A formal definition of software engineering might sound something like, “An organized, analytical approach to the design, development, use, and maintenance of software.”

More intuitively, software engineering is everything you need to do to produce successful software. It includes the steps that take a raw, possibly nebulous idea and turn it into a powerful and intuitive application that can be enhanced to meet changing customer needs for years to come.

Why is software engineering important?

Producing a software application is relatively simple in concept: Take an idea and turn it into a useful program. Unfortunately for projects of any real scope, there are countless ways that a simple concept can go wrong. Programmers may not understand what users want or need (which may be two separate things), so they build the wrong application. The program might be so full of bugs that it’s frustrating to use, impossible to fix, and can’t be enhanced over time. The program could be completely effective but so confusing that you need a PhD in puzzle-solving to use it. An absolutely perfect application could even be killed by internal business politics or market forces.

Software engineering includes techniques for avoiding the many pitfalls that otherwise might send your project down the road to failure. It ensures the final application is effective, usable, and maintainable. It helps you meet milestones on schedule and produce a finished project on time and within budget. Perhaps most important, software engineering gives you the flexibility to make changes to meet unexpected demands without completely obliterating your schedule and budget constraints.

In short, software engineering lets you control what otherwise might seem like a random whirlwind of chaos.

Extract from: Beginning Software Engineering 2015, Wrox Press, accessed 25 July 2020, https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/beginning-software-engineering/9781118969175/.