Engineering the application software

Chapter 9 Engineering the application software. Guidance is provided here on... 

The application software is speeific and may be developed either by Schneider Eleetrie, by an engineering company or by the eustomer himself. 

User-centered design is not just about building nice-looking and usable user interfaces, and software development is not just about implementing functionality that supports user tasks. Belonging to different traditions and times, the disciplines of software engineering (SE) and human computer interaction (HCI) have evolved separately and developed their own methods to meet the needs of software application customers and users. Over the last twenty years, especially, several practices have been developed in both communities. This illustrates the human-centered perspective s influence on the software development lifecycle. Stakeholder involvement in the requirements elicitation process and evolutionary process models [39], which enable iterative construction of the application software to best meet the user requirements, and the widespread use of prototyping by the HCI community are examples of the approximation of both disciplines [31]. 

The applications software is best commissioned by the process engineers who will have responsibility for operating the plant. It should not be commissioned solely by the engineers who developed and tested it. Control system software specialists must be available throughout all phases of commissioning (24-hours a day if the plant is being commissioned around the dock). 

The application software for the specified safety functions (normally the responsibility of the engineering team for the SIS)... 

Application software documentation incorporates comments that are detailed enough to explain the function of each symbol, the function of each SIF, and the relationship of each symbol to its SIF. The comments are sufficiently complete to assist engineering and maintenance personnel in understanding the application software functions, as well as navigating within the application software. 

Until recently, most expert system building took place in the research departments of universities and a few major corporations. The primary emphasis was investigation of artificial intelligence principles, and the application was of secondary importance. The expert systems tools used reflect this interest. They are typically stand-alone AI computer systems, using special hardware and software environments (usually Lispr-based) not commonly fo md in scientific and engineering organizations. 

Most of the applications of artificial intelligence in chemistry so far have not involved numerical computation as a primary goal. Yet there are aspects of the AI approach to problem-solving which have relevance to computation. In scientific computation, one could view the knowledge base as the set of equations, input variable values, and unit conversions relevant to the problem, and the inference engine the numerical method used to solve the equations. This paper describes such a software system,... 

Follow- Up. Even after the system is delivered, additional work is usually needed. In conventional software engineering this is viewed as software maintenance or upgrade. It is referred to here as follow-up to emphasize that the process of knowledge-base refinement that begins in the prototyping stage can continue even after the system is commissioned. The need for additional detail may come to light only after the application has been in use for some period of time. The time required to implement such enhancements should be taken into account. 

Qualification protocols are written documents prepared before conducting the qualification, describing the features of a particular application or item and how it should be tested. Qualification protocols identify the objectives, methods, and acceptance criteria for each test function contained in the applicable specification deliverable and identifies who is responsible for conducting the tests. In addition, the protocols should also specify how the data is to be collected, reported, and analyzed to determine if the acceptance criteria were met. The protocol should be reviewed by personnel with an appropriate understanding of computer systems and the functionality of the indicated system. Following the review, qualified personnel must approve each protocol in accordance with the company quality assurance procedures. In the software engineering world, qualification protocols are equivalent to test procedures. Traditionally the scope of the qualification protocols encompasses the following ... 

Since the advent of efficient and robust simulation and optimization solution engines" and flowsheeting software packages that allow for relatively easy configuration of complex models, numerous integrated, high fidelity, and multiscale process model applications have been deployed in industrial plants to monitor performance and to determine and capture improvements in operating profit. 

SSE-CMM—System Security Engineering Capability Maturity Model, June 15, 2003, in line with ISO 15504-2 (SPICE) and CMM-I (following the processes and maturity level concept, but for security engineering instead of software development) (not safety application-specific)... 

The development and application of high throughput experimentation for a given application requires an interdisciplinary mix of Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, and Computation in order to develop the chemistry, software and mechanical modules. 

How does the software relate to the applications noted above Lets consider the diagram below (figures 7a and 7b) to illustrate the layering of software (the diagram was originally presented by Tom McIntyre, Central Engineering, Digital Equipment Corporation). 

The purpose of a Supplier/integrator audit is to allow the pharmaceutical manufacturer to review documented evidence of the application of the supplier Quality Management System (QMS) throughout the development of the LIMS package. The Supplier Audit will also confirm that the supplier is capable of delivering the correct standard of software engineering and documentation for LIMS. 

One small company, Engineering Animation, a software algorithm development company, came to us with only 20 employees in 1991. They now have over 900 employees and have developed software that allows medical students to study the human body in three dimensions. They then turned around and used that same base technology to create the animation for interactive games and movies such as Small Soldiers and Animaniacs. This was a huge home run, with broad applications. 

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