Software Development

One of the most difficult technological tasks that has to be carried out is the development of large software systems. This book explains why software is difficult to develop and considers some of the solutions being adopted to overcome the difficulties. The author covers such topics as how software systems "rust", how mathematics is coming to the aid of software developers, the attempts that researchers are making in order to automate the software development process, how some types of software systems can learn from their behaviour and some of the advances being made in artificial intelligence. In addition, the author has tried to show that software development cannot be divorced from social, economic and political factors, and that not taking such factors into account can lead to disasters as big as those that occur when technical issues are ignored. The book is written for both the professional reader and the lay audience.
Whilst the bulk of the work contains material that is only reported in academic journals or internal company reports, it also aims to describe current advances in software engineering in a way that will be accessible even to readers with little knowledge of computing concepts.