Software engineering research versus software development

ABSTRACT

Engineering research differs greatly, both in its aims and in its methods, from traditional "scientific" research. While Sciences deal with the study of existing objects and phenomena, be it physically, metaphysically or conceptually, Engineering is based on how to do things, how to create new objects. For this reason, "scientific" research methods are not always directly applicable to research problems of an engineering nature.In the present article, we concentrate on the problems and research methods of a specific branch of engineering: Software Engineering, discussing, on the one hand, the nature of the method in this field while and, on the other, the similarity of the methods of research in Software Engineering and those of software development.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.0 General

Additional Classification:
  A. General Literature
  A.m MISCELLANEOUS

General Terms:
Design, Documentation

Keywords:
engineering, science, software development, software engineering research