Ebook: Rationale-Based Software Engineering

Many decisions are required throughout the software development process. These decisions, and to some extent the decision-making process itself, can best be documented as the rationale for the system, which will reveal not only what was done during development but the reasons behind the choices made and alternatives considered and rejected. This information becomes increasingly critical as software development becomes more distributed and encompasses the corporate knowledge both used and refined during the development process. The capture of rationale helps to ensure that decisions are well thought out and justified and the use of rationale can help avoid the mistakes of the past during both the development of the current system and when software products (architecture and design, as well as code) are reused in future systems.

Burge, Carroll, McCall, and Mistrík describe in detail the capture and use of design rationale in software engineering to improve the quality of software. Their book is the first comprehensive and unified treatment of rationale usage in software engineering. It provides a consistent conceptual framework and a unified terminology for comparing, contrasting and combining the myriad approaches to rationale in software engineering. It is both an excellent introductory text for those new to the field and a uniquely valuable reference for experienced rationale researchers. The book covers the use of rationale for decision making throughout the software lifecycle, starting from the first decisions in a project and continuing through requirements definition, design, implementation, testing, maintenance, redesign and reuse.

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Many decisions are required throughout the software development process. These decisions, and to some extent the decision-making process itself, can best be documented as the rationale for the system, which will reveal not only what was done during development but the reasons behind the choices made and alternatives considered and rejected.

Burge, Carroll, McCall, and Mistr?k describe in detail the capture and use of design rationale in software engineering to improve the quality of software. Their book is the first comprehensive and unified treatment of rationale usage in software engineering. It provides a consistent conceptual framework and a unified terminology for comparing, contrasting and combining the myriad approaches to rationale in software engineering. It is both an excellent introductory text for those new to the field and a uniquely valuable reference for experienced rationale researchers. The book covers the use of rationale for decision making throughout the software lifecycle, starting from the first decisions in a project and continuing through requirements definition, design, implementation, testing, maintenance, redesign and reuse.

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Many decisions are required throughout the software development process. These decisions, and to some extent the decision-making process itself, can best be documented as the rationale for the system, which will reveal not only what was done during development but the reasons behind the choices made and alternatives considered and rejected.

Burge, Carroll, McCall, and Mistr?k describe in detail the capture and use of design rationale in software engineering to improve the quality of software. Their book is the first comprehensive and unified treatment of rationale usage in software engineering. It provides a consistent conceptual framework and a unified terminology for comparing, contrasting and combining the myriad approaches to rationale in software engineering. It is both an excellent introductory text for those new to the field and a uniquely valuable reference for experienced rationale researchers. The book covers the use of rationale for decision making throughout the software lifecycle, starting from the first decisions in a project and continuing through requirements definition, design, implementation, testing, maintenance, redesign and reuse.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxxv
Front Matter....Pages 2-2
What is Rationale and Why Does It Matter?....Pages 3-23
What Makes Software Different....Pages 25-35
Rationale and Software Engineering....Pages 37-48
Learning from Rationale Research in Other Domains....Pages 49-66
Decision-Making in Software Engineering....Pages 67-76
Front Matter....Pages 78-78
Presentation of Rationale....Pages 79-89
Evaluation....Pages 91-101
Support for Collaboration....Pages 103-112
Change Analysis....Pages 113-122
Front Matter....Pages 124-124
Rationale and the Software Lifecycle....Pages 125-138
Rationale and Requirements Engineering....Pages 139-153
Rationale and Software Design....Pages 155-173
Rationale and Software VV&T....Pages 175-185
Rationale and Software Maintenance....Pages 187-198
Rationale and Software Re-use....Pages 199-209
Front Matter....Pages 212-212
A Conceptual Framework....Pages 213-239
An Architectural Framework....Pages 241-254
Rationale-Based Software Engineering: Summary and Prospect....Pages 255-265
Back Matter....Pages 267-316

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Many decisions are required throughout the software development process. These decisions, and to some extent the decision-making process itself, can best be documented as the rationale for the system, which will reveal not only what was done during development but the reasons behind the choices made and alternatives considered and rejected.

Burge, Carroll, McCall, and Mistr?k describe in detail the capture and use of design rationale in software engineering to improve the quality of software. Their book is the first comprehensive and unified treatment of rationale usage in software engineering. It provides a consistent conceptual framework and a unified terminology for comparing, contrasting and combining the myriad approaches to rationale in software engineering. It is both an excellent introductory text for those new to the field and a uniquely valuable reference for experienced rationale researchers. The book covers the use of rationale for decision making throughout the software lifecycle, starting from the first decisions in a project and continuing through requirements definition, design, implementation, testing, maintenance, redesign and reuse.

Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-xxxv
Front Matter....Pages 2-2
What is Rationale and Why Does It Matter?....Pages 3-23
What Makes Software Different....Pages 25-35
Rationale and Software Engineering....Pages 37-48
Learning from Rationale Research in Other Domains....Pages 49-66
Decision-Making in Software Engineering....Pages 67-76
Front Matter....Pages 78-78
Presentation of Rationale....Pages 79-89
Evaluation....Pages 91-101
Support for Collaboration....Pages 103-112
Change Analysis....Pages 113-122
Front Matter....Pages 124-124
Rationale and the Software Lifecycle....Pages 125-138
Rationale and Requirements Engineering....Pages 139-153
Rationale and Software Design....Pages 155-173
Rationale and Software VV&T....Pages 175-185
Rationale and Software Maintenance....Pages 187-198
Rationale and Software Re-use....Pages 199-209
Front Matter....Pages 212-212
A Conceptual Framework....Pages 213-239
An Architectural Framework....Pages 241-254
Rationale-Based Software Engineering: Summary and Prospect....Pages 255-265
Back Matter....Pages 267-316
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