Glossary

Within the field of software engineering, different people use terms differently. These are the meanings of terms as used in this book.

Development Approach

A particular collection of tools, methods and work styles that are used in carrying out software development

Development Life Cycle

Sometimes called the software development life cycle, or SDLC. The complete process of software development from inception through to release and maintenance of the product

Development Process

Specific activities that are carried out during software development

Maintenance

Fixing bugs, responding to changed requirements and upgrading the software for a new platform. Carried out after the software is completed.

Method

1. In programming, the term for a procedure, subprogram or subroutine. This is now the most widespread term for this concept.

2. in software development, a specific technique for carrying out a particular task.

Methodology

1. The study of methods, or
2. A collection of methods, techniques and notations used for software development

Portability

1. The degree to which a piece of software runs on different platforms (machine and/or operating system), or
2. The issue of whether software needs to run on different platforms

Porting

Moving a piece of software to a new platform

Process Model

1. idealised plan of software development in general, or
2. the plan adopted for a particular software development project.

Reliability

The degree to which a software system meets and continues to meet its specification over a period of time.

Error

A mistake made during software development

Fault (often termed defect or a bug)

A problem that may cause software to depart from its intended behavior

Failure

An event when software departs from its intended behavior

Robustness

The capacity of a software system to continue functioning when failures arise from invalid user input, hardware faults or software faults.