Introduction to Software Engineering

Practical Guidance on the Efficient Development of High-Quality Software

Introduction to Software Engineering, Second Edition equips students with the fundamentals to prepare them for satisfying careers as software engineers regardless of future changes in the field, even if the changes are unpredictable or disruptive in nature. Retaining the same organization as its predecessor, this second edition adds considerable material on open source and agile development models.

The text helps students understand software development techniques and processes at a reasonably sophisticated level. Students acquire practical experience through team software projects. Throughout much of the book, a relatively large project is used to teach about the requirements, design, and coding of software. In addition, a continuing case study of an agile software development project offers a complete picture of how a successful agile project can work.

The book covers each major phase of the software development life cycle, from developing software requirements to software maintenance. It also discusses project management and explains how to read software engineering literature. Three appendices describe software patents, command-line arguments, and flowcharts.

Ronald J. Leach is an independent consultant and professor and department chair emeritus of computer science at Howard University. His research interests include software reuse, software measurement and metrics, and software fault-tolerance. He earned a BS, an MS, and a PhD in mathematics from the University of Maryland as well as an MS in computer science from Johns Hopkins University.