List of basic software engineering topics

Core topics

Technologies and practices

• Programming languages
  • List of programming languages
  • Fortran
  • Cobol
  • C
  • Java
  • C++
  • Visual Basic
• Databases
  • Hierarchical databases
  • Relational databases
  • Object databases
  • SQL
• Graphical user interfaces
• Programming tools
  • Configuration management or source code management
    • Make
    • CVS
    • RCS
  • Editors
    • text editors
    • program editors
    • word processors
• Library
  • Software components
• Design languages
  • UML
• Patterns and Anti-patterns document many common programming and project management techniques.
• Processes and Methodologies
  • Heavyweight
    • Cleanroom
    • CMM and CMMI
    • ISO 9000 and ISO 9001
    • Rational Unified Process RUP
    • Six Sigma
  • Agile
    • Agile processes
    • Extreme programming
    • Lean software development
• Platforms. As platforms have become more powerful, tools have become available on less expensive platforms and more widely available.
  • Cray supercomputers
  • IBM mainframes
  • Linux
  • Mac OS/Mac OS X
  • UNIX
  • Wintel PCs
• Practices
  • Refactoring
  • Software inspections
  • Pair programming
  • Software reuse
• Other tools
  • Decision tables

Applications

The following applications either influenced software engineering or vice versa.

• Accounting / MIS
• Analytics
  • Data mining closely related to database
  • Decision support systems
• Airline reservations
• Banking
• Compilers
  • Parsers
  • Optimizers
  • Interpreters
  • Linkers
  • Loaders
• Communication
  • Email
  • Instant messangers
  • VOIP
  • Calendars
  • Contact managers
• Computer graphics
  • Special effects for video and film
• Databases, supports almost every field
• Embedded systems
  • Automotive software
  • Avionics software
  • HVAC controllers
  • Medical software
  • Telephony
• Information systems, supports almost every field
• Logistics
• Office suites
  • Word processors
  • Spreadsheets
  • Presentation programs
• Operating systems
  • Single task
  • Multitasking
• Robotics
• Signal analysis
  • Image processing
  • Signal processing encoding sound and information
  • Speech recognition
  • Text recognition
  • Handwriting recognition
• Simulation, supports almost every field
  • Physics
• Video games
• Visualization, supports almost every field
• World wide web
  • Browsers
  • Servers

Notable pioneers

• John Backus: Fortran, first optimizing compiler
• Kent Beck: Refactoring, Extreme programming (pair programming, test driven development).
• Tim Berners-Lee: World wide web
• Barry Boehm: Software economics, COCOMO, Spiral model.
• Grady Booch: Object-oriented design, UML.
• Fred Brooks: Managed System 360 and OS 360. Wrote The Mythical Man-Month and "No Silver Bullet".
• Edsger Dijkstra: Author of A Discipline of Programming
• Michael Fagan: Software inspection.
• Tom Gilb: Evolutionary processes.
• Grace Hopper: First compiler (Mark 1), COBOL.
• Watts S. Humphrey: Capability Maturity Model, headed (founded?) the Software Engineering Institute.
• Jean Ichbiah: Ada
• Bill Joy: Berkeley Unix, VI, Java.
• Brian Kernighan: C and Unix.
• Donald Knuth : Author of The Art of Computer Programming
• Bertrand Meyer: Design by Contract, Eiffel programming language.
• Peter G. Neumann: Computer risks, ACM Sigsoft.
• David Parnas: Module design, social responsibility, professionalism.
• Jef Raskin: Developed original Macintosh GUI
• Dennis Ritchie: C and Unix.
• Winston W. Royce: Waterfall model.
• Linus Torvalds: Linux kernel.
• Will Tracz: Reuse, ACM Software Engineering Notes.
• Richard Stallman: Founder of the Free Software Foundation
• Gerald Weinberg: Wrote The Psychology of Computer Programming.
• Ed Yourdon: Structured programming, wrote The Decline and Fall of the American Programmer.

