For an alphabetical listing of topics, please see List Of Software Engineering Topics (alphabetical) .
Software engineers affect society by creating applications. These applications produce value for users, and sometimes produce disasters.
Software engineers build Applications that people use.
Applications influence software engineering by pressuring developers to solve problems in new ways. For example, consumer software emphasizes low cost, medical software emphasizes high quality, and Internet commerce software emphasizes rapid development.
- Business Software
- --- Accounting Software
- Analytics
- --- Data Mining closely related to Database
- --- Decision Support Systems
- Airline reservations
- Banking
- --- Automatic Teller Machine s
- --- Cheque Processing
- --- Credit Card s
- Commerce
- --- Trade
- --- Auction s (EBay)
- --- Reverse Auction s
- --- Bar Code Scanner s
- Compiler s
- --- Parser s
- --- Compiler Optimization
- --- Interpreter s
- --- Linker s
- --- Loader s
- Communication
- --- Email
- --- Instant Messengers
- --- VOIP
- --- Calendar s - scheduling and coordinating
- --- Contact Manager s
- Computer Graphics
- --- Animation
- --- Special Effects for video and film
- --- Editing
- --- Post-processing
- Cryptography
- Database s, support almost every field
- Embedded Systems Both software engineers and traditional engineers write software control systems for embedded products.
- --- Automotive Software
- --- Avionics Software
- --- Heating Ventilation And Air Conditioning (HVAC) software
- --- Medical Device Software
- --- Telephony
- --- Telemetry
- Engineering All traditional engineering branches use software extensively. Engineers use spreadsheets, more than they ever used calculators. Engineers use custom software Tool s to design, analyze, and simulate their own projects, like bridges and power lines. These projects resemble software in many respects, because the work exists as Electronic Document s and goes through Analysis , Design , Implementation , and Testing phases. Software tools for engineers use the tenets of computer science; as well as the tenets of calculus, physics, and chemistry.
- --- Computer Aided Design (CAD)
- --- Electronic Design Automation (EDA)
- --- Numerical Analysis
- --- Simulation
- File
- --- FTP
- --- File Sharing
- Finance
- --- Bond Market
- --- Futures Market
- --- Stock Market
- Games
- --- Poker
- --- Multiuser Dungeons
- --- Video Games
- Information Systems , support almost every field
- --- LIS Management of laboratory data
- --- MIS Management of financial and personnel data
- Logistics
- --- Supply Chain Management
- Manufacturing
- --- Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
- --- Distributed Control Systems (DCS)
- Music
- --- Music Sequencer s
- --- Sound Effects
- --- Music Synthesis
- Networks and Internet
- --- Domain Name System
- --- Protocols
- --- Router s
- Office Suite s
- --- Word Processor s
- --- Spreadsheet s
- --- Presentations
- Operating System s
- --- Embedded
- --- Graphical
- --- Multitasking
- --- Real-time
- Robotics
- Signal Analysis
- --- Image Processing , encoding and interpreting visual information
- --- Signal Processing , encoding and interpreting signals
- --- Speech Processing
- --- Text Recognition
- --- Handwriting Recognition
- Simulation , supports almost every field.
- --- Engineering , A software Simulation can be cheaper to build and more flexible to change than a physical Engineering Model .
- --- Science s
- Science s
- --- Genomics
- Traffic Control
- --- Air Traffic Control
- --- Ship Traffic Control
- --- Automotive Traffic Control
- Training
- --- Drill
- --- Simulation
- --- Testing
- Visualization , supports almost every field
- --- Architecture
- --- Engineering
- --- Science s
- Voting
- World Wide Web
- --- Browsers
- --- Servers
Software has played a role in many high-profile disasters.
- Ariane 5 Flight 501
- Mars Probe
- Denver International Airport
- TAURUS - UK share Settlement system and Dematerialised Central Share Depository .
- Therac-25 - A radiation therapy machine responsible for six overdoses due to faulty software.
- Airbus A320 - The Airbus A320 , while a highly safe and successful aircraft, was highly controversial in software engineering circles, being the first civilian Fly-by-wire aircraft. In the Airbus flight control systems, the computer has the final say on all decisions, meaning the safety of passengers depends upon the accuracy of the software specification, and the competence of the engineering teams producing the (multiple, independent) software stacks. Other than the crash of the original plane (in which a demonstration of stability outside the envelope went awry) whose cause is still not fully known, the sole crash which has been attributed to software was the Strasbourg A320 crash of Jan 21, 1992. In this crash which killed 87 people, the pilots had the flat panel display in the wrong mode. It is believed that the pilots had a console in flight path angle mode, instead of vertical speed entry. On entering a vertical speed, the aircraft descended into the mountains, without issuing any kind of warning. This accident shows a fundamental problem of software engineering: even if you implement the specification perfectly, an error in the specification (here, what constitutes an effective user interface), can still be lethal. It also shows another problem with computer controlled vehicles: there is vested interest by the manufacturers to attribute responsibility to the (often deceased) flight crew/drivers, rather than in the design of the vehicle.
