Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software.
A quality Focus:
- Every organization is rest on its commitment to quality
- Total quality management, Six Sigma, or similar continuous improvement culture and it is this culture ultimately leads to development of increasingly more effective approaches to software engineering
- The foundation that supports software engineering is a quality focus
Process:
- The software engineering process is the glue that holds the technology layers together and enables rational and timely development of software
- Process defines a framework that must be established for effective delivery of software engineering technology
- The software process forms the basis for management control of software projects and establishes the context in which technical methods are applied, work products are produced, milestones are established, quality is ensured, and change is properly managed
Methods:
- Software engineering methods provide the technical aspects for building software
- Methods encompass a broad array of tasks that include communication, requirements analysis, design modeling, program construction, testing, and support
- Software engineering methods rely on the set of modeling activities and other descriptive techniques
Tools:
- Software engineering tools provide automated or semi-automated support for the process and the methods
- When tools are integrated so that information created by one tool can be used by another, a system for the support of software development, called CASE (computer-aided software engineering), is established