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Monday, April 19, 2010

Software Engineering

Software engineering is a profession and field of study dedicated to designing, implementing, and modifying software so that it is of higher quality, more affordable, maintainable, and faster to build. The term software engineering first appeared in the 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference, and was meant to provoke thought regarding the perceived "software crisis" at the time. Since the field is still relatively young compared to its sister fields of engineering, there is still much debate around what software engineering actually is, and if it conforms to the classical definition of engineering. Some people argue that development of computer software is more art than science , and that attempting to impose engineering disciplines over a type of art is an exercise in futility because what represents good practice in the creation of software is not even defined. Others, such as Steve McConnell, argue that engineering's blend of art and science to achieve practical ends provides a useful model for software development. The IEEE Computer Society 's Software Engineering Body of Knowledge "software engineering" as the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software.


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