Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice

Chapter 15. Domain-Specific Software Engineering

Software systems differ in terms of their purpose, size, complexity, provided functionality, quality needs, intended usage, expected or required execution context, involved stakeholders and their concerns, level of criticality to system users, and so on. An argument can be made that this is precisely why software is difficult to develop. However, such differences across individual systems are not unique to software engineering. They can be found in any complex system and any engineering discipline.

As an example, consider two different products of modern engineering: airplanes and television sets. Both airplanes and televisions are complex systems, but their functionalities differ a great deal. They also have very different quality requirements. While it is certainly important for a television to function reliably, in the case of airplanes reliability can be a matter of life and death. Travelers expect airplanes to be robust in the face of atypical situations such as storms, turbulence, loss of cabin air pressure or engine or electrical power, and physical damage to the aircraft. On the other hand, consumers understand when, say, an electrical power surge damages their TV set and are content to wait for the TV to be repaired or simply will buy a new one. People expect that an airplane may be in use for decades and that it will need to be refurbished and upgraded during that time. They do not have the same expectations of a television. ...