Page 8 - DCAP305_PRINCIPLES_OF_SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING

Principles of Software Engineering

Notes
1.11 Role of Management in Software Development
1.11.1 The People
1.11.2 The Product
1.11.3 The Project
1.12 Summary
1.13 Keywords
1.14 Review Questions

1.15 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Understand the concepts of software engineering
• Discuss the evolution and impact of software engineering
• Explain the evolution of an art to an engineering discipline
• Define the software characteristics
• Discuss the changing nature of software
• Explain software components

• Discuss the software applications
• Define software myths
• Discuss the term software a crisis on the horizon
• Explain the terminologies in software engineering
• Understand the role of management in software development

Introduction

In all industrialized countries; and increasingly in just beginning countries, computer systems
are economically critical. Ever more products incorporate computers in some form. Educational,
administrative and health care systems are maintained by computer systems. The software in
these systems represents a large and increasing proportion of the total system costs. The effective
functioning of modern economic and political systems therefore depends on our ability to
produce software in a cost-effective way.
Software engineering is disturbed with the theories, methods and tools which are needed
to expand the software for these computers. Generally, the software systems which must be
urbanized are large and complex, systems. They are also nonrepresentational in that they do
not have any physical form. Software engineering is therefore different from other engineering
disciplines. It is not constrained by materials governed by physical laws or by manufacturing
processes.
Software engineers model parts of the real world in software. These models are large, abstract
and complex so they must be made visible in documents such as system designs, user manuals,
and so on. Producing these documents is as much part of the software engineering process as
programming. As the real world which is modelled changes, so too must the software. Therefore,
software engineering is also concerned with evolving these models to meet changing needs and
requirements.

2 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY