What is an explanation of the software design process?

Answer 1

Software systems are now omnipresent. Software is used to help run manufacturing industry, schools, universities, health care, finance and government. The computational power and sophistication of computers have increased ever since, while their costs have been reduced dramatically. The specification, development, management and evolution of these software systems make up the discipline of software engineering.

The more powerful a computer is the more sophisticated programs it can run. Even simple software systems have a high inherent complexity so that engineering principles have to be used in their development. The discipline of software engineering discusses systematic and cost-effective software development approaches, which have come out from past innovations and lessons learnt from mistakes. Software Engineering principles have evolved over the past fifty years of contributions from numerous researches and software professionals.

To solve actual problems in an industry setting, a software engineer or a team of engineers must incorporate a development strategy that encompasses the process, methods, and tools layers and the generic phases. This strategy is often referred to as a process model or a software engineering paradigm. A process model for software engineering is chosen based on the nature of the project and application, the methods and tools to be used, and the controls and deliverables that are required.

In the software development process the focus is on the activities directly related to production of the software, for example, design coding, and testing. A development process model specifies some activities that, according to the model, should be performed, and the order in which they should be performed.

As the development process specifies the major development and quality assurance activities that need to be performed in the project, the development process really forms the core of the software process. The management process is decided based on the development process. Due to the importance of development process, various models have been proposed.