Rationale Management in Software Engineering - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3540309977 ISBN 13: 9783540309970

Publisher: Springer, 2006

Synopsis

Thirty years ago, I first entered the dark realm of software engineering, through a prior interest in documentation. In those days, documentation pretty much meant functional specifications. The idea that stakeholders in a system (its implementers, its end-users, its maintainers, and so forth) might want something other than an alphabetic list of function definitions was just taking hold. There was an exciting (to me) vision of stakeholders accessing and contributing to explanations of how and why aspects of a system work as they do, tradeoff analysis of concomitant downsides, and perhaps even accounts of why other possible approaches were not followed. There were many challenges to overcome in achieving this vision. The most formidable is the belief that people do not like to create or use do- mentation. This negative image of documentation is (unfortunately) more than just the bias of a few incorrigible system developers. It is more like a deep truth about human information behavior, about how human beings construe and act towards information. Humans are, by default, active users of information; they want to try things out, and get things done. When documentation is interposed as a prerequisite between people and a desired activity, they try to skip through it, circumvent it, or undermine it. Desi- ing information to suit the needs and interests of its users is an abiding challenge, but we have come a long way from functional specifications as the only answer.

About this title

Review

Ten years ago, with Tom Moran, I edited a book entitled "Design Rationale." I think that book has held up quite well, though a decade onward it does seem a bit prefatory. It is past time for another detailed summary of research on design rationale. Allen Dutoit, Ray McCall, Ivan Mistrik and Barbara Paech have done an excellent job of this in "Rationale management in software engineering." The chapters in this volume show how design rationale can be incorporated into the heart of the software development process - into requirements engineering, software architecture, and code design. (John Carroll, School of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University, USA)

Synopsis

The emphasis on new and changing technologies and process models in today's software development obscures the fact that software engineering is still primarily a human-based activity and that the success of a software project largely depends on the decisions made by humans during engineering. Rationale management is concerned with making these design and development decisions explicit to all stakeholders involved. Dutoit, McCall, Mistrik and Paech begin their book with a historical survey of different rationale approaches. It is followed by four parts describing: the fundamental problems and possible solution approaches in rationale management, rationale management during requirements engineering, rationale management during software architecting, and rationale management for organizing reusable bodies of knowledge. The result is a detailed summary of research on design rationale. It provides researchers with an excellent state-of-the-art overview, and professional software engineers will find many examples, resources and incentives to enhance their ability to make decisions during all phases of the software lifecycle.

'Allen Dutoit, Ray McCall, Ivan Mistrik and Barbara Paech have done an excellent job of this in "Rationale management in software engineering". The chapters in this volume show how design rationale can be incorporated into the heart of the software development process - into requirements engineering, software architecture, and code design' - John M. Carroll, Edward M. Frymoyer Professor of Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University, USA, ACM CHI Lifetime Achievement Award.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3540309977
• ISBN 13: 9783540309970
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 456
• Editor: Dutoit Allen H., McCall Raymond, Mistrik Ivan, Paech Barbara