List of software engineering topics

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This list complements the software engineering article, giving more details and examples.

For an alphabetical listing of topics, please see List of software engineering topics (alphabetical).

1 Influence on society
- 1.1 Applications
- 1.2 Disasters
2 Technologies and practices
3 Community topics
4 Other terms
5 See also
6 External links

Influence on society

Software engineers affect society by creating applications. These applications produce value for users, and sometimes produce disasters.

Applications

Software engineers build software (applications, Operating Systems, System Software) that people use.

Applications influence software engineering by pressuring developers to solve problems in new ways. For example, consumer software emphasizes low cost, medical software emphasizes high quality, and Internet commerce software emphasizes rapid development.

Business software
- Accounting software
- Docketing software
Analytics
- Data mining closely related to database
- Decision support systems
Airline reservations
Banking
- Automatic teller machines
- Cheque processing
- Credit cards
Commerce
- Trade
- Auctions (eg. EBay)
- Reverse auctions (procurment)
- Bar code scanners
Compilers
- Parsers
- Compiler optimization
- Interpreters
- Linkers
- Loaders
Communication
- E-mail
- Instant messengers
- VOIP
- Calendars — scheduling and coordinating
- Contact managers
Computer graphics
- Animation
- Special effects for video and film
- Editing
- Post-processing
Cryptography
Databases, support almost every field
Embedded systems Both software engineers and traditional engineers write software control systems for embedded products.
- Automotive software
- Avionics software
- Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) software
- Medical device software
- Telephony
- Telemetry
Engineering All traditional engineering branches use software extensively. Engineers use spreadsheets, more than they ever used calculators. Engineers use custom software tools to design, analyze, and simulate their own projects, like bridges and power lines. These projects resemble software in many respects, because the work exists as electronic documents and goes through analysis, design, implementation, and testing phases. Software tools for engineers use the tenets of computer science; as well as the tenets of calculus, physics, and chemistry.
- Computer Aided Design (CAD)
- Electronic Design Automation (EDA)
- Numerical Analysis
- Simulation
File
- FTP
- File sharing
- File synchronization
Finance
- Bond market
- Futures market
- Stock market
Games
- Poker
- Multiuser Dungeons
- Video games
Information systems, support almost every field
- LIS Management of laboratory data
- MIS Management of financial and personnel data
Logistics
- Supply chain management
Manufacturing
- Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
- Distributed Control Systems (DCS)
Music
- Music sequencers
- Sound effects
- Music synthesis
Network Management
- Network management system
- Element Management System
- Operations Support System
- Business Support Systems
Networks and Internet
- Domain Name System
- Protocols
- Routers
Office suites
- Word processors
- Spreadsheets
- Presentations
Operating systems
- Embedded
- Graphical
- Multitasking
- Real-time
Robotics
Signal processing, encoding and interpreting signals
- Image processing, encoding and interpreting visual information
- Speech processing
- Text recognition
- Handwriting recognition
Simulation, supports almost every field.
- Engineering, A software simulation can be cheaper to build and more flexible to change than a physical engineering model.
- Sciences
Sciences
- Genomics
Traffic Control
- Air traffic control
- Ship traffic control
- Road traffic control
Training
- Drill
- Simulation
- Testing
Visualization, supports almost every field
- Architecture
- Engineering
- Sciences
Voting
World wide web
- Browsers
- Servers

Disasters

Software has played a role in many high-profile disasters.

Ariane 5 Flight 501
Mars probe
Denver International Airport
TAURUS — UK share settlement system and dematerialised central share depository.
Therac-25 — A radiation therapy machine responsible for six overdoses due to faulty software.
Airbus A320 —[citation needed] The Airbus A320, while was controversial in software engineering circles, being the first civilian Fly-by-wire aircraft. In the Airbus flight control systems, the computer has the final say on all decisions, meaning the safety of passengers depends upon the accuracy of the software specification, and the competence of the engineering teams producing the (multiple, independent) software stacks. The Strasbourg A320 crash of Jan 21, 1992 is partially related to software in that poor user interface design was a contributing factor.
Failure at Dharan — Patriot Missile clock issue.

