Introducing new features to a critical software system

Tun, Thein Than; Chapman, Rod; Haley, Charles; Laney, Robin and Nuseibeh, Bashar (2008). Introducing new features to a critical software system. Technical Report 2008/11; Department of Computing, The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0001607f

Abstract

In response to changing requirements and other environmental influences, software systems are increasingly developed incrementally. Successful implementation of new features in existing software is often difficult, whilst many software systems simply 'break' when features are introduced. Size and complexity of modern software, poor software design , and lack of appropriate tools are some of the factors that often confound the issue. In this paper, we report on a successful industrial experience of evolving a feature-rich program analysis tool for dependable software systems. The experience highlights the need for a development framework to maintain rich traceability between development ar-tifacts, and to satisfy certain minimal necessary conditions of artifacts during and after the implementation of a new feature.