"This book addresses the topic of software design: how to decompose complex software systems into modules (such as classes and methods) that can be implemented relatively independently. The book first introduces the fundamental problem in software design, which is managing complexity. It then discusses philosophical issues about how to approach the software design process and it presents a collection of design principles to apply during software design. The book also introduces a set of red flags that identify design problems. You can apply the ideas in this book to minimize the complexity of large software systems, so that you can write software more quickly and cheaply."--Amazon.
Based on their own experiences of in-depth case studies of software projects in international corporations, in this book the authors present detailed practical guidelines on the preparation, conduct, design and reporting of case studies of software engineering. This is the first software engineering specific book on the case study research method.
This book provides guidelines for practicing design science in the fields of information systems and software engineering research. A design process usually iterates over two activities: first designing an artifact that improves something for stakeholders and subsequently empirically investigating the performance of that artifact in its context. This “validation in context” is a key feature of the book - since an artifact is designed for a context, it should also be validated in this context. The book is divided into five parts. Part I discusses the fundamental nature of design science and its artifacts, as well as related design research questions and goals. Part II deals with the design cycle, i.e. the creation, design and validation of artifacts based on requirements and stakeholder goals. To elaborate this further, Part III presents the role of conceptual frameworks and theories in design science. Part IV continues with the empirical cycle to investigate artifacts in context, and presents the different elements of research problem analysis, research setup and data analysis. Finally, Part V deals with the practical application of the empirical cycle by presenting in detail various research methods, including observational case studies, case-based and sample-based experiments and technical action research. These main sections are complemented by two generic checklists, one for the design cycle and one for the empirical cycle. The book is written for students as well as academic and industrial researchers in software engineering or information systems. It provides guidelines on how to effectively structure research goals, how to analyze research problems concerning design goals and knowledge questions, how to validate artifact designs and how to empirically investigate artifacts in context – and finally how to present the results of the design cycle as a whole.
This classroom-tested textbook presents an active-learning approach to the foundational concepts of software design. These concepts are then applied to a case study, and reinforced through practice exercises, with the option to follow either a structured design or object-oriented design paradigm. The text applies an incremental and iterative software development approach, emphasizing the use of design characteristics and modeling techniques as a way to represent higher levels of design abstraction, and promoting the model-view-controller (MVC) architecture. Topics and features: provides a case study to illustrate the various concepts discussed throughout the book, offering an in-depth look at the pros and cons of different software designs; includes discussion questions and hands-on exercises that extend the case study and apply the concepts to other problem domains; presents a review of program design fundamentals to reinforce understanding of the basic concepts; focuses on a bottom-up approach to describing software design concepts; introduces the characteristics of a good software design, emphasizing the model-view-controller as an underlying architectural principle; describes software design from both object-oriented and structured perspectives; examines additional topics on human-computer interaction design, quality assurance, secure design, design patterns, and persistent data storage design; discusses design concepts that may be applied to many types of software development projects; suggests a template for a software design document, and offers ideas for further learning. Students of computer science and software engineering will find this textbook to be indispensable for advanced undergraduate courses on programming and software design. Prior background knowledge and experience of programming is required, but familiarity in software design is not assumed.
This collection of short expository, critical and speculative texts offers a field guide to the cultural, political, social and aesthetic impact of software. Experts from a range of disciplines each take a key topic in software and the understanding of software, such as algorithms and logical structures.
Are you working on a codebase where cost overruns, death marches, and heroic fights with legacy code monsters are the norm? Battle these adversaries with novel ways to identify and prioritize technical debt, based on behavioral data from how developers work with code. And that's just for starters. Because good code involves social design, as well as technical design, you can find surprising dependencies between people and code to resolve coordination bottlenecks among teams. Best of all, the techniques build on behavioral data that you already have: your version-control system. Join the fight for better code! Use statistics and data science to uncover both problematic code and the behavioral patterns of the developers who build your software. This combination gives you insights you can't get from the code alone. Use these insights to prioritize refactoring needs, measure their effect, find implicit dependencies between different modules, and automatically create knowledge maps of your system based on actual code contributions. In a radical, much-needed change from common practice, guide organizational decisions with objective data by measuring how well your development teams align with the software architecture. Discover a comprehensive set of practical analysis techniques based on version-control data, where each point is illustrated with a case study from a real-world codebase. Because the techniques are language neutral, you can apply them to your own code no matter what programming language you use. Guide organizational decisions with objective data by measuring how well your development teams align with the software architecture. Apply research findings from social psychology to software development, ensuring you get the tools you need to coach your organization towards better code. If you're an experienced programmer, software architect, or technical manager, you'll get a new perspective that will change how you work with code. What You Need: You don't have to install anything to follow along in the book. TThe case studies in the book use well-known open source projects hosted on GitHub. You'll use CodeScene, a free software analysis tool for open source projects, for the case studies. We also discuss alternative tooling options where they exist.
