Software Engineering as a Career

Craig Henderson, CRTS Graduate 1995

Software Development ManagerAviation Information SolutionsRockwell Collins (UK) Ltd

AIS Software Development (1)

A mature and capable development team Current team of 9 developers have in excess of 110 man years combined commercial software development experience

Over 45 man years of HERMES™ product development experience exists within RCUK

Average developer years of service is 7.3

Development is controlled by work packages All development work is undertaken within the scope of a formal Work Package

AIS Software Development (2)

Traditional Waterfall Development Lifecycle

Using industry standard methodologies ensures that the process is comprehensible and transparent

Peer Reviews Rigorous Software Testing

3 varieties of testing; implementation testing, continuous automated testing, full system testing

AIS Software Development (3)

ISO 9001 Quality Assured Well defined processes for Software Development

Business

Technical

Each release of software is verified by the QA team before delivery to the customer solution team

Work Packages (1)

Scope A Work Package covers the technical requirements, design, implementation and testing of a self contained unit of software development

The business requirements and estimates will have been defined prior to raising a Work Package

Work Packages are signed off by management before work commences to enable effective resource allocation

Purpose Software change control Define the scope of work to be done Define baseline timescale and record actual progress Define budget and identify resources

Work Packages (2)

Benefits Traceability and visibility of software changes Eases project, resource and release management

Provide predictable, controlled and scalable development capability

Peer Review (1)

Scope Peer Reviews are conducted by Development Engineers

Requirement reviews Design reviews Implementation reviews

Purpose Quality control of the development process and the software

Validation of design and implementation against requirements

Information sharing

Peer Review (2)

Benefits Improved software quality Early indication of inaccurate or missing details

Knowledge is shared among engineers Engineering team scalability

Language Choice

Choose a language to specialise in, and learn as much of it as possible

Be flexible in your work to write code in other languages besides your chosen specialist one

Don’t slate other languages because they’re not your chosen one

Understand the alternatives and be ready to make decisions on which to use

Top four languages of choice C C++ JAVA C#

Use the right tool for the job

Language Expertise

Read the language specification, keep a copy to hand

Understand implementation details. For example:

• Know what a vtable is for, and the impact it has on the runtime of your system

• Understand what, when and why the compiler generates code for you, e.g. class methods

Be able to recognise the fringe language features, and in time, learn themexplicit, mutable keywords

Language Expertise –A C++ example: Use of the const keyword (1)

What is the const keyword for? It is used to mark an entity as constant, i.e. read-only; not modifiable

What entities can it be used with? Data objects

const int max_value = 36;

Class member functionsclass foo

{ public:

void bar(void) const;

private:

int value_;

};

max_value cannot be changed (at least directly)

bar() cannot modify value_

Language Expertise –A C++ example: Use of the const keyword (2)

What entities can it be used with (continued)? Pointers to object

const char *message = “Hello World!”;

char const *message = “Hello World!”;

const char * const message = “Hello World!”; Tip: always put the const to the right of the entity:

char const *message = “Hello World!”;

char * const message = “Hello World!”;

char const * const message = “Hello World!”;

Each of the three statements above is allowed by the language, but which is not semantically correct?

Platform Expertise

Know your platform(s) Platform UI design practice Understand platform specific

performance implications of design/implementation choices

Mutex vs Critical Section

Good Practices

Learn good practices, employ them in your work and advocate them to others

Use const types as return values Method overloads to reduce redundancy and increase performance

ReferencesAll books by Scott MeyersAll books by Andrei AlexandrescuAll books by Herb SutterC/C++ Users Journal, CMP Media

Ways to ImprovePracticeRead the language specificationWrite; technical documentation, articles

Changing Jobs

Changing jobs is good for you & your career Changing jobs doesn’t have to mean changing employers

Don’t get stuck in a comfortable existence But don’t change too often Have a good Curriculum Vitae Don’t get nervous at interview – it’s only a job

Interview Test#define MIN_AGE = 0 #define MAX_AGE = 150

#define MAX_NAME_STR_LEN = 255 #define MAX_ADDR_STR_LEN = 1024

class CPerson private CObject { public  char GetName() { return szName }  int GetAge() { return iAge } char GetAddress() { return szAddress }   protected  int SetName(char* szName) { m_szName = szName }  int SetAge(int* iAge)   {     if (iage < MIN_AGE) | (iage > MAX_AGE) throw "Invalid Age" iage;     else m_iAge = iAge;     int SetAddress(char* szAddress) { m_szAddress = szAddress }

private  CPerson() {}  ~CPerson() {}

 static char* m_szName[MAX_NAME_STR_LEN] = "";  const int m_iAge = -1;  static char* m_szAddress[MAX_ADDR_STR_LEN] = ""; }

Interview Test – Model Answerclass CPerson : public CObject { public: static int const MIN_AGE = 0; static int const MAX_AGE = 150;

 CPerson() : age_(0) {}  ~CPerson() {} std::string const &GetName() const { return name_; }  int const GetAge() const { return age_; }  std::string const &GetAddress() const { return address_; }    void SetName(char const *name) { name_ = name; }  void SetName(std::string const &name) { name_ = name; } bool const SetAge(int age) {     if (age < MIN_AGE || age > MAX_AGE)

return false;     else

age_ = age; return true; }    bool const SetAddress(std::string const &address) { return SetAddress(address.c_str()); } bool const SetAddress(char const *address) { if (address) { address_ = address; return true; } return false; }

private:   std::string name_;  int age_;   std::string address_; };

No comments were in the original code to give context or document intent, so assumptions have been made.

All but the simplest accessor functions should be implemented in a separate implementation file (e.g. cpp)

Code comments should also be added to describe the purpose of the class, document specific design decisions, identify author & change history.

Could add additional constructor for initialisation. My preference is not to do this, keeping object construction and initialisation separate.

Contact

Craig HendersonSoftware Development Manager

Aviation Information SolutionsRockwell Collins (UK) LtdReadingBerkshireRG6 1LA

0118 935 9211 [direct] chenders@rockwellcollins.com