02
  • Tutorial
  • Lab

  • This Tutorial is based on questions from the book Software Engineering 10 by Ian Sommerville and is based on the material covered in chapter 1.

    Week 2 Tutorial

    1)

    What is the most important difference between generic software product development and custom software development? What might this mean in practice for users of generic software products?

    Give some examples of generic software products that you have used?

    Give some examples of custom software products that you have used?

    In terms of jobs roles what type of software product do you think you will end up developing?

    2)

    What are the four important attributes that all professional software should have? Suggest four other attributes that may sometimes be significant.

    3)

    Apart from the challenges of heterogeneity, business and social change and trust and security, identify other problems and challenges that software engineering is likely to face in the 21st century (hint: think about the environment).

    4)

    Based on your own knowledge of some of the application types discussed in section 1.1.2 of Software Engineering 10 explain, with examples, why different application types require specialized software engineering techniques to support their design and development.

    5)

    Discuss whether professional engineers should be certified in the same way as doctors or lawyers.

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  • Week 2 Lab Exercise: Historical Perspectives

    In this set of lab exercises you are required to use the library search facilities to track down a couple of historic papers on topics related to software engineering.

    The link to IEEE explore is given below.

    http://ilink.gcal.ac.uk/uhtbin/cgisirsi/x/0/0/57/5/3?searchdata1=465358{CKEY}&searchfield1=GENERAL^SUBJECT^GENERAL^^&user_id=WEBSERVER

    1.

    Use IEEE xplore to find the following journal article.

    Brooks, F.P., No silver bullet, Essence and accidents of software engineering, IEEE Computer 20 (4), April 1987.

    This is quite an old article. Read through the paper and make notes. IN around 250 -350 words record what you expect to learn from a module entitled Fundamentals of Software Engineering and in particular how you might use these skills in the future.

    2.

    Use IEEE xplore to find the following journal article.

    Boehm, B, A View of 20th and 21st Century Software Engineering, Proc. 28th Software Engineering Conference Shanghai, 2006.

    Note

    You will end up with a reference entitled “ Software Engineering State of the Art and Practice. This is I think Chapter 8 of the Proceedings and there are several articles by Barry Boehm. You are looking for 8-4 “A View of 20th and 21st Century Software Engineering”.

    Read through the paper and make notes.

    In around 250 -350 words try and identify 3 or 4 points from the article which you think may help you when you are carrying out the work for your integrated project.

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