Software Engineering for Science provides an in-depth collection of peer-reviewed chapters that describe experiences with applying software engineering practices to the development of scientific software. It provides a better understanding of how software engineering is and should be practiced, and which software engineering practices are effective for scientific software. The book starts with a detailed overview of the Scientific Software Lifecycle, and a general overview of the scientific software development process. It highlights key issues commonly arising during scientific software development, as well as solutions to these problems. The second part of the book provides examples of the use of testing in scientific software development, including key issues and challenges. The chapters then describe solutions and case studies aimed at applying testing to scientific software development efforts. The final part of the book provides examples of applying software engineering techniques to scientific software, including not only computational modeling, but also software for data management and analysis. The authors describe their experiences and lessons learned from developing complex scientific software in different domains. About the Editors Jeffrey Carver is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Alabama. He is one of the primary organizers of the workshop series on Software Engineering for Science (http://www.SE4Science.org/workshops). Neil P. Chue Hong is Director of the Software Sustainability Institute at the University of Edinburgh. His research interests include barriers and incentives in research software ecosystems and the role of software as a research object. George K. Thiruvathukal is Professor of Computer Science at Loyola University Chicago and Visiting Faculty at Argonne National Laboratory. His current research is focused on software metrics in open source mathematical and scientific software.
Effective decisions are crucial to the success of any software project, but to make better decisions you need a better decision-making process. In Evaluating Project Decisions, leading project management experts introduce an innovative decision model that helps you tailor your decision-making process to systematically evaluate all of your decisions and avoid the bad choices that lead to project failure. Using a real-world, case study approach, the authors show how to evaluate software project problems and situations more effectively, thoughtfully assess your alternatives, and improve the decisions you make. Drawing on their own extensive research and experience, the authors bridge software engineering theory and practice, offering guidance that is both well-grounded and actionable. They present dozens of detailed examples from both successful and unsuccessful projects, illustrating what to do and what not to do. Evaluating Project Decisions will help you to analyze your options and ultimately make better decisions at every stage in your project, including: Requirements–Elicitation, description, verification, validation, negotiation, contracting, and management over the software life cycle Estimates–Conceptual solution design, decomposition, resource and overhead allocation, estimate construction, and change management Planning–Defining objectives, policies, and scope; planning tasks, milestones, schedules, budgets, staff and other resources; and managing projects against plans Product–Proper product definition, development process management, QA, configuration management, delivery, installation, training, and field service Process–Defining, selecting, understanding, teaching, and measuring processes; evaluating process performance; and process improvement or optimization In addition, you will see how to evaluate decisions related to risk, people, stakeholder expectations, and global development. Simply put, you’ll use what you learn here on every project, in any industry, whatever your goals, and for projects of any duration, size, or type.
Writing and running software is now as much a part of science as telescopes and test tubes, but most researchers are never taught how to do either well. As a result, it takes them longer to accomplish simple tasks than it should, and it is harder for them to share their work with others than it needs to be. This book introduces the concepts, tools, and skills that researchers need to get more done in less time and with less pain. Based on the practical experiences of its authors, who collectively have spent several decades teaching software skills to scientists, it covers everything graduate-level researchers need to automate their workflows, collaborate with colleagues, ensure that their results are trustworthy, and publish what they have built so that others can build on it. The book assumes only a basic knowledge of Python as a starting point, and shows readers how it, the Unix shell, Git, Make, and related tools can give them more time to focus on the research they actually want to do. Research Software Engineering with Python can be used as the main text in a one-semester course or for self-guided study. A running example shows how to organize a small research project step by step; over a hundred exercises give readers a chance to practice these skills themselves, while a glossary defining over two hundred terms will help readers find their way through the terminology. All of the material can be re-used under a Creative Commons license, and all royalties from sales of the book will be donated to The Carpentries, an organization that teaches foundational coding and data science skills to researchers worldwide.
A comprehensive, practical book on software management that dispels real-world issues through relevant case studies Software managers inevitably will meet obstacles while trying to deliver quality products and provide value to customers, often with tight time restrictions. The result: Software War Stories. This book provides readers with practical advice on how to handle the many issues that can arise as a software project unfolds. It utilizes case studies that focus on what can be done to establish and meet reasonable expectations as they occur in government, industrial, and academic settings. The book also offers important discussions on both traditional and agile methods as well as lean development concepts. Software War Stories: Covers the basics of management as applied to situations ranging from agile projects to large IT projects with infrastructure problems Includes coverage of topics ranging from planning, estimating, and organizing to risk and opportunity management Uses twelve case studies to communicate lessons learned by the author in practice Offers end-of-chapter exercises, sample solutions, and a blog for providing updates and answers to readers' questions Software War Stories: Case Studies in Software Management mentors practitioners, software engineers, students and more, providing relevant situational examples encountered when managing software projects and organizations.
