Software engineering process models: the development strategy in which the executive control modules and top-level logic are coded and tested first is known as which structured approach?

Introduction / Context:
Choosing a development strategy affects testability, integration order, and architectural clarity. In many structured methods, one may start either from high-level control structures or from low-level utility modules. This item checks recognition of the industry-standard term for beginning with executive control modules and refining details progressively.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• We focus on the order of implementation and testing.
• “Executive control modules” refer to top-level coordinating components that orchestrate lower-level services.
• The goal is to identify the canonical name for this strategy.

Concept / Approach:
Top-down development starts with high-level architecture and control flow. Developers create stubs for lower layers to enable early testing of the control path and user-visible behavior. As the project proceeds, stubs are replaced with real implementations, allowing progressive refinement while maintaining a working skeleton of the system.

Step-by-Step Solution:
1) Recognize that coding executive control modules first aligns with building the system skeleton.2) Identify strategy name: “Top-down development.”3) Note that lower-level modules are introduced later, often via iterative refinement.4) Confirm integration proceeds from abstract to concrete components.

Verification / Alternative check:
Classic software engineering texts describe top-down design with successive refinement and stub-based testing for unimplemented modules. This matches the described process exactly.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• Bottom-up development: Builds from utilities upward; opposite order.
• Left-Right development: Not a standard term in process models.
• All of the above / None of the above: One correct answer exists and is well-established.

Common Pitfalls:
Confusing “top-down” with “waterfall.” Top-down concerns implementation order and decomposition; projects can still be iterative or agile while applying top-down coding of control modules first.

Final Answer:
Top-down development.