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No Silver Bullet—Essence and Accident in Software Engineering" is a widely discussed paper on software engineering written by Turing Award winner Fred Brooks in 1986. [1] Brooks argues that "there is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order of magnitude [tenfold] improvement ...
Brooks discusses several causes of scheduling failures. The most enduring is his discussion of Brooks's law: Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. Man-month is a hypothetical unit of work representing the work done by one person in one month; Brooks's law says that the possibility of measuring useful work in man-months is a myth, and is hence the centerpiece of the book.
Software engineering is a field within computer science focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining of software applications.It involves applying engineering principles and computer programming expertise to develop software systems that meet user needs.
Brooks's law is an observation about software project management that "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." [1] [2] It was coined by Fred Brooks in his 1975 book The Mythical Man-Month. According to Brooks, under certain conditions, an incremental person when added to a project makes it take more, not less time.
A related term to cargo cult programming in software engineering is cargo cult software engineering, coined by Steve McConnell. [4]: 23-26 McConnell describes software development organizations that attempt to emulate more successful development houses, either by slavishly following a software development process without understanding the reasoning behind it, or by attempting to emulate a ...
Over the last 10–15 years Michael A. Jackson has written extensively about the nature of software engineering, has identified the main source of its difficulties as lack of specialization, and has suggested that his problem frames provide the basis for a "normal practice" of software engineering, a prerequisite if software engineering is to ...
[1] [2] The trend towards agile methods in software engineering is noticeable, [3] however the need for improved studies on the subject is also paramount. [4] [5] Also note that some of the methods listed might be newer or older or still in use or out-dated, and the research on software design methods is not new and on-going. [6] [7] [8] [9]
Software evolution is not likely to be Darwinian, Lamarckian or Baldwinian, but an important phenomenon on its own. Given the increasing dependence on software at all levels of society and economy, the successful evolution of software is becoming increasingly critical. This is an important topic of research that hasn't received much attention.