Software Engineering Methodology for Small Enterprises

(SEMSE)

Prof. Cesar Herrera

Ramon Peluyera

University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez

Department of Mathematical Sciences
Mayaguez, Puerto Rico 00681-9018

A constant problem that software Abstract

developers are met with is the lack of
documentation that accompanies
software used for their management or
use, which in turn brings up an even
bigger problem which is that
programmers are not following any
proper methodology. The lack of
documentation has the adverse
consequence that effects their
development of their projects because
they are not adhering to a correct
process. To tackle this issue we have
designed a new methodology for
software developing. Also an application
is also being designed and developed
that will simplify the tedious aspect of
documentation regarding any project. By
extracting the strong advantages of
(RUP) and (XP) methods the design of
an organized and detailed interface is
produced [1]. This development of a
software application or project can apply
in any field. The newly established
interface enables the use of all necessary
help, tools and knowledge needed to
organize, divide and supervise different
teams and their assigned tasks. The
system will be implemented online in a
quick and easy access for academic or
corporate purpose. This ability to expand
this application for more than just
corporate purposes, such as academic
purposes, confirms the reliability, utility
Many programming courses do
not adhere to proper methodologies of
software development since most of
them are either too time consuming to
perform or too vague for them to be
worth the interest. This research consists
of defining, creating and implementing a
new agile methodology that can be
applied academically or in the corporate
environments. By comparing and
highlighting the strengths of various
existing agile and traditional
methodologies, the design and creation
of a simple integrated and interactive
application for software development
and design is being achieved. This tool,
free of charge and hosted online,
consists of three main phases: pre-
production, production and post-
production will be used for the
production of software applications. This
paper presents the formal and standard
definitions and formats included in the
pre-production phase of this tool. It also
introduces the production phase in
particular the interrelation of the tools
architectural components and their
functionalities.
Introduction
Enterprises (SEMSME), from Juan
Rivera, was made to fully understand
and improve this methodology in the
most efficient manner [2]. After fully
understanding how the (SEMSME)
document was implemented, templates
were designed for the interaction from
the users, login and sign-up pages. After
heavy consideration a decision was
made to change functions from
(SEMSME) create and edit to a union in
which the edit function would have
create as a sub-function. Templates were
created to demonstrate the union of both
functions. After a few modifications a
redaction of a new document, Software
Engineering Methodology for Small
Enterprises (SEMSE) was created, a
delivered version of (SEMSME) more
directed specifically towards small
businesses and educational purposes.
The consideration of a new role
was implemented to be an intermediary
between the top level role hierarchy and
bottom level hierarchy, called team
leader. After most of the roles and
project details have been covered
standard roles for the project have been
established. The standard roles are
established to identify what roles are
always present at the beginning as a
guide and which role can be added or
deleted depending on the administrators
preferences. In addition to the standard
roles another improvement that was
designed to improve the efficiency was a
new sequence to the functions. This
improvement allows for a better user
friendly environment in the creation of a
project. The unison of create and edit
will include the creation part in which
includes a list of tasks with standards,
the standard task and standard roles. Any
other role or task can be created, but will
be considered as an association, task or
2
and functionality that this application
will achieve.
Methodology Development
Without following the proper
steps in software creation much
information is lost to the developers
regarding their own project. To solve this
we implemented a new "hands on"
methodology, whichs designed was
started by fellow students but modified,
that incorporates a fast paced approach
with some mid level documentation
Software Engineering Methodology for
small and Medium Enterprises,
(SEMSME). The goal here is for
software developers to separate the
project in various tasks that will then be
distributed among the team members.
Once all tasks have been created we can
use this information to generate part of
the documentation of the project along
with an accurate timeline regarding the
development process. Since the
methodology is task based, while they
are performing such tasks, developers
are inquired for some information
regarding them, and this will serve as the
rest of the generated documentation
regarding the tasks being accomplished
by the members or groups of the project.
While not complete, it will serve as a
stepping stone if the need would to rise
for some deeper level documentation,
and it solves the problem that many
developers have, both in an academic
and corporate environment, which is
complete lack of proper documentation
regarding their project.
Analysis of the sub-phase from
the pre-production phase of the
document Software Engineering
Methodology for Small and Medium
 functions to user roles or specific
users so as to circumvent any
issues. This does not mean that
they can remove the functions
that are standard to each role,
only add and remove from the
list of existing functions.
Supervisor/Professor (SP): This
user serves as an administrator
role. Meaning unimpeded access
to all functions, databases and
projects of the program.
Team Leader (TL): This user
role can be considered a medium
level user. Not only will they be
able to perform all functions that
an EE can, but they are given the
added privilege of creating tasks
(pending approval of supervisor)
and modifying surveys.
Student/Employee (EE):
Lowest level user. Will be able
to perform basic functions in
accordance to the project they are
assigned, limited to the tasks that
belong to such user.
The following is the description of the
interaction each roles has with the
standard functions.
Professor/Supervisor:
1. Only user that can edit
project
2. Only user that can edit group
3. Can create, edit , and view all
tasks
4. Only user that can approve
tasks
3
role, to the project and not as a standard
part of the project.
Mentioning first is the list of
standard task, anything apart from the
list below is an associated task.
List of standard tasks:
1. Create
2. View
Finishing the last touches to the
project was the completions of templates
for edit task [see figure 1 in annexes],
task approval [see figure 2 in annexes]
and role management [see figure 3 in
annexes]. The final templates were
added since new modifications were
made to benefit hierarchy order and
structure.
Role Integration
The software application uses
functions to complete a given project
with cooperation from the user. Each
user will have a task and specific role.
The task will be the given job that is
accepted by the user to complete. The
role is given to the users by a
Professor/Supervisor which gives a
hierarchy order that will structurally
benefit the project in any situation. The
following list describes and classifies the
standard roles and what their purpose
will be throughout the project:
Role: Here we have defined what
our main 3 roles will be. The
application will allow the
supervisor role to modify the
existing other roles. In other
words they will be able to add
 Professor/Supervisor services
1. Edit project- Will allow
the user to edit a project.
This includes the
following functions:
2. Create Project: Will
allow the user to create a
new project. The creation
of the new project will
include the following
functions:
3. Edit survey:
Edit student/employee
survey.
4. Create survey: Will allow
the user to create a
survey.
5. Edit group: Edit created
groups.
6. Create group: Allows the
user to create groups
using information
obtained from survey.
7. Edit name: Edit group
name
8. Add member: Add new
member to the team
9. Remove member:
Remove member from
the team
10. Assign tasks: Assign
tasks to be members of
the group.
11. Edit tasks: Edit created
tasks.
4
5. Can create, edit, and view all
surveys
6. Only user that can manage
roles
Team Leader:
1. These functions are possible
with authorization from
Supervisor/Professor:
2. Can edit and view tasks from
assigned project
3. Can edit and view surveys
from assigned project
Student/Employee :
1. Can only view assigned task
2. Can only view assigned
survey
Function Declaration
In the development of this
software application we have divided the
jobs that will be performed by using a
methodology that will structure, plan and
control all processes to complete a given
task the best way possible. The division
of these jobs is known as functions. The
primary functions are in the
Professor/Supervisor services [see figure
4 in annexes] and Student/Employee
services. The functions will also be
divided in standard functions and
associated function for beneficial
adjustments to any Professor/Supervisor
that would like to add any new functions
to the project. The standard functions
from both services are listed below.
 SEMSEs interface is designed to
facilitate the Software Engineering aspect
with a interactive companion application.
With this in mind, the design of the interface
is going to need to have the basic functions
that one would expect for any online
environment. [see figure 8 - 15]
1.Log In Page: See Figure 8, page 14
Has the core essentials of
information will be here. SignUp()
-Function, Will bring the user to the Sign
Up page . See Figure 9: LogIn()- with
Valid credentials the user will be sent to the
Homepage with respect to their Roles.
2. Sign Up: Figure 9, page 15
This region shows where users can
send a sign up request to the SEMSE
Admin. It has two text fields (
Email_1,Email_2, Pw_1, Pw_2) , in which
will be used to verify the text, and then
transfer the information to the database.
3. Professor Homepage: Figure 10, page
16
This homepage contains all of the
main functionality for the SEMSE
Companion Site. The ability for a user to
manage a project using the task initiative .
The functions can be seen on:
Professor/Supervisor services, page 4.
4. Student Homepage: Figure 11, page 17
This homepage is for the
Students/Employees. Their tasks and
operation functions will be distributed in
this plane.
5 Project Manager: Figure 12, page 18
This manager shows how intuitive
the Project Manager is. The simple yet
5
Student/Employee services
1. Access project- The user
will be able to access the
assigned project and work
on said project.
Conclusions
The Software Engineering
Methodology for Small Enterprises
(SEMSE) services [see figure 6 in
annexes] is a software application with a
variety of purposes that can be used in
diverse forms which benefit the clients
need. SEMSE has many phases, but the
primary phase which is discussed is the
pre-production phase enabling an easy
and smooth understanding of how this
methodology was designed and
developed. This methodology takes
advantage of the users constantly
updating valuable information for the
completion of a task in which little
interaction is needed, but the fact that so
much information is received as a type
of feedback an even amount of
communication is still acquired. A very
important aspect of this software
application is the availability for various
fields, not only a computer science
related field. The architectural
production phase is introduced in a class
diagram for a better understanding
services [see figure 7 in annexes]. This
paper serves as a tool for the pre-
production phase as an agile
methodology to implement a structural
method for developing a software
application or project in any field.
Interface
 effective design lets users manage their
projects without complex actions.

