Software engineering

Detailed DoD Technical Reference Model.

Software engineering is a field of engineering, for designing and writing programs for computers or other electronic devices. A software engineer, or programmer, writes software (or changes existing software) and compiles software using methods that improve it. Better quality software is easier to use. Better documentation helps other people understand and maintain it and add new features. Becoming a software engineer requires experience and practice writing code. Software engineering may be very difficult work. It may be repeated during the software release life cycle.

Steps in creating software

Software engineering can broadly be split into the following steps:

• Requirements say what the software should do.
• Software design is usually done on paper. It says what the different parts of the software are, and how they talk to each other.
• After the design phase is done, each component (part) of the software is coded. Code is what tells the computer exactly what to do at each step.
• Testing is done to see if the components meet the requirements and that the system as a whole meet the requirements.
• Part or all of this process can be repeated if software bugs are found or new requirements are needed.

Tools used in creating software

Software engineers use many tools and practices in making software. Some of the most common are:

• Flowcharts
• UML diagram
• Debugging tools
• Compiler
• Text editor, usually part of an IDE - Integrated Development Environment

Related pages

• Software development

Other websites

• The British Computer Society
• The Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Computer Degrees and Careers
• Software engineering -Citizendium