Software Engineering

Software Engineering is concerned with

•  Technical processes of software development
•  Software project management
•  Development of tools, methods and theories to support software production
•  Getting results of the required quality within the schedule and budget
•  Often involves making compromises
•  Often adopt a systematic and organized approach
•  Less formal development is particularly appropriate for the development of web-based systems

Software Engineering is important because

•  Individuals and society rely on advanced software systems
•  Produce reliable and trustworthy systems economically and quickly
•  Cheaper in the long run to use software engineering methods and techniques for softwaresystems

Fundamental activities being common to all software processes:

•  Software specification: customers and engineers define software that is to be produced and the constraints on its operation
•  Software development: software is designed and programmed
•  Software validation: software is checked to ensure that it is what the customer requires
•  Software evolution: software is modified to reflect changing customer and market requirements

Software Engineering is related to computer science and systems engineering:

 Computer science

o Concerned with theories and methods

 Software Engineering

o Practical problems of producing software

 Systems engineering

o Aspects of development and evolution of complex systems

o Specifying the system, defining its overall architecture, integrating the different parts to 

create the finished system

General issues that affect many different types of software:

 Heterogeneity

o Operate as distributed systems across networks

o Running on general-purpose computers and mobile phones

o Integrate new software with older legacy systems written in different programming 

languages

o Challenge: build dependable software that is flexible enough to cope with heterogeneity

 Business and social change

o Change existing software and rapidly develop new software

o Traditional software engineering techniques are time consuming

o Goal: reduce time to adapt to changing needs

 Security and trust

o Software is intertwined with all aspects of our lives

o See remote software systems (web page, web service interface)

o Make sure malicious users cannot attack software and information security is 

maintained

Essential attributes of good software

 Maintainability

 Dependability and security

 Efficiency

 Acceptability

Application types

 Stand-alone applications

 Interactive transaction-based applications

 Embedded control systems

 Batch processing systems

 Entertainment systems

 Systems for modeling and simulation

 Data collection systems