Three elements of software engineering methodology

The three elements of software engineering methodology are methods, tools and processes.

Basic content:

Usually, a set of technical methods used in the whole process of software life cycle is called methodology, also known as paradigm. In the field of software engineering, the meanings of these two terms are basically the same.

Software engineering methodology includes three elements: method, tool and process. Among them, the method is the technical method to complete various tasks of software development, waiting for the question of "how to do it"; Tool is an automatic or semi-automatic software engineering support environment for applying methods; Process is the framework of a series of tasks that need to be completed in order to obtain high-quality software, which stipulates the working steps to complete each task.

At present, the most widely used software engineering methodologies are traditional methodology and object-oriented methodology respectively.

The goal of software engineering:

1. Modifiability: The system can be modified without increasing the complexity of the original system. It supports software debugging and maintenance, which is an unattainable goal.

2. Reliability: It can prevent software system failures caused by imperfect concept, design and structure, and has the ability to recover software system failures caused by improper operation.

3. Understandability: The system structure is clear and can directly reflect the needs of the problem. Understandability is helpful to control the complexity of system software and support the maintenance, transplantation or reuse of software.

4. Maintainability: After the software is delivered for use, it can be modified to correct potential errors, improve performance and other attributes, and make the software products adapt to the changes in the environment. Software maintenance costs account for a large proportion of software development costs. Maintainability is a very important goal in software engineering.

5. Reusability: define one or a group of related modules with relatively independent concepts or functions as software components. It can be assembled in any position of the system, reducing the workload.