What is Software Engineering?
Software engineering is the process whereby concepts, often vague and possibly impractical, are successively refined and matured until a functioning piece of software is produced. Software engineering is a managed process that consists of four main elements:

• A product that is produced within agreed to financial limits;

• A product that is produced within specified schedule constraints;

• A product that provides required functionality and performance; and

• A product that satisfies specified quality factors (e.g., reliability, useability, maintainability, adaptability, portability, etc.).

Failure in software engineering can be observed through the failure to achieve all of these four elements. The relative importance of each element may vary from program to program and project to project, but every program or project must account for all as part of its applied engineering processes.

Software Engineering Institutes & Organizations

The following organizations are instrumental in determining the state of the art and applicable standards for Software Engineering. Consult their Web sites for more detailed information on what is happening in this emerging engineering discipline.

• Software Engineering Institute

• Software Technology Support Center

• Software Productivity Consortium

• USC Center for Software Engineering

• Object Management Group

• European Software Institute
  

• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) Computer Society
  

• Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP)

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Over the next few months, this page will grow with subpages that will address such topics as cost & schedule estimation, project planning and progress tracking, and various engineering and management standards.

Please check back later...