The Different Disciplines of Software Engineering
Software Engineering is an academic discipline that studies and applies systematic approaches and principles to software development and maintenance. Software engineering is composed of several sub-disciplines, and the following disciplines are commonly included in software engineering:
- Software Requirements Analysis: Deals with the process of identifying, analyzing, and documenting requirements for a software system. In this process, user requirements are collected, analyzed, and defined into clear and specific requirements.
- Software Design: The process of designing the structure and components of a software system, defining and designing the functionality, structure, and interfaces of the system.
- Software Development: The actual development of the software system based on the requirements and design. During this phase, programming languages are used to implement and test the software.
- Quality Management: Covers activities to control and ensure the quality of the developed software. Quality management includes processes such as testing, verification, review, and error correction.
- Software Maintenance: Covers activities for adding features, making changes, and fixing errors in developed software. Maintenance is the longest-lasting phase of a software’s life cycle.
Software Testing: Testing software using various testing techniques and tools to verify the functionality, reliability, performance, etc. of the software. - Software Project Management: Covers the activities of planning, organizing, and managing software development projects. Includes project scheduling, budgeting, risk management, and more.
- Software Security: Covers the activities of analyzing and preventing vulnerabilities related to the security of software systems. Appropriate security measures are taken against security threats.
- Software Quality Assurance: Covers the activities of defining development processes and quality requirements and ensuring that they are followed. Quality assurance utilizes standards, procedures, metrics, etc. to manage the quality of software.
In addition to this, software engineering encompasses research and development activities related to various areas such as requirements engineering, software architecture, software metrics, and software engineering education.