Is Software Engineering Really Engineering?
نویسنده
چکیده
From mv perspecti1.e. this somewhat ill-posed question Asses the point rather badly. because as Michael Jackson stated corrcctl! and unambiguousI! in his ICSE-I7 kc!-note address. “as software developers 11:e Q/Y (m? italics] engineers because we make useful machines . ..‘* [I]. This is self-ejidcnt if one accepts that most conventional definitions of e/7,+7eering refer to creating cost-effecti\.c solutions to pnctical problems b! applying scientific knowledge to build things in the senicc of mankind. or some words with the same overall meaning 121. For someone who has spent much of his career. as both scientist and engineer. building large systems or researching their de\,elopmcnt. the real question is ho\\, \vc /III/XY~V~ the engineering acti\,itics that \\ c undertake as software engineers. This is important. because in our daily lives incrcasingl!1% c depend. often for our veq lives and li\,elihoods. on the ‘correct‘ execution of software in a machine. We are intimately concerned with issues of functionality. reliabili@. performance. safet! _ securit!. and a rail of other concerns. all mediated b!, soft\\are. In practice. it is certainly true that the actual w7giueering component of software engineering is at times vet. fragile. This is ~UIIC different fmm stating categoricall!~ that this is 17ol engineering! Shaw (21 has described ho\\ engineering oni! emerges once commerce-based ox/i 1 skilled craftsmen invoh,cd in pragmatic refinement J and
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تاریخ انتشار 1995