Software Engineering

It is common knowledge that producing software means basically writing programs. Shortcomings of this 'definition' are often visible and sometimes painful: Writing good programs is much harder. This is why the aspects of, and activities related to software production are bundled together in an engineering discipline: Software Engineering.

This course will cover the most important topics in software engineering, a discipline that faces considerable challenges in an increasingly complex world, where the demand for good software has become imperative.

The most important topics covered by this course are:

• Software processes: typology and characteristics;
• Software development: general process and special cases;
• Phases in software development
  1. Specification: elicitation and engineering of requirements, figuring out what the software is supposed to do.
  2. Development: Design & implementation. Planning in advance of the building blocks of the software product. Producing them by implementing in a programming language.
  3. Verification and validation: Have we built the right software? Does the software do things right?
  4. Evolution: The world changes: the software must change.