What's your definition of software engineering?

[Jim_Kring]

[Note: cross-posted]

Here's mine: My definition of software engineering

Thanks,

-Jim

[Ray.R]

somehow... something seems to be missing wrt "design"..  there has to be an element of design in there.. 

.. and then we can talk about architecture...

😄

[Marc_A]

The best definition of engineering I ever heard was from one of my computer engineering professors in college. He said it was "exploiting physics to make money." The same could be said about software engineering. The physics we're exploiting is the electronics within a computer, and let's be honest, our ultimate goal here is to make money.

I like yours as well, Jim. It encompasses a lot about what we do. Mine's just more to the point

[johnsold]

My wife found this at a flea market or festival:

"en-gi-neer 1. n. individual who turns abstractions into malfunctions."

I keep the little plaque on my desk.

Lynn

[mikeporter]

Software engineering is the process of applying to software development the same sort of technical rigor that one would apply to building a bridge.
And here's who largely taught me how to do it... Unfortunately not in person but his papers were good enough .

Mike...

[shoneill]

Here are two definitions:

"Software enigneering is the establishment and use of sound engineering principles in order to obtain economically software that is reliable and works efficiently on real machines." given at the first NATO conference.

"Software engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development , operation, and maintenaince of software; that is, the application of engineering to software"., IEEE Standard glossary of software engineering Terminology.

Shane.

[kimdino]

Hi folks,
Economics doesn't come into it! A brief glance in the direction of the GNU world will show that plenty is done for non-commercial reasons. I have done my best work when time is not an issue and I can apply unlimited consideration to design & polishing. Economics is just one possible source of constraints, along with CPU power, network bandwidth, operator limitations & so on.

I like the IEEE definition, that seems to have it down pat.
Cheers, Kimdino

[shoneill]

Kimdino,

The first reference was, AFAIK, the first attempt to define software engineering.

On the topic of economics, I disagree.  Of course some really good code takes longer, but software engineering still helps to REDUCE the time required (Not limit it) to achieve the same level of quality.  This is the economical impact of software engineering.

Shane.

[gchristi1]

I clicked on mikeporter's link and like the David Parnas quote:

"Software Engineering - an unconsummated marriage"

[Ray.R]

David Parnas...  wow... it's been a long time..  I remember one of his conferences..  He was a hero of sorts...  wow... early / mid-90's... (good ol' days!)

Software Engineering definition... a tough one...

Maybe we need to write a software to help us define it..  But we'd need to build a Super Computer first to help us write the software to formulate the question appropriately so that we would come up with a definition that would satisfy everyone's point of view on the definition..