The Nature of Software Engineering.
To Understand the nature of software engineering it is helpful to understand the nature of engineering in general. Engineering has its roots in two important human activities: Sciences and crafts.
Sciences
A science is a body of casualknowledge about a subject matters, organized into theories. The theories provide explanations of relationships between charecteristics of objects covered by the subject matter and the behaviour of those objects. Scientific understanding begins with an understanding how things behave, later, a science focuses more on why they behave as they do. In some areas of science this understanding can be used to predict behavior, leading to a utilitarean value for science. However, a well developed scence has a core which is concerned with understanding for its own sake .
The human mind does not deal well with a large collection of facts. In order to serve human needs, the facts must be organized into theories, with a single theory encompassing and explaining a large number of facts. Often, agood explanation requires new concepts. Although our perception is the ultimate source of knowledge, the primitive perceptual concepts may be only indirect indications of factors that cause changes. New concepts identify those factors.
Most science attempts a qualification of the relevent concepts if it is practical. In some well – developed sciences , such as physics and chemistry , the qualification plays a central role , resulting in mathemetical theory at the heart of the science. In some areas of science.
Practicing a science is a creative effort. Creativity is an important quality that distinguishes expert scientists. It takes imagination to put facts together in a way that makes sense.It takes imagination to develop concepts that have explanatory power
Crafts
A craft is concerned with the production of a type of product , In some cases, a craft is also concerned with the production of a type of product. In some cases , a craft is also concerned with maintenance of the products. Like a science , a craft involves a body of knowledge . In part the knowledge concerns the behavior of the products and their constituents.
Making Sense of Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
Introduction
This talk aims to describe the scope and role of Project Lifecycle Management. Project Lifecycle Management has evolved to address the emerging needs of business operating in a highly competative , heavily outsourced global environment.
Product Lifecycle Management – A business Perspective
Developing companies today face ever-growing challenges bringing products to market. Technology, Outsourcing, globalization, and consolidation have converged to create new oppertunites – and new complexities in the process of designing and developing products.
Whether you develop cell phones, turbines, golf clubs, cars or computers developing a winning product is more challenging than ever.
Product development has never been easy. But in todays global marketplace, it’s literally getting out of control. Here’s why . Historically all design functions were co-located. Consequenetly collaboration became very informal, and essential product development processes evolved around this casual culture.
Today, facing the pressure to reduce costs , increses productivity, and encourage greater innovation, companies are now switching to a more globaly distributed product development team, Inthis new dynamic model , where functions are geographically dispersed, collaboration must be more structured, processes must be streamlined and reusable, and decisions must be traceable. In many companies , the end product lifecycle is not just when the customer ceases to use it regulations today dictate how companies must address disposal or recycling . These issues are no longer optional, they have become mandatory.
While a distributed product development team offers numerous benefits, it also introduces a new set of challenges. Companies must share up-to-date product definitions not only amoung cross-functional teams such as engineering , manufacturing , sales , and sourcing
Product Lifecycle Management brings a new dimension to product development activity. It helps manage innovation and intellectual property of an enterprise. The ability to collaborate, capture best practices and re-use of information along with traditional design tools in an integral and interoperable environment helps in implementing a single coherent Product.The benifits clearly translate into business metrics which validate investments in Product Lifecycle Management.