Technologies and practices

Skilled software engineers use technologies and practices from a variety of fields to improve their productivity in creating software and to improve the quality of the delivered product.

Software engineering topics

Many technologies and practices are (mostly) confined to software engineering, though many of these are shared with computer science.

Programming languages

Programming paradigm, based on a programming language technology

Databases

Graphical user interfaces

Programming tools

Configuration management and source code management
Build tools
- Make
- Ant
- Maven
- Final Builder
- Visual Build Pro
Editors
Parsers creation tools
- Yacc/Bison

Libraries

Software componentry

Design languages

Patterns, document many common programming and project management techniques

Processes and methodologies

Agile
Heavyweight
- Cleanroom
- ISO 12207 — software life cycle processes
- ISO 9000 and ISO 9001
- Rational Unified Process
Process Models
- CMM and CMMI/SCAMPI
- ISO 15504 (SPICE)

Platforms

A platform combines computer hardware and an operating system. As platforms grow more powerful and less costly, applications and tools grow more widely available.

BREW
Cray supercomputers
DEC minicomputers
IBM mainframes
Linux PCs
Mac OS and Mac OS X PCs
Microsoft .NET network software platform
Palm PDAs
Sun Microsystems Solaris
Windows PCs (Wintel)
Symbian OS

Other Practices

Other tools

Computer science topics

Skilled software engineers know a lot of computer science including what is possible and impossible, and what is easy and hard for software.

Algorithms, well-defined methods for solving specific problems.
Compiler theory
- Yacc/Bison
Data structures, well-defined methods for storing and retrieving data.
- Lists
- Trees
- Hash tables
Computability, some problems cannot be solved at all
- Halting problem
Complexity, some problems are solvable in principle, yet unsolvable in practice
- NP completeness
- Computational complexity theory
Formal methods
- Proof of correctness
- Program synthesis
Adaptive Systems
- Neural Networks
- Evolutionary Algorithms

Mathematics topics

Discrete mathematics is a key foundation of software engineering.

Other

Life cycle phases

Development life cycle phase
- Requirements gathering / analysis
- Software architecture
- Computer programming
- Testing, detects bugs
- Quality assurance, ensures compliance with process.
Product Life cycle phase and Project lifecycle
- Inception
- First development
- Major release
- Minor release
- Bug fix release
- Maintenance
- Obsolescence
Release development stage, near the end of a release cycle
- Alpha
- Beta
- Gold master
- 1.0; 2.0
Software development lifecycle
- Waterfall model — Structured programming and Stepwise refinement
- SSADM
- Spiral model — Iterative development
- V-model
- Agile software development
- DSDM
- Chaos model — Chaos strategy

Deliverables

Deliverables must be developed for many SE projects. Software engineers rarely make all of these deliverables themselves. They usually cooperate with the writers, trainers, installers, marketers, technical support people, and others who make many of these deliverables.

Application software — the software
Database — schemas and data.
Documentation, online and/or print, FAQ, Readme, release notes, Help, for each role
- User
- Administrator
- Manager
- Buyer
Administration and Maintenance policy, what should be backed-up, checked, configured, ...
Installers
Migration
- Upgrade from previous installations
- Upgrade from competitor's installations
Training materials, for each role
- User
- Administrator
- Manager
- Buyer
Support info for computer support groups.
Marketing and sales materials
- White papers, explain the technologies used in the applications
- Comparisons with competitor products

Business roles

Operations
- Users
- Administrators
- Managers
- Buyers
Development
- Analysts
- Programmers
- Testers
- Managers
Business
- Consulting — customization and installation of applications
- Sales
- Marketing
- Legal — contracts, intellectual property rights
- Support — helping customers use applications
- Personnel — hiring and training qualified personnel
- Finance — funding new development
Academe
- Educators
- Researchers