See also

• List of programmers
• List of computer scientists
• List of software moguls

Notable publications

• About Face, by Alan Cooper
• The Mythical Man-Month, by Fred Brooks: Written at UNC describing what Brooks learned from IBM's OS 360 project.
• The Capability Maturity Model, by Watts Humphrey. Written for the Software Engineering Institute, emphasizing management. Humphreys was a VP at IBM.
• The Psychology of Computer Programming, by Gerald Weinberg. Written as an independent consultant, partly about his IBM years.
• Decline and Fall of the American Programmer by Ed Yourdon.
• Object-oriented Analysis and Design by Grady Booch.
• Design Patterns by Gang of Four.
• by Martin Fowler, Kent Beck, John Brant, William Opdyke and Don Roberts
• Peopleware, by Tom DeMarco.
• Principles of Software Engineering Management by Tom Gilb.

Software development concepts

Approaches to programming practice

• Programming paradigm
• Structured programming
• Functional decomposition
• Object-oriented programming
• State-oriented programming
• Aspect-oriented programming
• Post-object programming

Life cycles and strategies

• Software development process
• Software development lifecycle
• Project lifecycle

• Waterfall model - Structured programming and Stepwise refinement
• Spiral model - Iterative development
• Chaos model - Chaos strategy

Development life cycle phases

• Life cycle phase
• Development stage

• Requirements gathering
• Requirements analysis
• Software architecture
• Computer programming
• Testing, focuses on detecting (preventing?) bugs
  • Black box testing
  • White box testing
  • Clear box testing
• Quality assurance, ensures compliance with process. It is a misnomer because it is not about quality and it is not about testing.

Product Life cycle phases

• Inception
• First development
• Obsolesence

Deliverables

These are the things that must be developed for many projects.

• Application
• Database
• Documentation, for each role (user, administrator, manager, buyer)
• Maintenace policy
• Installers
• Migration, upgrade from previous versions and competitor's installations
• Training materials, for each role (user, administrator, manager, buyer)
• Support CSG
• Marketing and sales materials
  • White papers
  • Comparisons with competitor products

Computer science technologies and practices

Skilled software engineers know much computer science research and practice.

• Algorithms, these are well-studied and understood methods for solving specific problems.
  • Searching
  • Sorting
  • Parsing
  • Numerical analysis
• Computability, some problems cannot be solved
  • Halting problem
• Complexity, some problems are inherently unsolvable because of the time required
  • NP completeness
  • Computational complexity theory
• Discrete mathematics
• Proof of correctness

Human Issues

Management topics

• Leadership
  • Communication, engineers easily forget about this
  • Listening
  • Motivation
  • Vision
• Personnel management
  • Hiring and Staffing
  • Training
  • Evaluation
• Project management
  • Goal setting
  • Customer interaction
  • Estimation
  • Risk management
  • Change management
• Process management
  • Core processes
• Software metrics

Engineering topics

• Communication
• Teamwork

Professional topics

• Ethics
• Education
• Licensing
• Software engineering professionalism

Odds and ends

Notable disasters

• Ariane
• Mars probes
• Denver International Airport
• TAURUS - UK share settlement system and dematerialised central share depository

Related fields

• Engineering
  • Computer engineering
  • Domain engineering
  • Information engineering
  • Knowledge engineering
  • Software engineering
  • User interface engineering
• Science
  • Computer science
  • Information science
• Application
  • Information systems

Other Odds and ends

• Complexity or scaling
• Software brittleness problem
• Second system syndrome

Links

Related Wikipedia pages

Those interested in related software engineering can monitor changes to related pages by clicking on on Related changes in the sidebar.

• SWEBOK
• Computer terms etymology or origins of computer terms

Related web sites

• Undergraduate curriculum
• Professional licensing in Texas
• http://www.software-engineer.org A community for software engineers
• http://www.agilealliance.org Organization to promote Agile software development
• http://www.acm.org The Association for Computing Machinery
• http://www.computer.org The IEEE Computer Society
• IEEE Software Engineering Standards
• David Redmiles page from the University of California site
• The Software Engineering Institute
• SE Code of Ethics
• Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Full text in PDF from the NATO conference in Garmisch
• Computer Risks Peter G. Neumann's risks column.

Referenced By