Introduction to Software

Engineering
Week 1: Case studies
Nguyn Th Minh Tuyn

Adapted from slides of Ian Sommerville

Case studies
A personal insulin pump
An embedded system in an insulin pump used by
diabe8cs to maintain blood glucose control.

A mental health case pa1ent management system

A system used to maintain records of people receiving
care for mental health problems.

A wilderness weather sta1on

A data collec8on system that collects data about
weather condi8ons in remote areas.

Insulin pump control system

Collects data from a blood sugar sensor and
calculates the amount of insulin required to be
injected.
Calcula1on based on the rate of change of blood
sugar levels.
Sends signals to a micro-pump to deliver the
correct dose of insulin.
Safety-cri1cal system as low blood sugars can lead
to brain malfunc1oning, coma and death; high-
blood sugar levels have long-term consequences
such as eye and kidney damage.
3

Insulin pump hardware architecture

Insulin reservoir
Needle
assembly

Pump

Clock

Sensor

Controller

Alarm

Display1

Display2

Power supply
4

Activity model of the insulin pump

Blood
sensor

Blood
sugar

Analyse sensor
reading

Compute
insulin

Insulin
log

Insulin
dose

Insulin
pump

Control insulin
pump

Pump
data

Compute pump
commands

Log dose

Essential high-level requirements

The system shall be available to deliver
insulin when required.
The system shall perform reliably and
deliver the correct amount of insulin to
counteract the current level of blood sugar.
The system must therefore be designed and
implemented to ensure that the system
always meets these requirements.

A patient information system for

mental health care
A pa1ent informa1on system to support mental
health care is a medical informa1on system that
maintains informa1on about pa1ents suering from
mental health problems and the treatments that they
have received.
Most mental health pa1ents do not require dedicated
hospital treatment but need to aEend specialist
clinics regularly where they can meet a doctor who
has detailed knowledge of their problems.
To make it easier for pa1ents to aEend, these clinics
are not just run in hospitals. They may also be held in
local medical prac1ces or community centres.
7

MHC-PMS
The MHC-PMS (Mental Health Care-Pa8ent
Management System) is an informa8on system that
is intended for use in clinics.
It makes use of a centralized database of pa8ent
informa8on but has also been designed to run on a
PC, so that it may be accessed and used from sites
that do not have secure network connec8vity.
When the local systems have secure network access,
they use pa8ent informa8on in the database but they
can download and use local copies of pa8ent records
when they are disconnected.
8

MHC-PMS goals
To generate management informa1on that
allows health service managers to assess
performance against local and government
targets.
To provide medical sta with 1mely
informa1on to support the treatment of
pa1ents.

The organization of the MHC-PMS

MHC-PMS
local

MHC-PMS
local

MHC-PMS server

Patient database

10

MHC-PMS
local

MHC-PMS key features

Individual care management
Clinicians can create records for pa8ents, edit the informa8on in
the system, view pa8ent history, etc. The system supports data
summaries so that doctors can quickly learn about the key
problems and treatments that have been prescribed.
Pa1ent monitoring
The system monitors the records of pa8ents that are involved in
treatment and issues warnings if possible problems are detected.
Administra1ve repor1ng
The system generates monthly management reports showing the
number of pa8ents treated at each clinic, the number of pa8ents
who have entered and leM the care system, the drugs prescribed
and their costs, etc.
11

MHC-PMS concerns
Privacy
It is essen8al that pa8ent informa8on is conden8al and
is never disclosed to anyone apart from authorised
medical sta and the pa8ent themselves.
Safety
Some mental illnesses cause pa8ents to become suicidal
or a danger to other people. Wherever possible, the
system should warn medical sta about poten8ally
suicidal or dangerous pa8ents.
The system must be available when needed otherwise
safety may be compromised and it may be impossible to
prescribe the correct medica8on to pa8ents.
12

Wilderness weather station

The government of a country with large areas of
wilderness decides to deploy several hundred weather
sta1ons in remote areas.
Weather sta1ons collect data from a set of instruments
that measure temperature and pressure, sunshine,
rainfall, wind speed and wind direc1on.
The weather sta8on includes a number of instruments
that measure weather parameters such as the wind
speed and direc8on, the ground and air temperatures,
the rainfall over a 24-hour period. Each of these
instruments is controlled by a soMware system that
takes parameter readings periodically and manages the
data collected from the instruments.
13

The weather stations environment

system
Data management
and archiving

system
Weather station

system
Station maintenance

14

Weather information system

The weather sta1on system
This is responsible for collec8ng weather data, carrying out
some ini8al data processing and transmiSng it to the data
management system.
The data management and archiving system
This system collects the data from all of the wilderness
weather sta8ons, carries out data processing and analysis and
archives the data.
The sta1on maintenance system
This system can communicate by satellite with all wilderness
weather sta8ons to monitor the health of these systems and
provide reports of problems.
15

Additional software functionality

Monitor the instruments, power and
communica1on hardware and report faults to the
management system.
Manage the system power, ensuring that
baEeries are charged whenever the
environmental condi1ons permit but also that
generators are shut down in poten1ally damaging
weather condi1ons, such as high wind.
Support dynamic recongura1on where parts of
the soJware are replaced with new versions and
where backup instruments are switched into the
system in the event of system failure.
16