Software Engineering and Software Testing > Introduction to Software Engineering > What is Software Engineering?

What is Software Engineering?

 Computer Program: A computer program is an executable codes, written to solve a specific problem, by computation.

 Software: Software is more than just a program code. Software is considered to be a collection of executable programming code, associated libraries and documentations. Software, when made for a specific requirement is called software product.

Engineering: Engineering concerned with building useful artifacts under constraints (design under constraints). It is all about developing products, using well-defined, scientific principles and methods.

 

Software Engineering:

• The application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, maintenance, and retirement of software. –defined by IEEE
• The practical application of scientific knowledge to the design and construction of computer programs and the associated documentation required to develop, operate, and maintain them [Boehm]
• By summarizing: Software engineering is the process of developing, testing and deploying computer software to solve real-world problems by following a set of engineering principles and best practices.

Without using software engineering principles it would be difficult to develop large programs. In industry it is usually needed to develop large programs to accommodate multiple functions. A problem with developing such large commercial programs is that the complexity and difficulty levels of the programs increase exponentially with their sizes. Software engineering helps to reduce this programming complexity.

Software engineering is a broad field and also a collaborative field. To design and develop a software solutions we require to work with other technical and non-technical professionals like: System Analyst, developers, Mathematicians, designers (Aesthetics), Script Writers, and other creative and technical professionals.

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