The control and prediction of surface settlement, gradient and ground displacement are the main factors in shallow tunnel design and construction in urban area. For deformation analysis of shallow tunnel due to excavation it is important to identify possible deformation mechanism of shear bands developing from tunnel shoulder to the ground surface. This paper investigaties quantitatively the deformation behavior of shallow tunneling by model tunnel test and strain softening analysis Incorporating the reduction of shear stiffness and strength parameters. The comparison of model tunnel test result and numerical simulation using strain softening analysis showed good agreement in crown settlement, normalized subsidence settlement and developing shear bands above tunnel shoulder. In this study, it is blown that the strain softening modeling is applicable to the nonlinear deformation analysis of shallow tunnel.