Beginning Software Engineering

PART I Software Engineering Step-by-Step

• CHAPTER 1: Software Engineering from 20,000 Feet
• CHAPTER 2: Before the Beginning
• CHAPTER 3: Project Management
• CHAPTER 4: Requirement Gathering
• CHAPTER 5: High-Level Design
• CHAPTER 6: Low-Level Design
• CHAPTER 7: Development
• CHAPTER 8: Testing
• CHAPTER 9: Deployment
• CHAPTER 10: Metrics
• CHAPTER 11: Maintenance

Software and cathedrals are much the same. First we build them, then we pray.

—SAMUEL REDWINE

In principle, software engineering is a simple two-step process: (1) Write a best-selling program, and then (2) buy expensive toys with the profits. Unfortunately, the first step can be rather difficult. Saying “write a best-selling program” is a bit like telling an author, “Write a best-selling book,” or telling a baseball player “triple to left.” It’s a great idea, but knowing the goal doesn’t actually help you achieve it.

To produce great software, you need to handle a huge number of complicated tasks, any one of which can fail and sink the entire project. Over the years people have developed a multitude of methodologies and techniques to help keep software projects on track. Some of these, such as the waterfall and V-model approaches, use detailed requirement specifications to exactly define the wanted results before development begins. Others, such as Scrum and agile techniques, rely on fast-paced incremental development with frequent feedback to keep a project on track. (Still others techniques, such as cowboy coding and extreme ...