Software Engineering: Evolution and Emerging Technologies

Book excerpt: The capability to design quality software and implement modern information systems is at the core of economic growth in the 21st century. Nevertheless, exploiting this potential is only possible when adequate human resources are available and when modern software engineering methods and tools are used. The recent years have witnessed rapid evolution of software engineering methodologies, including the creation of new platforms and tools which aim to shorten the software design process, raise its quality and cut down its costs. This evolution is made possible through ever-increasing knowledge of software design strategies as well as through improvements in system design and code testing procedures. At the same time, the need for broad access to high-performance and high-throughput computing resources necessitates the creation of large-scale, interactive information systems, capable of processing millions of transactions per seconds. These systems, in turn, call for new, innovative distributed software design and implementation technologies. The purpose of this book is to review and analyze emerging software engineering technologies, focusing on the evolution of design and implementation platforms as well as on novel computer systems related to the development of modern information services.