Beyond Programming: To a New Era of Design (Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratories Series in Science and Engineering)

This book provides a unique examination of the software development process, arguing that discipline, still dominated by methods conceived in the framework of older technologies, must undergo a fundamental reexamination of its guiding principles in order for significant progress to take place. To gain fresh insights into how we ought to direct future research, the author begins with a search for first principles. The book begins with an exploration of the scientific foundations of computer technology, then examines design from the perspective of practitioners. The book also offers a critique of the methods employed in software development and an evaluation of an alternate paradigm that has been used successfully for 14 years. The concepts reviewed here comprise a set of core readings for understanding the research and development challenges that will confront computer technology in the 21st century and will be of great interest to computer science researchers and educators, graduate students, and software engineers.

Bruce I. Blum has served as Vice President of Wolf Research and Development Corporation and is an associate professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University.