Effective Methods for Software Engineering

Book excerpt: Software is important because it is used by a great many people in companies and institutions. This book presents engineering methods for designing and building software. Based on the author’s experience in software engineering as a programmer in the defense and aerospace industries, this book explains how to ensure a software that is programmed operates according to its requirements. It also shows how to develop, operate, and maintain software engineering capabilities by instilling an engineering discipline to support programming, design, builds, and delivery to customers. This book helps software engineers to: Understand the basic concepts, standards, and requirements of software engineering. Select the appropriate programming and design techniques. Effectively use software engineering tools and applications. Create specifications to comply with the software standards and requirements. Utilize various methods and techniques to identify defects. Manage changes to standards and requirements. Besides providing a technical view, this book discusses the moral and ethical responsibility of software engineers to ensure that the software they design and program does not cause serious problems. Software engineers tend to be concerned with the technical elegance of their software products and tools, whereas customers tend to be concerned only with whether a software product meets their needs and is easy and ready to use. This book looks at these two sides of software development and the challenges they present for software engineering. A critical understanding of software engineering empowers developers to choose the right methods for achieving effective results. Effective Methods for Software Engineering guides software programmers and developers to develop this critical understanding that is so crucial in today’s software-dependent society.