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Foreword

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2010

John Fitzgerald
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Peter Gorm Larsen
Affiliation:
Engineering College of Århus, Denmark
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Summary

Software engineers produce many descriptions: those of the environment or domain in which a desired computing system software is to exist; descriptions of the requirements put on the software; and descriptions of the software design that implements the requirements. Thus the descriptions span the spectrum from application domain, via requirements and software architecture, program organisation and lower level designs, to executable code. While its concerns may be general, software engineering is unique among engineering disciplines in that its primary products are descriptions that must eventually satisfy the laws of mathematical logic and metamathematics.

Other engineering disciplines have to handle a quantum leap into physical reality – the stuff of natural science. In software engineering there is a different quantum leap: that from description to execution. Software engineering is thus about structuring and relating descriptions.

Abstraction and modelling taken together are the keys to mastering the complexity of environments and systems. Formal specification is employed to express abstractions and to ensure affinity to real domains. Such specifications open up ways to establish the proper relation between domain and requirements models as well as potentially verifying the links between software architecture, requirements models and the stages of design. This increases the chance of achieving a proper fit to the environment, to user expectations and of the correctness of implementation.

Type
Chapter
Information
Modelling Systems
Practical Tools and Techniques in Software Development
, pp. ix - x
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

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  • Foreword
  • John Fitzgerald, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Peter Gorm Larsen, Engineering College of Århus, Denmark
  • Book: Modelling Systems
  • Online publication: 03 February 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511626975.001
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Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Foreword
  • John Fitzgerald, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Peter Gorm Larsen, Engineering College of Århus, Denmark
  • Book: Modelling Systems
  • Online publication: 03 February 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511626975.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Foreword
  • John Fitzgerald, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Peter Gorm Larsen, Engineering College of Århus, Denmark
  • Book: Modelling Systems
  • Online publication: 03 February 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511626975.001
Available formats
×