References

1. Comparison between RUP and

XP, by Prof. Cesar Herrera, Luis
Davila, Giselle B. Montano,
Derrick Rivera, Aug.2014
2. Software Engineering
Methodology for Small and
Medium Enterprises, by Juan
Rivera, Jan. 2015

6
Annexes

Figure 1: Shows a visual template of how Edit task will look like and its
appropriate functions.
Figure 2: Demonstrates a visual template of Role Management and how its
interactions would appear.
Figure 3: Shows a visual template of how Task Approval will be implemented
in SEMSE with its functions.
Figure 4: Shows a visual template of how Edit Project will appear with all of
its sub-functions included, as a main function in SEMSE.
Figure 5: Shows a visual template of a Survey and the multiple variations a
Survey can take depending on what the Supervisor/ Professor is looking for.
Figure 6: Shows a visual template of how Interface as a whole should appear with all functions
and sub-functions.
Figure 7: Shows a visual template of the production phase of the SEMSE architecture complete
with all the functions and sub-functions.
Figure 8 : Shows a Visual Template for the Log In page.
Figure 9: This is the sign up page.
Figure 10: Professors homepage. The drop down menu contains all of the functions listed in the
notes: ex. Create_Project(), CreateTask() .
Figure 11: This image represents the Student Homepage , along with various tasks.
Figure 12: Represents the Project Manager with examples of its functionality.