Software Engineering

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1.13 
Modeling and simulation
engineering and by popular software methodologies. Traditional engineering dis-
ciplines utilize prototypes to support experimentation and data collection to con-
firm some critical feature of a product design. The prototype is not considered a  
production-ready model, but is used to work through design challenges and explore 
important design concepts.
The software industry is challenged by prototyping since its products do not have 
any discernible physical characteristics that would prevent their inclusion in the ulti-
mate product. Once software code is written and demonstrated to function properly, 
it is difficult to discard the prototype and spend additional effort on the design, devel-
opment, and testing of the production-quality software product. Software prototypes 
are not often constructed utilizing the rigors of software design and coding stand-
ards. This makes them inadequate to be included in the final, deliverable product, and 
will increase the effort associated with software support and incremental develop-
ment. Software engineers are not inclined to value the lessons learned from proto-
types and to spend additional effort reconstructing the software component through 
design, coding, and testing. The working prototype may be “cleaned-up” to conform 
to design and coding standards, but its architecture may prohibit future modifications 
or enhancements. Ultimately, the software product may have to undergo a complete 
rearchitecting to overhaul design limitations and obstacles stemming from an unstable 
structural framework resulting from prototyping efforts.
The remaining chapters in this section address the software development envi-
ronment within which software engineering is applied. These topics include a 
generic development project framework, software architecture, how to contend with 
project complexity, and the integrated product and process development approach. 
Chapter 6 examines the material challenges that cause the engineering of software 
products to be more perplexing than mechanical, electrical, aeronautical, automo-
tive, thermal, or chemical-based systems. In addition, Chapter 6 presents an over-
view of software engineering principles and practices.

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