Software Engineering

1. 
Establishing the structure of complex products.
2. 
Managing interfaces with external systems or products.
3. 
Minimizing and mitigating risks to project success.
4. 
Making informed decisions by considering design alternatives and performing 
trade-off analyses.
5. 
Evaluating change requests and proposals in a formal manner, which enables 
the adoption of changes and maintains the scope of work to be performed within 
established budgets and timelines.

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8
CHAPTER 1 
Introduction to Software Engineering
6. 
Balancing the demands of a diverse group of stakeholders.
7. 
Considering nonfunctional and product life-cycle challenges during product 
design effort.
8. 
Allocating performance characteristics among contributing components.
Systems engineering techniques are used in complex projects: spacecraft design, 
computer chip design, robotics, software integration, and bridge building. Systems 
engineering uses a host of tools that include modeling and simulation, integrated 
product teams, and scheduling to manage complexity. The Apollo program is a 
leading example of a large, complicated project that successfully employed systems 
engineering and has been cited as the greatest technological achievement in human 
history.
1
 Both NASA and the Department of Defense have instituted systems engi-
neering and a primary ingredient in all major system development projects.
2
The systems engineering practices that are employed to resolve these challenges 
involve a number of technical and project management tools. Systems engineering 
provides the intersection between technical and the project management objectives. 
This interchange must be focused on ensuring that product design challenges, issues, 
and solutions are properly communicated up the chain of command to project super-
visors so that instructions can be emanated down to the technical organizations. This 
involves transforming and integrating technical strategies, plans, and schedule infor-
mation into project-level plans and milestones. These technical and project manage-
ment tools form the foundation upon which the software engineering discipline must 
be defined. These project management and technical tools are discussed throughout 
this book as a disciplined approach to software engineering is examined. The primary 
technical and project management tools are listed in 
Table 1.1
.
Table 1.1 
Project Management and Technical Tools