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Software engineering : a methodical approach
Foster E., Apress, Berkeley, CA, 2014. 588 pp. Type: Book (978-1-484208-48-9)
Date Reviewed: Jul 6 2015

Professor Elvis Foster assembled the material in this book based on his holistic vision of serving three large groups. The first group is undergraduate students following a software engineering (SE) course; the next is graduate students pursuing introductory courses in SE; and the third is SE practitioners needing a reference on using and comparing SE methodologies for software development projects. The book contains overarching and comprehensive material dedicated to the fast and continuous development of the SE discipline.

According to the author, the text was conceived to accomplish three objectives: comprehensive coverage, brevity, and relevance. The first two, considered competing goals, were fulfilled using a methodical and pragmatic approach to presenting the critical issues of each topic. The third objective was accomplished by using relevance as a balancing force. The author presents a practical, methodical approach to SE in order to avoid any overkill of theoretical calculations where possible. The primary objective was to help the reader understand and put into practice the phases and related activities of the software development life cycle (SDLC) methodology framework and specific software life cycle models.

The author recommends using this text in an SE course for one or two semesters, along with an appropriate computer-aided software engineering (CASE) or research and development (R&D) tool, and presents two tables that structure the chapters accordingly. In both scenarios, he recommends teaching the first ten chapters over the first nine weeks. Then, the schedule for the rest of the chapters is different for the next seven and nine weeks, respectively. The two-semester course is the preferred scenario, proposing for the final 14 weeks a course project, as by the end of the course any student may consider himself or herself knowledgeable enough to start managing an SE project.

The text is organized into seven parts and 20 chapters. The first 19 chapters present the theory, including fundamentals, software investigation and analysis, software design, software development, and software implementation and management. Part A includes two chapters, “Introduction to Software Engineering” and “The Role of the Software Engineer,” which are recommended for any software production house executives, managers, and engineers. The chapters carefully introduce the reader to the SE discipline, the organization structure as a system, the information levels in the organization, current software life cycle models (waterfall, phased prototype, iterative development, rapid prototype, formal transformation, component-based, agile development), categories of software, and acquisition approaches. The software engineer role, job description, functions, and qualities are presented, along with the tools used in software planning, design, and development; management issues that a software engineer may encounter are also covered.

Chapters 3 to 7 (Part B) detail “Project Selection and the Initial System Requirements,” “The Requirements Specification,” “Information Gathering,” “Communicating Via Diagrams,” and “Decision Models for System Logic.” Chapter 8 deals with project management aids, which are recommended to all software development managers and engineers working in software development project management through an SDLC framework.

The next five chapters make up Part C: “Overview of Software Design,” “Database Design,” “User Interface Design,” “Operations Design,” and “Other Design Considerations.” The software development process is covered in three chapters (Part D): “Software Development Issues,” “Human Resource Management,” and “Software Economics.” The software implementation and management process is detailed in Part E; its three chapters include “Software Implementation Issues,” “Software Management” (including maintenance, legacy systems, software integration, and software re-engineering), and “Organizing for Effective Management.” Part F (chapter 20) offers eight sample exercises as sample assignments, as well as four sample interim examination questions for students and SE beginners. Part G includes ten appendices with additional presentations dedicated to object-oriented methodologies (OOM), generic inventory management systems (IMS), and detailed tables and illustrations.

Each chapter is around 30 pages. A final comprehensive index will help readers quickly search the text. This book is strongly recommended for all those interested in the SE discipline, software development project activities, and performing project management activities through the SDLC framework.

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Reviewer:  Mihail Sadeanu Review #: CR143580 (1509-0749)
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