Question

Why is software engineering important? What benefits does it bring and what are the consequences of not following an accepted methodology?

Answer 1

Software Engineering:

This is the branch of the computer science which helps to develop the software at a scheduled time and low cost as much as possible.

Software engineering is very important because the size of the software is increasing and it is very difficult to develop large software without any principle or methodology. By using the software engineering principle, we can estimate the time and cost of the new software.

The nature of the software is always changing and software engineering helps in this type of environment.

Software engineering helps to produce a quality product on time and low cost.

For example:

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a series of the step that is followed by the development team to develop and maintain the software. The development cycle mainly includes six stages as given below:

1. Requirement analysis & specification
2. Design
3. Coding
4. Testing
5. Deployment
6. Maintenance

The main aim of the SDLC is to improve the quality of the software, reduce the overall cost of the projects.

Capability Maturity Model(CMM) is a methodology that describes a five-level strategy to improve the process of software development. This model is used to measure the maturity level of the software development process of an organization.

If we do not follow the software engineering methodology then it is very difficult to handle large size software. The maintenance phase is near to impossible because we have not developed the software in a planned way. It may take more time and cost as estimated in the beginning.

So, software engineering plays a vital role in the development of the new software and maintenance of the existing software.