Software Engineering - Old Questions

12. Write short notes on (any two):

        a. User Interface Prototyping 

        b. Software Inspection

        c. Source Code Translation

a. User Interface Prototyping 

User interface (UI) prototyping is an iterative development technique in which users are actively involved in the mocking-up of the UI for a system. The aim of prototyping is to allow users to gain direct experience with the interface. Without such direct experience, it is impossible to judge the usability of an interface.

UI prototype involves two stages:

1. Early in the process, develop paper prototypes.

2. The design is then refined and increasingly sophisticated automated prototypes are then developed.

b. Software Inspection

Software inspection is a static verification & validation process in which a software system is reviewed to find errors, omissions and anomalies. Inspection is used to determine the defects in the code and remove it efficiently. This prevents defects and enhances the quality of testing to remove defects. This software inspection method achieved the highest level for efficiently removing defects and improving software quality.

    Fig: Inspection Process

c. Source Code Translation

The simplest form of software re-engineering is source code translation where source code in one programming language is automatically translated to source code in some other language. The structure and organisation of the program itself is unchanged. The target language may be an updated version of the original language (e.g. COBOL-74 to COBOL-85) or may be a translation to a completely different language (e.g. FORTRAN to C).

Program translation process:

Fig: Program translation process