Software Engineering

1. 
Technical imperative or necessity to be resolved.
2. 
Scope associated with their relevance to the overall design solution.
3. 
Consequences or impact if the deficiency is not resolved.
Prioritization of design issues focuses the attention of the software engineer-
ing team on design issues that have the most significant impact on the design 

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CHAPTER 13 
Software Design Synthesis Practice
solution. Many design challenges may be considered a risk to project success. A 
risk involves any aspect of the structural design that could potentially impact one or 
more of the following project success factors:
●
  The software development project’s budget, resources, and schedule adequacy 
to afford a high level of confidence for successful execution.
●
  The product suitability and dependability in regard to satisfying stakeholders’ 
needs and expectations. For consumer products, this addresses the viability of 
the product to capture sufficient market share to generate the anticipated return 
on investment.
●
  The availability of technical skills and expertise within the software develop-
ment team to implement and test the structural design mechanisms successfully.
●
  The structural design provides an effective basis for software product sustain-
ment (post-development). This involves the structural configuration and its 
design mechanization’s ability to facilitate: (1) identification, isolation, and 
resolution of design deficiencies (bug fixes); and (2) the incorporation of pre-
planned product improvements (P
3
I).
The prioritized design deficiencies must be evaluated to determine which design 
issues will be investigated to work toward a restorative design solution. There are 
four principle areas that are addressed here as a way to present a simplified catego-
rization of software design influences. A description of these principle areas is pro-
vided below to introduce the subsequent design synthesis tasks:
1. 
Product design preferences
. The evaluation of design alternatives in terms of 
their performance characteristics. The focus of this task is to assess each pro-
posed design strategy in terms of the effectiveness, efficiency, and simplicity. 
The result of this task is a set of viable alternatives ranked in terms of technical 
inclination.
2. 
Product implementation implications
. The evaluation of design alternatives in 
terms of the software implementation and testing organizations’ ability to execute 
and integrate the abstract design mechanisms into the structural design solution.
3. 
Product sustainment implications
. The evaluation of design alternatives in terms 
of the software sustainment organization’s ability to repair, extend (increase in 
scope), and augment (incorporate additional functionality or data processing 
variations) the structural design solution given the inclusion of abstract design 
mechanisms.
4. 
Product design integrity
. The evaluation of the architectural-level structure in 
terms of the structural integrity and integrity (adherence to design principles and 
standards) associated with integrating abstract design mechanisms within the 
structural design solution.