1. Is this article evidence that we have a software crisis? How is aviation better off because of software engineering? What issues should be addressed during software development so that problems like this will be prevented in the future?
2. Explain the difference between errors, faults and failures. Give an example of error that leads to a fault in the requirements; the design; the code. Give an example of a fault in the requirements that leads to a failure. A fault in the design that leads to a failure. A fault in the test data that leads to a failure.
3. Give an example of problem analysis where the problem components are relatively simple, but the difficulty is solving the problem lies in the interconnections among sub-problem components.
4. Why can a count of false be a misleading measure of product quality
5. Many developers equate technical quality with overall product quality. Give an example of a product with high technical quality that is not considered high quality by the customer. Are there ethical issues involved in narrowing the view of quality to consider only technical quality? Use the Therac-25 example to illustrate your point.
6. Many organization buy commercial software, thinking it is cheaper than developing and maintaining software in-house. Describe the cons and pros of using COTs software. For example, what happens when if the COTS products are no longer supported by their vendors? What must the customer, user, and developer anticipate when developing a product that uses COTS software in larger system
7. What are the legal and ethical implications of using COTS software? Of using sub contractors. For example, who is responsible for fixing the problem when the major system fails as a result of fault in the COTS software? Who is liable when such systems cause harm to the users, directly (as when the automatic brakes fail in a car) or indirectly (as when the wrong information is supplied to another system as we saw in Exercise 1). What checks and balances are needed to ensure the quality of COTS system before it is integrated into a larger system?
8. The piccadilly television example, as illustrated in figure 1.17 contains great many rules and constraints. Discuss three of them and explain the pros and cons of keeping them outside the system boundary.
9. When the Ariane-5 rocket was destroyed, the news made headlines in France and else-where. Liberation, a French -newspaper, called it "A 37-billion-frane fireworks display" on the front page. In fact the explosion was front-page news in almost all European news-papers and headed the main evening news bulletins on most European TV networks. By contrast, the invasion by a hacker of Panix, a New-York based internet provider, forced the Panix system to close down for several hours. News of this event appeared only on the front page of business section of the Washington part. What is the responsibility of the press when reporting software-based incidents? How should the potential impact of software failures should be assessed and reported.
a. Different languages can produce different numbers of lines of code for implementation of the same design
b. Productivity in lines of code cannot be measured until implementation begins.
c. Programmers may structure code to meet productivity goals