Some common steps are removed as they were not necessary. I don't go into detail on anything as this only is the general steps that I used.

As this is a very small project working on the different steps can be made as required, but it's good to do much of the requirement engineering first as I hope you already know.

Requirement engineering
Find out what the software should do, elicit requirements. Talk with users/clients, give them a draft of the specification and make a new one after you got there comments.
-> Requirement specification paper (User cases, Functional requirements and so on)

Design engineering
Find out how to create the software, test code and se if it works, write down things you plan on using later and how it works.
-> Design specification paper (Programming language, functions/methods, how to do everything you need to do to create the software)

Write code
Put everything together
-> Source code -> something you can run (exe-file?)

Testing
You and the user/clients test the system to se if it works as intended.

User manuals paper
-> Instructions and help for the users of the software



There is so much information about coding so little about Software Engineering.

re: SE - Process model for small projects

Thanks for sharing this, it may well help people when planning such projects.

I would however put the "writing a documentation" part earlier in the process and have it running parallel to the development.

Greetings,
Nepomuk

re: SE - Process model for small projects

I want to add some more, maybe usefull for a beginer.

While you elicit requirements and do oter things papper and pen works greate most of the time, but later when you need to keep track of things (bugs, things that needs attention) you can use a spreadsheet program (like excel).

Then you need to learn to use one thing in excel that makes you life more happy. And thats is to use Data - Filter - AutoFilter.

You can have headings like start date, end date, number, importance, status, contakt, group, description, typ and so on. By using well defined words you can later use the AutoFilter in wery smart ways.

You can for examle use these levels for importance: Trivial, Enhancement, Minor, Normal, Major, Critical

And later sort out all entrys with Critical importance with the AoutFilter. And by having aoutofilters on all headings you can filter away tings in almost any way.

re: SE - Process model for small projects

All those things are better explained in Ian Sommerville's Software Engineering book.

re: SE - Process model for small projects

I don't have that book, so I can't say. But from the description i think it is a good book for bigger projects. And maybe you can get some good pointers for you smaller projects from it, as any other good software enginering book.

But my focus here was smaller projects, were most of the things that you do in bigger projects is unnessesary. And also by making the description short it's a lot easier.

"These textbook presents the general overview of software engineering where I concentrate on practical approaches that are used for developing large and complex software systems." ~ http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/resources/IanS/SE8/index.html