Review of Software Engineering, Vol. 2: The Supporting Processes (Paperback)

This book is a mandatory reading for those who is going to take IEEE Computer Society Certified Software Developer (CSDP) test. Really it is nothing else but really well chosen collection of articles on various software engineering subjects. This book could be an excellent if not its low quality printing format which makes it hard to read. Mine got dirty on sides and all covered with pencil marks - not all books on my bookshelf received such VIP treatment :-)

Product Description
This second volume on software engineering processes includes reprinted and newly authored papers that describe the supporting life cycle processes in a manner that can prepare individuals to take the IEEE Computer Society Certified Software Development Professional examination. Volume 2 details the eight supporting life cycle processes that developers need to employ and execute in the engineering of software products. This required support plays an integral part and has a distinct purpose that affects the overall success and quality of the software project.

The eight supporting processes covered in this guide include the documentation, configuration management, quality assurance, verification, validation, joint review, audit, and problem resolution. In addition, this tutorial covers the four processes of the organizational life cycle. These are used to establish and implement an underlying structure made up of associated life cycle processes and personnel that will continuously improve upon the structure and process of the project. These organizational processes are management, infrastructure, improvement, and training.

Each chapter in this book starts by introducing the subject, supporting papers, and standards. The backbone for this publication is IEEE/EIA Standard 12207-1997, Standard for Information Technology - Software Life Cycle Processes.

From the Back Cover
This second volume on software engineering processes includes reprinted and newly authored papers that describe the supporting life cycle processes that can prepare individuals to take the IEEE Computer Society Certified Software Development Professional examination. Volume 2 details the eight supporting life cycle processes that developers need to employ and execute in the engineering of software products. This required support plays an integral part and has a distinct purpose that affects the overall success and quality of the software project.

The eight supporting processes covered in this include the documentation, configuration management, quality assurance, verification, validation, joint review, audit, and problem resolution. In addition, this tutorial covers the four processes of the organizational life cycle. These are used to establish and implement an underlying structure made up of associated life cycle processes and personnel that will continuously improve upon the structure and process of the project. These organizational processes are management, infrastructure, improvement, and training.

Each chapter in this book starts by introducing the subject, supporting papers, and standards. The backbone for this publication is IEEE/EIA Standard 12207-1997, Standard for Information Technology-Software Life Cycle Processes.

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Review of Software Engineering (Practitioners) (Paperback)

This book accululates the classic works of the accepted authorities in the field of Software Engineering. As a senior consultant for government and industry for software productivity improvement, I continuously refer to and recommend this book to my clients and co-workers. This book should be required reading for every computer science, MIS professional.Thank you for the effort it took to bring this all together.

Product Description
This first edition of the popular tutorial, Software Engineering, describes the current state of the practice of software engineering. This book begins with an overview of current issues and in particular the engineering of large complex systems. Its collection of landmark papers goes on to describe the problems that occur in developing software, and presents the concepts for system engineering of software intensive systems and of engineering software products as the solution to the "software crisis."

The text illustrates the phases of the software development life cycle: requirements, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. Furthermore, it discusses the current practices in requirements and design, and defines software development methodologies, including a special emphasis on object-oriented tools and formal methods. The book also covers programming activities as they affect software engineering, details verification and validation throughout the software life cycle, and discusses software quality assurance, configuration management, and standards. In addition, the book covers project management and risk management concerns, and discusses the various life cycle process models including the spiral and incremental models.

From the Back Cover
This first edition of the popular tutorial, Software Engineering, describes the current state of the practice of software engineering. This book begins with an overview of current issues and in particular the engineering of large complex systems. Its collection of landmark papers goes on to describe the problems that occur in developing software, and presents the concepts for system engineering of software intensive systems and of engineering software products as the solution to the "software crisis."

The text illustrates the phases of the software development life cycle: requirements, design, implementation, testing, and maintenance. Furthermore, it discusses the current practices in requirements and design, and defines software development methodologies, including a special emphasis on object-oriented tools and formal methods. The book also covers programming activities as they affect software engineering, details verification and validation throughout the software life cycle, and discusses software quality assurance, configuration management, and standards. In addition, the book covers project management and risk management concerns, and discusses the various life cycle process models including the spiral and incremental models.

