Hi Sharadha,
In recent times, I have had the opportunity to re-look at the software
engineering process. Prior to this I had some familiarity with previously
published information on software engineering as it had been presented in
the SD literature.
So please regard this as a note of caution based upon my observations.
You must be careful of the context when you look at the published work. Most
of it was probably based on big software development projects, long time
frames and an era of top down, waterfall type methodologies (specify -
develop - test - deploy).
Looking at present software development in the context of development for
the internet, its basically a new ball game. This game is based on Object
Oriented methodologies, component based re-useable code, quick time to
market, with projects (divided into smaller chunks) following a multiphase
spiralling iterative approach.
In effect, there has been quite a significant paradigm shift. Much of the
new software engineering process has not been documented, is undergoing
rapid technological change, using methodologies which are still very much
work in progress. It is most likely that any books being/been written on the
subject, which assume an underlying process, could be out of date because
the rapid take up of the web has rendered the software engineering process a
moving target. While some of the old principles are of course still relevant
and useful, you need to be mindful of the very different dynamics. Not
impossible ..... but certainly challenging.
Hope this helps,
Rom Koziol.
Sydney, Australia
romk@romk.com