[comp.software-eng] SE Texts

hsrender@happy.colorado.edu (03/23/91)

Here are the collected responses I got from my request for suggestions
for software engineering texts.  For what it's worth, here are also the books
I considered, ranked roughly in order of preference.   I liked all of the 
first three, since they had the best explanations of what I want to cover
(different engineering lifecycles, methods, and tools).  Numbers 4 and 5 were
good and covered the issue of specifications and verification better, but I
felt they did so at the expense of other aspects of the development process.
I may use one of them for a graduate course in software engineering.  Number 6
is our current text, and my basic problem with it is the vague way it covers
many of the topics.  Numbers 7 and 8 aren't bad, but they are fairly
low-level and don't cover many tools and techniques that I consider valuable.

 1. _Software Engineering: The Production of Quality Software_ by Shari Pfleeger
 2. _Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach_ by Roger Pressman
 3. _Software Systems Engineering_ by Andrew Sage and James D. Palmer
 4. _Fundamentals of Software Engineering_ by Ghezzi, Jayazeri and Mandrioli
 5. _Software Engineering with Abstractions_ by Valdis Berzins and Luqi
 6. _Software Engineering_ by Ian Sommerville
 7. _Software Engineering with Student Project Guidance_ by Barbara Mynatt
 8. _Software Engineering_ by Roger Jones

Now the responses:

From: Nancy Leveson <nancy@murphy.ICS.UCI.EDU>
> Look at the new book by Ghezzi, Jazayeri, and Mandrioli.  Published by
> Prentice-Hall, 1991.  It is better than Sommerville, although I like
> much of Sommerville.

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From:	robb@iotek.uucp (Robb Swanson)
> Well, I'm not in academia, so I can't give an informed opinion
> as to the suitability as a text for a course.  However, _Software
> Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach_ by Roger S. Pressman is
> the definitive book on the subject as far as I'm concerned.
>
>	The particulars are :
>
>@title:	Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach
>@author:	Roger S. Pressman, Ph.D.
>@publisher:	McGraw-Hill Publishing Company
>@copyright:	1987, 1982
>@isbn:		0-07-050783-X

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From: straub@cs.UMD.EDU (Pablo A. Straub)
>
>You may want to consider these texts:
>
>1. David Alex Lamb, Software Engineering: Planning for Change,
>   Prentice-Hall, 1988, 298 pages.
>
>2. Berzins and Luqi, Software Engineering with Abstractions,
>   Addison Wesley, 1991, 624 pages.
>
>Both books have a good emphasis on using formal techinques (i.e.,  doing
>engineering proper), but they do not disregard informal methods. In both
>books, chapters are roughly organized around the traditional lifecycle.
>
>Book 1 has the advantage of being shorter, yet  covering  most  relevant
>topics (lifecycle phases, formal specs, v&v, configurations, management,
>etc.).  It  is  very  appropriate  for  an  undergrad  course. This book
>emphasizes that maintenance is a given and should be taken into  account
>(hence the title). Several specification techniques are covered and used
>to develop a project in Pascal.
>
>Book 2 is longer and can be used in a two-term sequence or for  graduate
>students  (it's  possible  to  use  it in a one-term undergrad course by
>covering only part of the material). One thing I like is that management
>and validation is given in all chapters, so that  these  activities  are
>integrated  into the development process. The title--and book--emphasize
>the use of  formally  specified  abstractions.  The  authors  use  their
>specification language (Spec) to develop a proyect in Ada.

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From: ewoods@hemel.bull.co.uk (Eoin Woods)
>A very good one (in my opinion at least!) is :
>
>	"A Practical Handbook for Software Development"
>		- N.D. Birrell and M.A. Ould
>			Cambridge University Press, 1985/88
>
>	ISBN 0-521-34792-0 (Paper cover)	
>	ISBN 0-521-25462-0 (Hard cover)

From: johnson@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu (Michelle Johnson)
>Please excuse any errors that may occur - this is my first
>time on rnews.  I am a Computer Scientist taking software
>engineering courses at Johns Hopkins Univ. for my masters.
>Our very first course used Pressman's Software Engineering:
>A Practitioner's Approach w/copyright date of 1987 by
>McGraw-Hill, Inc.  I also used this book for an undergraduate
>class.  I thought it was a good text book as well as reference
>book.  McGraw-Hill has a series of books - one of which I am
>reading now for an Advanced Topics class - Software Reliability.