Umbrella Activities

The software engineering work can be carried out in three phases.

Definition Phase

It focuses on What. In this phase, key requirements of the system are identified. A software engineer talks about Information to be processed, Constraints, Users, functions, performance etc. Broadly, it involves three activities

• Information Engineering
• Software Project Planning
• Requirement Analysis

Development Phase

It focuses on How. This phase is all about implementation. It involves designing the system, deciding programming languages and architecture, writing code, designing database models etc. Broadly this phase is performed by following three activities.

• System Design
• Coding
• Testing

Support Phase

It focuses on Change. It reapplies preceding phases on existing software. The change can be of following types.

• Corrective Maintenance - changes to resolve defects.
• Adaptive Maintenance - changes to accommodate new external environment.
• Perfective Maintenance - extends the functional requirements
• Preventive Maintenance - changes the software to reduce the deteriorate due to other type of changes

All these phases are complemented by a number activities like reviews, tracking, risk management, document preparation etc. These activities are called Umbrella activities.