Skilled software engineers use technologies and practices from a variety of fields to improve their productivity in creating software and to improve the quality of the delivered product.
Many technologies and practices are (mostly) unique to software engineering,
though many of these are shared with Computer Science .
A platform combines computer hardware and an operating system. As platforms become more powerful and less expensive, applications and tools become more widely available.
Skilled software engineers know a lot of Computer Science including what is possible and impossible, and what is easy and hard for software.
Discrete Mathematics is a key foundation of software engineering.
Other
Deliverables must be developed for many SE projects. Software engineers rarely make all of these deliverables themselves. They usually cooperate with the writers, trainers, installers, marketers, technical support people, and others who make many of these deliverables.
- Application Software - the software
- Database - schemas and data.
- Documentation , online and/or print, FAQ , Readme , Release Notes , Help , for each role
- --- User
- --- Administrator
- --- Manager
- --- Buyer
- Administration and Maintenance policy, what should be backed-up, checked, configured, ...
- Installer s
- Migration
- ---Upgrade from previous installations
- ---Upgrade from competitor's installations
- Training materials, for each role
- --- User
- --- Administrator
- --- Manager
- --- Buyer
- Support info for computer support groups.
- Marketing and Sales materials
- --- White Papers , explain the technologies used in the applications
- --- Comparison s with competitor products
Many people made important contributions to SE technologies, practices, or applications.
- , first optimizing compiler, BNF
- .
- principle, originator of the term '' Software Engineering ''
- , Extreme Programming , Pair Programming , Test-driven Development .
- , COCOMO , Spiral Model .
- Design , UML .
- and OS 360 . Wrote '' The Mythical Man-Month '' and '' No Silver Bullet ''.
- '', '' A Discipline Of Programming '' and '' Go To Statement Considered Harmful '', Algorithms , Formal Methods , Pedagogy .
- .
- , Software Inspection , Evolutionary Processes .
- , Nanosecond s.
- , Personal Software Process , fellow of the Software Engineering Institute .
- , Jackson System Development
- , Vi , Java .
- Brian Kernighan : C and Unix.
- '', TeX , Algorithm s, Literate Programming
- , Eiffel Programming Language .
- , ACM Sigsoft.
- David Parnas : Module design, social responsibility, professionalism.
- GUI
- and Unix .
- .
- .
- kernel, Free Software / Open Source development.
- Will Tracz : Reuse, ACM Software Engineering Notes.
- ''.
- s.
- , wrote '' The Decline And Fall Of The American Programmer ''.
See also
- '' About Face '' by Alan Cooper , about user interface design. ISBN 0-76452641-3
- '' The Capability Maturity Model '' by Watts Humphrey . Written for the Software Engineering Institute , emphasizing management and process. (See ''Managing the Software Process'' ISBN 0-201-18095-2)
- '' The Cathedral And The Bazaar '' by Eric Raymond about open source development.
- '' The Decline And Fall Of The American Programmer '' by Ed Yourdon predicts the end of software development in the U.S. ISBN 0-13-191958-X
- '' Design Patterns '' by Erich Gamma , Richard Helm , Ralph Johnson , and John Vlissides . ISBN 0-201-63361-2
- '' Extreme Programming Explained '' by Kent Beck ISBN 0-32127865-8
- " Go To Statement Considered Harmful " by Edsger Dijkstra .
- '' The Mythical Man-Month '' by Fred Brooks , about project management. ISBN 0-201-83595-9
- '' Object-oriented Analysis And Design '' by Grady Booch . ISBN 0-8053-5340-2
- '' Peopleware '' by Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister . ISBN 0-932633-43-9
- '' Principles Of Software Engineering Management '' by Tom Gilb about evolutionary processes. ISBN 0-201-19246-2
- '' The Psychology Of Computer Programming '' by Gerald Weinberg . Written as an independent consultant, partly about his years at IBM. ISBN 0-932633-42-0
- '''' by Martin Fowler , Kent Beck , John Brant , William Opdyke , and Don Roberts . ISBN 0-201-48567-2
See also
- In Chinese , software engineer is called ''ruan jian gong cheng shi'' —— 软件工程师
- In French , software engineering is called '' Génie logiciel ''.
- In German , software engineering is called ''Softwaretechnik''.
- In Norwegian , software engineering is called ''Programvareutvikling''.
- In Spanish , software engineering is called ''Ingeniería del software'',
- In Portuguese , software engineering is called ''Engenharia de software'',
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