Software Engineering

Software engineering applies systematic methods to software development. This page outlines core principles that distinguish sustainable engineering practice from ad-hoc coding.

The Engineering Process

Software engineering follows a structured lifecycle, though the sequence and emphasis vary by methodology:

  1. Requirements Analysis: Capture stakeholder needs, define scope, establish success criteria.
  2. Design: Architect the solution, define interfaces, plan for scalability and security.
  3. Implementation: Write code following established standards and patterns.
  4. Testing: Verify functionality, performance, and security against requirements.
  5. Deployment: Release to production with appropriate monitoring and rollback capabilities.
  6. Maintenance: Address defects, performance issues, and evolving requirements.

Core Principles

Modularity: Decompose systems into independent, testable components.

Separation of Concerns: Each module should have a single, well-defined responsibility.

Loose Coupling: Minimize dependencies between modules to enable independent evolution.

High Cohesion: Related functionality should be grouped together.

Defensive Programming: Anticipate failure modes and handle errors gracefully.

Best Practices

Version Control: All code in source control. Meaningful commits. Branching strategy aligned with release cadence.

Code Review: Peer review before merge. Focus on correctness, maintainability, and knowledge sharing.

Continuous Integration: Automated build and test on every commit. Fast feedback loops.

Documentation: Document decisions, not just code. Architecture decision records (ADRs) capture context.

Security by Design: Integrate security considerations from requirements through deployment.

Explore Test Automation for quality engineering practices, or browse the Blog for tactical insights.