Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

444 software piracy and counterfeiting• Detailed specification of what the program will berequired to do. This can include developing a prototypeand getting user’s reaction to it.• Creation of a suitable program architecture—algorithm(s) and the data types, objects, or other structuresneeded to implement them (see algorithm).• Coding—writing the program language statementsthat implement the structure.• Verification and testing of the program using realisticdata and field testing (see quality assurance,software).• Maintenance, or the correction of errors and addingof requested minor features (short of creating a newversion of the program).There are a number of competing ways in which to viewthis software development cycle. The “iterative” or “evolutionary”approach sees software development as a linearprocess of progress through the above steps.The “spiral” approach, on the other hand, sees the stepsof planning, risk analysis, development, and evaluationbeing applied repeatedly, until the risk analysis and evaluationphases result in a go/no go to finish the project.The most commonly used approach is called waterfall.In it the results (output) of each stage become the inputof the next stage. This approach is easiest for scheduling(see project management software), since each stage isstrictly dependent on its predecessor. However, some advocatesof this approach have included the ability for a givenstage to feed back to the preceding stage if necessary. Forexample, a problem found in implementation (coding) mayrequire revisiting the preceding design phase.Developing Software Engineering StandardsTwo organizations have become prominent in the effort topromote software engineering. The federally funded SoftwareEngineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon Universitywas established in 1984. Its mission statement is to:1. Accelerate the introduction and widespread useof high-payoff software engineering practices andtechnology by identifying, evaluating, and maturingpromising or underused technology and practices.2. maintain a long-term competency in software engineeringand technology transition.3. Enable industry and government organizations tomake measured improvements in their software engineeringpractices by working with them directly.4. Foster the adoption and sustained use of standardsof excellence for software engineering practice.Since 1993, the IEEE Computer Society and ACM SteeringCommittee for the Establishment of Software Engineeringas a Profession has been pursuing a set of goals that arelargely complementary to those of the SEI:1. Adopt Standard Definitions2. Define Required Body of Knowledge and RecommendedPractices (In electrical engineering, forThe Spiral Model visualizes software development as a process ofplanning, risk analysis, development, and evaluation. The cyclerepeats until the project is developed to its full scope.example, electromagnetic theory is part of the bodyof knowledge while the National Electrical SafetyCode is a recommended practice.)3. Define Ethical Standards4. Define Educational Curricula for (a) undergraduate,(b) graduate (MS), and (c) continuing education(for retraining and migration).Further ReadingBooch, Grady. “The Promise, the Limits, the Beauty of Software.”March 8, 2007. Lecture before the British Computer Society.Available online. URL: http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.10367. Accessed August 21, 2007.Brooks, Frederick. The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on SoftwareEngineering. 20th anniversary ed. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1995.Christensen, Mark J., and Richard H. Thayer. The Project Manager’sGuide to Software Engineering’s Best Practices. Los Alamitos,Calif.: IEEE Computer Society Press, 2001.McConnell, Steve. After the Gold Rush: Creating a True Professionof Software Engineering. Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft Press,1999.Software Engineering Coordinating Committee (IEEE ComputerSociety and Association for Computing Machinery.) Availableonline. URL: http://www.acm.org/serving/se/homepage.html.Accessed August 21, 2007.Sommerville, Ian. Software Engineering. 8th ed. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2006.software piracy and counterfeitingAccording to surveys by analysis firm IDC, software piracyaccounted for $7.3 billion in losses to the U.S. softwareindustry in 2006, while reducing its expansion and thus jobcreation. (This is part of a larger picture in which, accordingto a Gallup study, 22 percent of adults in the United Statesreported having bought some sort of counterfeit product.) Abit of Web searching (or even reading spam in one’s in-box)suggests that thousands of sites offer “cracked” software