NDLI: The Unending Quest for Valid, Useful Software Engineering Theories

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The Unending Quest for Valid, Useful Software Engineering Theories

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Staples, M.
Copyright Year	2015
Description	Author affiliation: NICTA, Kensington, NSW, Australia (Staples, M.)
Abstract	Using scientific disciplines as inspiration, some researchers have called for the creation of general theories for software engineering. I present a contrary view, drawing on recent work in the philosophy of engineering. Engineering theories are different to scientific theories, and are not judged by the same criteria. Software engineering researchers should strive to create valid theories about the uses of software-based systems, even if that leads to a multitude of theories that have narrow, overlapping scopes, are approximate, and have little explanatory power. The engineering imperative is that the predictions of software engineering theories should be consistent with actual behaviour of software-based systems, and that theories and should support assurances and explicit justification that systems will meet their requirements. Process theories are about the organisation of work and project management, and are relevant to cost and schedule requirements in software engineering. However, to directly provide evidence that software-based systems meet their main functional and non-functional requirements, software engineering researchers should focus on product theories, about the specifications, designs, code, and behaviours of software-based systems.
Starting Page	47
Ending Page	58
File Size	305602
Page Count	12
File Format	PDF
ISBN	9781467370523
DOI	10.1109/GTSE.2015.14
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	2015-05-18
Publisher Place	Italy
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Rights Holder	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subject Keyword	Knowledge engineering Computers Software testing Instruments Project management Software Software engineering
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
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4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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