Software engineering
(Redirected from The biggest challenge to Software Engineering)
Subject classification: this is an information technology resource. |
Software engineering is a field of computer science, concerned with designing and writing programs for computers.
Today it is mostly done in a team. Software engineering can broadly be split into the following:
- Requirements say what the software should do. Note that the requirements can change over time.
- Software design is usually done on paper. It says what the different components of the software are, and how they interact.
- When the design phase is done, engineers program the software in a phase known as implementation.
- At the end of implementation, engineers test their code to see if its components meet the requirements.
Programming is definitely the blood of almost all software. And just like calculus is to engineering, programming is to software engineering.
Overview[edit | edit source]
There are four generic phases in Software Engineering which are Analysis, Design, Coding and Testing.
Concepts[edit | edit source]
Coding[edit | edit source]
- implement system routines
- construct / traverse data structures
- distil large data sets to single values
- transform one data set to another
- language familiarity
- core libraries
- idioms
- performance issues
- readable, well-written, and efficient code
Algorithm design and analysis[edit | edit source]
- complexity analysis
- sorting and hashing, searching
- large amounts of data
Data structures[edit | edit source]
- tables
- trees
- graphs
- lists
Systems design[edit | edit source]
- feature sets
- interfaces
- class hierarchies
- designing a system under certain constraints
- simplicity and robustness
- trade-offs
Problem-solving[edit | edit source]
- collaboration
- classes of NP-complete problems
- listening and comprehension
- asking the right questions
- don't use brute force solutions
- don't assume things
- find multiple solutions and choose the best
- be open to new ideas and ways of solving the problem
- ask questions to move to a more complex answer
Mathematics[edit | edit source]
- matrices
- discrete math
- probability
- combinatorics
Becoming a software engineer[edit | edit source]
- How to prepare for a software engineering technical interview
Printed resources[edit | edit source]
- Laplante, Phillip (2007). What Every Engineer Should Know about Software Engineering. Boca Raton: CRC. ISBN 9780849372285. http://books.google.com/books?id=pFHYk0KWAEgC&lpg=PP1&ots=bqe_WFF-gi&dq=What%20Every%20Engineer%20Should%20Know%20about%20Software%20Engineering.&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 2011-01-21.
Other websites[edit | edit source]
- The British Computer Society
- The Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- Computer Degrees and Careers
See also[edit | edit source]
Search for Software engineering on Wikipedia. |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Software engineering.