Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [engineering]

Software engineering (SE) is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the design, development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software.

Definition is taken from Wikipedia.

118 questions
129
votes
14 answers

Is there any technical reason why, in programming, the default date format is YYYYMMDD and not something else?

Is there any engineering reason why is it like that? I was wondering in the case of a RDBMS that it had something to do with performance, since a "YEAR" is more specific than a "MONTH", for instance: you only have one year 2000, but every year have…
lucaswxp
  • 1,379
  • 2
  • 8
  • 10
41
votes
8 answers

Getting buy-in for cleaner and more structured code

I am at my company for half a year now and think that I have gotten a fair idea of their codebase. Initially I didn't dare to form strong opinions, but now I start to feel that the code could benefit from a more structure and more software…
Martin Ueding
  • 933
  • 1
  • 7
  • 14
41
votes
9 answers

Is memory management in programming becoming an irrelevant concern?

Background I revisited an old (but great) site I had not been to for ages - the Alioth Language Shootout (http://benchmarksgame.alioth.debian.org/). I started out programming in C/C++ several years ago, but have since then been working almost…
csvan
  • 551
  • 4
  • 7
39
votes
8 answers

Is it ok copying code from one application to another, both belonging to the same repository, to keep them independent?

Given a repository which contains two different applications A and B (e.g. bootloader and RTOS), is it ok to copy source code from A to B in order to avoid dependencies (include's, adding A source files to the B compilation) between them, so they…
Dan
  • 615
  • 5
  • 7
26
votes
3 answers

Can Software Engineers become certified Professional Engineers (PE)?

Does anyone know if a Software Engineer can become a certified Professional Engineer or PE for short? I know that my buddies who are Mechanical, Electrical, or Civil Engineers were able to become PEs by taking an exam. Does such an exam exist in…
TheDevOpsGuru
  • 809
  • 2
  • 8
  • 12
22
votes
2 answers

How to manage and estimate unstructured requirements received from customers

A lot of the times during the bidding phase of a project I receive a software system's requirements from our potential customers in a very unstructured format from various sources [email, word documents, excel]. It is usually a bunch of "product…
user20358
  • 713
  • 5
  • 13
21
votes
1 answer

Can someone explain the V Model process? Why is it different than the Waterfall model?

It seems the V Model is just the Waterfall Model with the bottom half of the Waterfall bent upwards to form a V. I don't see how it adds anything new. From the diagrams, I also don't understand the flow. There are arrows pointing in all directions…
CodyBugstein
  • 487
  • 2
  • 4
  • 10
19
votes
3 answers

Should Software Engineering and Computer Science be separate majors?

For decades, the accepted degree to get to become a software developer was "Compter Science." We've had a few questions already about whether that degree really prepares students to develop software. Some schools have, in the last 8 years or so,…
Fishtoaster
  • 25,909
  • 15
  • 111
  • 154
17
votes
6 answers

Writing comments for some small code with rather large background

So I had to write some code related to splitting Bezier curves into parts. I read through several references and particularly referred this rather detailed one. The final code outcome is however around 20-30 LOC. But without having this kind of…
Amit Tomar
  • 348
  • 1
  • 9
16
votes
2 answers

Has anyone done CSDP certification?

I was looking at some certifications that can potentially enhance my knowledge and market value as a Software Engineer. IEEE's Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) caught my attention. When I looked on the net for any user experiences…
DPD
  • 3,527
  • 2
  • 16
  • 22
15
votes
3 answers

Versioning REST APIs. Each API has its own version

It's very common to specify the version of REST APIs in the URL, specifically at the beginning of path, i.e. something like: POST /api/v1/accounts GET /api/v1/accounts/details However, I haven't seen any design where the version is associated with…
Eng.Fouad
  • 259
  • 3
  • 6
14
votes
3 answers

What is a Developer in Test?

I was recently talking with a recruiter who wants to put me at a company for a position of Developer in Test. He essentially made it sound like a position where you get to fiddle with new programming techniques and test bugs and improvements in…
Patrick
  • 251
  • 1
  • 2
  • 6
13
votes
1 answer

Does BDD and DDD work well together?

Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) can be described as in this blog post as follows: Behaviour-driven development (BDD) takes the position that you can turn an idea for a requirement into implemented, tested, production-ready code simply and…
user1620696
  • 4,817
  • 7
  • 31
  • 46
13
votes
5 answers

How can I encourage people to read error messages?

I was wondering if there are some good ways to encourage people to read error messages when the compilation fails. People (especially) the junior ones usually ignore the error messages and just ask for help. I want them to be better and have run out…
Anonymous
  • 2,029
  • 3
  • 22
  • 24
13
votes
6 answers

What needs to change for Software Engineering to become a formal profession?

Unlike other professions (such as Accounting, Law, Medicine, etc.), there is no profession-wide certification for Software Engineering. I am well aware of the multitude of technology and methodology specific certifications that aim to serve as proof…
Kosta Kontos
  • 307
  • 2
  • 8
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8