Intermediate Software Management: Glossary

In order to develop (write, test, debug, backup) code efficiently, you need to use a number of different tools.

When there is a choice of tools for a task you will have to decide which tool is right for you, which may be a matter of personal preference or what the community you belong to is using.

Programming interfaces define how individual modules within a software application interact among themselves or how the application itself interacts with its users.

MVC is a software design architecture which divides the application into three interconnected modules: Model (data), View (user interface), and Controller (input/output and data manipulation).

The software project we use throughout this course is an example of an MVC application that manipulates patients’ inflammation data and performs basic statistical analysis using Python.

Virtual environments keep Python versions and dependencies required by different projects separate.

A virtual environment is itself a directory structure.

Use venv to create and manage Python virtual environments.

Use pip to install and manage Python external (third-party) libraries.

pip allows you to declare all dependencies for a project in a separate file (by convention called requirements.txt) which can be shared with collaborators/users and used to replicate a virtual environment.

Use pip3 freeze > requirements.txt to take snapshot of your project’s dependencies.

Use pip3 install -r requirements.txt to replicate someone else’s virtual environment on your machine from the requirements.txt file.

An IDE is an application that provides a comprehensive set of facilities for software development, including syntax highlighting, code search and completion, version control, testing and debugging.

PyCharm recognises virtual environments configured from the command line using venv and pip.

A branch is one version of your project that can contain its own set of commits.

Feature branches enable us to develop / explore / test new code features without affecting the stable main code.

For software to succeed it needs to be managed as well as developed.

Estimating the effort to deliver work items is a foundational tool for prioritising that work.

The reuse battle is won before it is fought. Select and use good practices consistently throughout development and not just at the end.

It’s as important to have a critical attitude to adopting software as we do to developing it.

We should use issues to keep track of software problems and other requests for change - even if we are the only developer and user.

As a team agree on who and to what extent you will support software you make available to others.

Prioritisation is a key tool in academia where research goals can change and software development is often given short shrift.

In order to prioritise things to do we must first estimate the effort required to do them.

For accurate effort estimation, it should be done by the people who will actually do the work.

Aim to reduce cognitive biases in effort estimation by being honest about your abilities.

Ask other team members - or do estimation as a team - to help make accurate estimates.

MoSCoW is a useful tool for prioritising work to help ensure projects deliver successfully.

Aim for a 60%/20%/20% ratio of Must Haves/Should Haves/Could Haves for project requirements.