Future Of Software Engineering In The 21st Century. White Paper - Essay Example

If that is the case than this century will be the time period the computer will grow up. So the same can be said about its heart, the software. Software engineering has only been around for a little more than forty years and definitely has some growing to accomplish. After all, those four decades have seen a “software crisis” materialize and some would say it has declined or disappeared. Yet Dianna Mullet (2007) writes that the crisis lies with the difference between software development and engineering.

Developers are thought of as skilled craftsmen and normally the development cycle is a play it by ear or “ad hoc” process and new software is beset with cost and time overruns. This also results in increased maintenance and update costs. Unfortunately she also points most universities teach the “Craft mentality”. Differentially, software engineers approach the task as a scientific discipline. This is important to consider now that the software produced for businesses constitutes ninety per cent of all software and the average “large” software consists of over 50,000 lines of code (Ibid).

The time of some teenager making workable software in his spare time (think Mark Zuckerberg) is probably all but over. So then with twelve years almost finished, where does software engineering proceed in this century? . Ian Summerville of Lancaster University (2002) compares the work of Lord Kelvin when trying to envision the future of software engineering. What he calls the “human activity”, is that from which traditional science attains results, using standard mathematical equations to determine a practical solution, Although there has to be something of a human element in software, software engineering cannot be measured in the “normal” way, for the software as an abstract thing only supports the human activity and is not truly a physical part of the equation.

That being said, a lab is not the place to conduct experiments in software engineering. True, the development process can be started in the lab but the environment where the software is actually is to be utilized is the only true place where it can be determined as to whether the new software is feasible. He also states that “There is no technical solution to software complexity”. However, Boehm brings an interesting and hopeful point that the future should hold. Currently there is no software for checking software.

Perhaps in the near future even the hardware chip, in conjunction with a program, can check the code to verify its authenticity, to cut down on the astronomical maintenance costs. Summerville agrees with Mullet that finding a way for “traditional” scientists to recognize software engineering as another discipline in their field is tantamount for the process to succeed in this century. He uses a quote from Kelvin that is dated and sexist, is also relevant in the subject “Large increases in cost with questionable increases in performance can only be tolerated in race horses and women!

” In other words, the accepted way of huge