The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to software engineering:
The ACM Computing Classification system is a poly-hierarchical ontology that organizes the topics of the field and can be used in semantic web applications and as a defacto standard classification system for the field. The major section "Software and its Engineering" provides an outline and ontology for software engineering.
Technologies and practices
Skilled software engineers use technologies and practices from a variety of fields to improve their productivity in creating software and to improve the quality of the delivered product.
Software applications
Software engineers build software (applications, operating systems, system software) that people use.
Applications influence software engineering by pressuring developers to solve problems in new ways. For example, consumer software emphasizes low cost, medical software emphasizes high quality, and Internet commerce software emphasizes rapid development.
- Business software
- Analytics
- Airline reservations
- Banking
- Commerce
- Trade
- Auctions (e.g. eBay)
- Reverse auctions (procurement)
- Bar code scanners
- Compilers
- Communication
- E-mail
- Instant messengers
- VOIP
- Calendars — scheduling and coordinating
- Contact managers
- Computer graphics
- Animation
- Special effects for video and film
- Editing
- Post-processing
- Cryptography
- Databases, support almost every field
- Embedded systems Both software engineers and traditional engineers write software control systems for embedded products.
- Automotive software
- Avionics software
- Heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) software
- Medical device software
- Telephony
- Telemetry
- Engineering All traditional engineering branches use software extensively. Engineers use spreadsheets, more than they ever used calculators. Engineers use custom software tools to design, analyze, and simulate their own projects, like bridges and power lines. These projects resemble software in many respects, because the work exists as electronic documents and goes through analysis, design, implementation, and testing phases. Software tools for engineers use the tenets of computer science; as well as the tenets of calculus, physics, and chemistry.
- File
- FTP
- File sharing
- File synchronization
- Finance
- Bond market
- Futures market
- Stock market
- Games
- Information systems, support almost every field
- LIS Management of laboratory data
- MIS Management of financial and personnel data
- Logistics
- Manufacturing
- Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM)
- Distributed Control Systems (DCS)
- Music
- Music sequencers
- Sound effects
- Music synthesis
- Network Management
- Network management system
- Element Management System
- Operations Support System
- Business Support Systems
- Networks and Internet
- Office suites
- Operating systems
- Robotics
- Signal processing, encoding and interpreting signals
- Image processing, encoding and interpreting visual information
- Speech processing
- Text recognition
- Handwriting recognition
- Simulation, supports almost every field.
- Engineering, A software simulation can be cheaper to build and more flexible to change than a physical engineering model.
- Sciences
- Sciences
- Traffic Control
- Training
- Visualization, supports almost every field
- Architecture
- Engineering
- Sciences
- Voting
- World wide web
Software engineering topics
Many technologies and practices are (mostly) confined to software engineering,
though many of these are shared with computer science.
Programming paradigm, based on a programming language technology
Databases
Graphical user interfaces
- GTK+ GIMP Toolkit
- wxWidgets
- Ultimate++
- Qt toolkit
- FLTK
Programming tools
- Configuration management and source code management
- Build tools
- Editors
- Parser creation tools
- Static code analysis tools
Libraries
Design languages
Patterns, document many common programming and project management techniques
Processes and methodologies
- Agile
- Heavyweight
- Process Models
- CMM and CMMI/SCAMPI
- ISO 15504 (SPICE)
- Metamodels
Platforms
A platform combines computer hardware and an operating system. As platforms grow more powerful and less costly, applications and tools grow more widely available.
Other Practices
Other tools
- Decision tables
- Feature
- User stories
- Use cases
Computer science topics
Skilled software engineers know a lot of computer science including what is possible and impossible, and what is easy and hard for software.
- Algorithms, well-defined methods for solving specific problems.
- Compiler theory
- Data structures, well-defined methods for storing and retrieving data.
- Computability, some problems cannot be solved at all
- Complexity, some problems are solvable in principle, yet unsolvable in practice
- Formal methods
- Adaptive Systems
- Neural Networks
- Evolutionary Algorithms
Mathematics topics
Discrete mathematics is a key foundation of software engineering.
- Number representation
- Set (computer science)
- Bags
- Graphs
- Sequences
- Trees
- Graph (data structure)
- Logic
- Deduction
- First-order logic
- Higher-order logic
- Combinatory logic
- Induction
- Combinatorics
Other
- Domain knowledge
- Statistics
- Decision theory
- Type theory
Life cycle phases
- Development life cycle phase
- Product Life cycle phase and Project lifecycle
- Inception
- First development
- Major release
- Minor release
- Bug fix release
- Maintenance
- Obsolescence
- Release development stage, near the end of a release cycle
- Software development lifecycle
Deliverables
Deliverables must be developed for many SE projects. Software engineers rarely make all of these deliverables themselves. They usually cooperate with the writers, trainers, installers, marketers, technical support people, and others who make many of these deliverables.
- Application software — the software
- Database — schemas and data.
- Documentation, online and/or print, FAQ, Readme, release notes, Help, for each role
- Administration and Maintenance policy, what should be backed-up, checked, configured, ...
- Installers
- Migration
- Upgrade from previous installations
- Upgrade from competitor's installations
- Training materials, for each role
- User
- Administrator
- Manager
- Buyer
- Support info for computer support groups.
- Marketing and sales materials
- White papers, explain the technologies used in the applications
Business roles
- Operations
- Users
- Administrators
- Managers
- Buyers
- Development
- Business
- Consulting — customization and installation of applications
- Sales
- Marketing
- Legal — contracts, intellectual property rights
- Privacy and Privacy engineering
- Support — helping customers use applications
- Personnel — hiring and training qualified personnel
- Finance — funding new development
- Academe
Management topics
- Leadership
- Coaching
- Communication
- Listening
- Motivation
- Vision, SEs are good at this
- Example, everyone follows a good example best
- Human resource management
- Hiring, getting people into an organization
- Training
- Evaluation
- Project management
- Goal setting
- Customer interaction (Rethink)
- Estimation
- Risk management
- Change management
- Process management
Business topics
- Quality programs
- Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
- Six Sigma
- Total Quality Management (TQM)
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