Software Engineering

12.2.5.1  Design responsiveness
Software design responsiveness involves the timeliness of the software product’s 
response to user inputs, external interface stimuli, or interactions with elements of 

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FIGURE 12.3
Behavioral analysis design representations.

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12.2 
Structural design considerations
the computing environment. The software structural design must be evaluated to 
determine if the design can be enhanced to improve the software product’s respon-
siveness to requested actions. The following guidelines are provided that address 
enhancing the software responsiveness to user-based requests
5
 :
1. 
Provide timely feedback concerning the requested action:
●
  Promptly acknowledge a user input.
●
  Provide data processing progress indicators for actions taking a significant 
amount of time.
●
  Respond initially by providing the most important information then disclos-
ing additional information when it becomes available.
●
  Alert the user concerning the anticipated delay needed to respond to compli-
cated requests.
2. 
Prioritize data processing actions:
●
  Postpone low-priority data processing actions until computing resources are 
available.
●
  Anticipate data processing needs and perform actions in advance, when 
possible.
3. 
Optimize task queue backlog:
●
  Reorder the task queue based on priority.
●
  Flush tasks that are overtaken by events or may no longer be needed.
4. 
Multitasking performance supervision:
●
  Monitor multitasking progress and adjust resource allocations to optimize 
task execution and termination.
●
  Balance task duration and resource commitments.
●
  Predict task durations and determine task discreteness, concurrency, and 
synchronization tactics.
●
  Establish resource monitoring and intercession supervision procedures by 
anticipating resource conflicts and deadlock situations.