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Review of Software Process Improvement (Paperback)

With exceptions that I've noted below this is an in-depth examination of standards, initiatives and methods for software process improvement (SPI) and software process assessment (SPA).

The book is divided into twelve chapters, each of which contains two or more papers written by top experts in the field, including Mark Paulk (of CMM fame), Watts S. Humphrey (creator of PSP and TSP, and prolific author of software engineering process papers), Robert B. Grady (author of three standard references on metrics), and others who key players, but are not as widely known outside of the SPI and SPA community.

Chapter 1 covers software process assessment with an article by Paulk that surveys the more common models for SPI and SPA, and a reprint of Sarah Sheard's excellent article from CrossTalk Magazine titled "The Frameworks Quagmire".Chapter 2 contains three articles on the SW-CMM, which seems to be the centerpiece of this book.Chapter 3, "Other Approaches to Software Process Assessment" contains four articles that add balance by covering non-CMM approaches that are in common use, especially in Europe (Bootstrap).I especially liked the article by David N. Card titled "Sorting out Six Sigma and the CMM", which combines two hot topics.One of the exceptions that I cited at the beginning of this review is the article on Trillium, which in my opinion has been superseded by TL 9000 in the telecommunications industry.

The three articles in Chapter 4 (Software Process Improvement: How To Do It) address common concerns and barriers to any SPI initiative, and each add well thought out ideas, especially Sandra McGill's "Overcoming Resistance to Standard Processes, or, Herding Cats", and William Florac's "Statistically Managing the Software Process".

Watts Humphrey's Personal and Team Software Processes, and CMMI are the key topics in Chapter 5, which covers developments inspired by the SW-CMM.All of Chapter 6's Software Product Evaluation articles were my favorites from among the collection in this book, and I particularly liked Jørgen Bøegh's "Quality Evaluation of Software Products" and Geoff Dromey's "A Model for Software Product Quality" because they go to the heart of key issues in both product line engineering challenges and user acceptance testing.

Chapter 7, ISO 9000 Series and TickIT, is the second exception that I previously noted.Much has changed in ISO 9000 with the 2000 standard, which renders this entire chapter moot in my opinion.I also thought the five articles in Chapter 8, The SPICE Project, would have been a better fit in Chapter 3. The same goes for Chapter 9, Experiences of Software Process Assessment, which is nearly an extension of Chapter 8, and is closely related to Chapter 3.

Two other favorite chapters are 10 (Software Process Improvement for Small Organizations) and 11 (Benefits of Software Process Improvement).Chapter 10's three articles dispell any notion that SPI is only feasible for large organizations, and the three articles in Chapter 11 focus on the benefits of SPI, especially Herb Krasner's article titled "Accumulating the Body of Evidence for the Payoff of Software Process Improvement". I also liked the final chapter, which covers software processes in general, including an excellent article on modeling. I felt that this chapter should have been at the beginning of the book instead of the end.

Overall, this is a book for those of us who are nearly religious about SPI; but is not a good introductory text.It's main value will be to IT consultants who specialize in either SPI or SPA (or both), and who need to be familiar with the mainstream standards and approaches.

Product Description
The creation of quality software on time and within budget has been a major problem facing the software industry for several decades. Consideration of software development and maintenance as an engineering discipline to control the developmental process can help alleviate these obstacles. This new book focuses on the best practices for software process improvement (SPI) and related international standards providing a valuable guide and reference.

The text is a collection of original and republished papers providing a significant survey on the use of SPI and software process assessment (SPA) as practiced by companies such as Lockheed Martin, Siemens, and Hewlett Packard. Among the important features of the book are chapters on software process evaluation, how to best perform SPI, ISO 9000 and TickIT-an alternative approach to SPA, as well as the latest information on the CMM integration project. The text also provides vivid descriptions on the most important international and national standards for SPI, in particular ISO 9001, ISO 9000-3, ISO/IEC 9126. ISO/IEC 15504, ISO/IEC 12207.

Software Process Improvement benefits software managers who want to learn about the requirements and effects of SPI, software process staff who need to understand the mechanisms of SPA and SPI, software developers who are affected by SPI and need to know how to apply it, and college students who want to understand the various methods of SPA and SPI.

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