Explain changing nature of software engineering.

THE NATURE OF SOFTWARE


Today, software takes on a dual role. It is a product, and at the same time, the vehi- cle for delivering a product. As a product, it delivers the computing potential em- bodied by computer hardware or more broadly, by a network of computers that are accessible by local hardware. Whether it resides within a mobile phone or operates inside a mainframe computer, software is an information transformer—producing, managing, acquiring, modifying, displaying, or transmitting information that can be as simple as a single bit or as complex as a multimedia presentation derived from data acquired from dozens of independent sources. As the vehicle used to deliver the product, software acts as the basis for the control of the computer (operating sys- tems), the communication of information (networks), and the creation and control of other programs (software tools and environments).

Software delivers the most important product of our time—information. It trans- forms personal data (e.g., an individual’s financial transactions) so that the data can be more useful in a local context; it manages business information to enhance com- petitiveness; it provides a gateway to worldwide information networks (e.g., the Internet), and provides the means for acquiring information in all of its forms.

The role of computer software has undergone significant change over the last half-century. Dramatic improvements in hardware performance, profound changes in computing architectures, vast increases in memory and storage capacity, and a wide variety of exotic input and output options, have all precipitated more sophisti- cated and complex computer-based systems. Sophistication and complexity can produce dazzling results when a system succeeds, but they can also pose huge problems for those who must build complex systems.

Today, a huge software industry has become a dominant factor in the economies of the industrialized world. Teams of software specialists, each focusing on one part of the technology required to deliver a complex application, have replaced the lone programmer of an earlier era. And yet, the questions that were asked of the lone programmer are the same questions that are asked when modern computer-based systems are built:


• Why does it take so long to get software finished?
• Why are development costs so high?
• Why can’t we find all errors before we give the software to our customers?
• Why do we spend so much time and effort maintaining existing programs?
• Why do we continue to have difficulty in measuring progress as software is being developed and maintained?
These, and many other questions, are a manifestation of the concern about software and the manner in which it is developed—a concern that has lead to the adoption of software engineering practice.