Glossary

Analysis  : The software engineering process that generates the requirements.

Architecture  : The components of a system, their behavior and interaction.

Change Management  : A software engineering process that controls changes to a system once a feature freeze has been invoked.

Change Order Control  : When a component is completed, changes to the components are placed under this process to manage changes.

Component Testing  : Testing major components of the system or the entire system with simple usage.

Critical Error  : An error in the system that prevents the functioning of a usage scenario with no known work-around. Many features of the system may be working, but a critical error prevents the scenario from functioning under certain situations.

Critical Task  : The element of a plan for building a system, upon which the success or failure of the rest of the system hinges. A system may have many critical tasks.

Design  : The software engineering process that generates the architecture.

Feedback Level  : The fifth level in a software engineering methodology support environment. Once measurements are available, parameters can be varied and their effects monitored.

Gold Standard  : The expected and trusted results of the system against which all other results are compared. Current results that differ from the gold standard indicates an error condition.

Internal Testing  : Testing at the lowest level of the system.

Implementation  : The software engineering process that establishes the code for the system with the aid of people and tools.

Life Cycle  : The cradle-to-grave existence of a software system from initial conceptions through development, deployment, version releases, and final phase out.

Measurement Level  : The fourth level in a software engineering methodology support environment. This level deals with metrics. Measurement is the first step in gaining the ability to control.

Methodology  : The body of methods, rules, postulates, procedures, and processes that are used to manage a software engineering project. An algorithm that finds a solution with a given performance in a given environment.

Ontology  : The high level definitions of the objects, their actions, and behavior in a system. Sometimes objects are defined by their noun phrases and their actions defined by their verb phrases, while their behavior is defined by the communications.

Paradigms  : A point of view about how to understand and solve a problem.

People Level  : The first level in a software engineering methodology support environment. Having the right people on the project is very important.

Product  : A system which is ready for general release to the market place.

Proof of Principle  : When enough of the system is built that the developers can convince themselves that the rest of the development of the system can proceed, the system is said to be in a proof of principle state. This usually includes the successful implementation of the critical tasks.

Project Management  : The software engineering process aided by tools which helps the expedition of a plan. Resources, priorities, tasks, schedules, and dependencies are coordinated.

Prototype  : The system is ready for customer testing but not fully functional. There may be an early prototype called alpha and a later prototype called beta. Enough of the system is completed to convince customers that a real product will soon follow.

Regression Test  : A testing technique where a suite of test cases are evaluated against the system to assure the expected behavior as established by the gold standard.

Requirements  : The necessary capabilities and behavior of a system from the customer perspective defines the functional requirements. Non-functional requirements, for the most part, are introduced as an artifact of the design.

Risk Analysis  : The software engineering process that defines the pro and con for each decision point and an estimate of probability for success and failure. Often a fall back position or an exit strategy may be defined.

Scenarios  : A description of the typical and atypical usage of a system.

Screen Shots  : A captured GUI window from a running system.

Source Control  : The software engineering process aided by an application, defining the code versions and baselines of the system. The source control application also coordinates the changes done by a team of individuals.

Spiral  : A cyclical software engineering methodology where the analysis, design, implementation, and testing phases follow each other in an iterative fashion as they spiral towards a solution.

State  : A sequence of settings and values which distinguishes one time-space snap shot of a system from another.

Story Board  : A software engineering process used to walk through a usage of a system, usually before major components are completed, to raise confidence in usability.

Stress Testing  : Testing the system under a load which is higher than expected in actual usage.

Strategy Level  : The third level in a software engineering methodology support environment. Given people with powerful tools, a direction is still needed as well as underlying foundations abput how to accomplish the task.

Testing  : The process that assures a level of confidence in the quality of a product.

Test Plan  : The sequence of steps needed to raise the level of confidence in the quality of the product.

Tools Level  : The second level in a software engineering methodology support environment. High quality tools enhance the performance of the team and place a high water mark on the complexity of the systems which can be built.

Unit Testing  : Testing related groups of functions.

Versions  : A system can be defined as a queue of many stable versions. Potentially, each version reflects new functionality or improvements in quality.

Waterfall  : A sequential software engineering methodology where the analysis, design, implementation, and testing phases proceed one after another, like water flowing over a fall.

WaterSluice  : A best-first software engineering methodology where the analysis, design, implementation, and testing phases proceeded in a prioritized fashion, going after the gold nuggets first. As the method process proceeds, choices are constrained. The WaterSluice borrows the iterative nature of the spiral method along with the steady progression of the waterfall method.