RE-THINKING SOFTWARE ENGINEERING APPROACHES: A CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THEORY BUILDING

Balbir S. Barn, Tony Clark

2011

Abstract

This paper re-appraises Peter Naur’s influential paper on Programming as Theory Building in the context of modern software engineering practice. The central argument is that such practice is focussed primarily on methods, notations, lifecycles and the description of artifacts such as models. Instead we propose that a theory building view is more appropriate, and that the concept of a theory should underpin a software design process which then calls for new tools and a new research agenda.

References

  1. Fetzer, J. (1999). The role of models in computer science. The Monist, 82:20:36.
  2. Floyd, C. (1984). Eine untersuchung von softwareentwicklungsmethoden. In Programmierumgebungen und Compiler, pages 248-274.
  3. Gamma, E., Helm, R., Johnson, R., and Vlissides, J. (1995). Design patterns: elements of reusable object-oriented software. Addison-Wesley Professional.
  4. Johnson, P., Ekstedt, M., Silva, E., and Plazaola, L. (2004). Using enterprise architecture for cio decision-making: On the importance of theory. In Proceedings of the 2nd Annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research (CSER).
  5. Lankhorst, M. M., Proper, H. A., and Jonkers, H. (2010). The anatomy of the archimate language. IJISMD, 1(1):1-32.
  6. Moody, D. L. (2005). Theoretical and practical issues in evaluating the quality of conceptual models: current state and future directions. Data Knowl. Eng., 55:243- 276.
  7. Moor, J. H. (1978). Three myths of computer science. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 29(3):213-222.
  8. Naur, P. (1985). Programming as theory building. Microprocessing and Microprogramming, 15(5):253-261.
  9. Naur, P. (1992). Computing: a human activity. ACM New York.
  10. Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H. (1995). The Knowledge Creating Company. Oxford University Press.
  11. Ryle, G. (1949). The concept of mind. Chicago Press.
  12. Smith, B. (1991). Limits of correctness in computers. Academic Press Professional, Inc.
  13. Spencer, J. e. a. (2004). TOGAF Enterprise Edition Version 8.1. Van Haren Publishing.
  14. Texas-Instruments (1988). A guide to information engineering using the ief: Computer-aided planning, analysis, and design. Technical report, Texas Instruments Inc.
  15. Wisnosky, D. and Vogel, J. (2004). DoDAF Wizdom: A Practical Guide to Planning, Managing and Executing Projects to Build Enterprise Architectures Using the Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF). Wizdom Systems, Inc.
  16. Wyssusek, B. (2007). A philosophical re-appraisal of peter naur's notion of "programming as theory building". In Proceedings of the 15th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), pages 1505-1514.
  17. Zachman, J. (1999). A framework for information systems architecture. IBM systems journal, pages 454-470.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

S. Barn B. and Clark T. (2011). RE-THINKING SOFTWARE ENGINEERING APPROACHES: A CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THEORY BUILDING . In Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Software and Database Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT, ISBN 978-989-8425-76-8, pages 59-64. DOI: 10.5220/0003610700590064


in Bibtex Style

@conference{icsoft11,
author={Balbir S. Barn and Tony Clark},
title={RE-THINKING SOFTWARE ENGINEERING APPROACHES: A CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THEORY BUILDING},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Software and Database Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT,},
year={2011},
pages={59-64},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0003610700590064},
isbn={978-989-8425-76-8},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Software and Database Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT,
TI - RE-THINKING SOFTWARE ENGINEERING APPROACHES: A CRITICAL REFLECTION ON THEORY BUILDING
SN - 978-989-8425-76-8
AU - S. Barn B.
AU - Clark T.
PY - 2011
SP - 59
EP - 64
DO - 10.5220/0003610700590064