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1 to Software

PART Introduction

Engineering

My aim in this part of the book is to provide a general introduction to
software engineering. I introduce important concepts such as software
processes and agile methods, and describe essential software development
activities, from initial software specification through to system evolution.
The chapters in this part have been designed to support a one-semester
course in software engineering.
Chapter 1 is a general introduction that introduces professional software
engineering and defines some software engineering concepts. I have
also written a brief discussion of ethical issues in software engineering.
I think that it is important for software engineers to think about the
wider implications of their work. This chapter also introduces three case
studies that I use in the book, namely a system for managing records of
patients undergoing treatment for mental health problems, a control
system for a portable insulin pump and a wilderness weather system.
Chapters 2 and 3 cover software engineering processes and agile devel-
opment. In Chapter 2, I introduce commonly used generic software
process models, such as the waterfall model, and I discuss the basic
activities that are part of these processes. Chapter 3 supplements this
with a discussion of agile development methods for software engineer-
ing. I mostly use Extreme Programming as an example of an agile method
but also briefly introduce Scrum in this chapter.