subject: Software Engineering - The Profession [print this page] Software Engineering - The Profession Software Engineering - The Profession
The term "Software Engineering" (SE) is a profession dedicated to the designing, implementing, and modifying of software so that it is of higher quality, more affordable to the average consumer, maintainable, and faster to build. The term "software engineering" first appeared in the 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference and was meant to provoke thought regarding the perceived "software crisis" at the time. However, since the field of software engineering is still relatively young compared to its sister fields of engineering, there is still much debate around what software engineering actually is, and if it conforms to the classical definition of engineering. There are some people who argue that development of computer software is more of an art than a science, and that attempting to impose engineering disciplines over a type of art is an exercise in futility because what represents good practice in the creation of software is not even defined. Other people, such as Steve McConnell, author of Code Complete, Rapid Development, Software Estimation, and Other Books, argue that engineering's blend of art and science to achieve practical ends provides a useful model for software development. The IEEE Computer Society's Software Engineering Body of Knowledge defines "software engineering" as the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software. Software development, which is a much used and more generic term, does not necessarily subsume the engineering paradigm. Although it is questionable as to what impact it has had on actual software development over the last, oh, more than 40 years or so, the Software Engineering field's future looks quite bright according to the periodicals, "Money Magazine" and "Salary.com", who rated the job of "software engineering" as the very best job in the United States in the year of 2006.
