Software Engineering Fundamentals and WebApp Characteristics

Flashcards covering core software definitions, software domain categories, software engineering myths, WebApp characteristics, DevOps principles, and real-world WebApp case studies.

Software

Instructions (computer programs) that provide desired features, data structures that enable programs to manipulate information, and descriptive information in hard copy and soft forms.

Software Failure Rate Curve

A graph illustrating that software does not wear out like hardware; failure rate spikes are caused by side effects from changes rather than physical degradation.

System Software

A collection of programs written to service other programs, characterized by heavy interaction with computer hardware, concurrent operation, and complex data structures.

Real-time Software

Software that monitors, analyzes, and controls real-world events as they occur, maintaining real-time responses typically ranging from $1\,\text{ms}$ to $1\,\text{s}$.

Business Software

Software applications (such as payroll, inventory, and MIS) that access large databases to restructure existing data and facilitate operations or decision-making.

Engineering and Scientific Software

Software historically characterized by "number crunching" algorithms, expanding into computer-aided design, system simulation, and interactive real-time applications.

Embedded Software

Software residing in read-only memory used to control products and systems for consumer and industrial markets.

Personal Computer Software

Applications designed for personal computers, including word processing, spreadsheets, computer graphics, multimedia, database management, and network access.

Web-based Software

Browser-retrieved software incorporating executable instructions (e.g., CGI, HTML, Perl, Java) and data to turn the network into a computing resource.

Artificial Intelligence Software

Software that uses nonnumerical algorithms to solve complex problems not amenable to straightforward analysis, such as expert systems, pattern recognition, and neural networks.

Mongolian Horde Concept Myth

The management myth that adding more programmers to a late software project will help it catch up, when in reality it makes the project later.

Formal Technical Review

A software quality assurance mechanism applied from project inception that acts as a quality filter more effective than testing for finding certain defect classes.

Content-Driven WebApp

A WebApp whose primary focus and core interaction revolves around dynamic content such as text, images, videos, or user posts (e.g., YouTube, Facebook).

Network-Centric WebApp

A WebApp designed to operate over networks (LAN, WAN, Internet) and dependent on internet connectivity and client-server architecture to function.

Fast Delivery Cycles

A WebApp characteristic enabled by Agile and DevOps practices that allows new features, bug fixes, and security updates to be released rapidly and frequently.

DevOps

A set of practices, tools, and a cultural philosophy aimed at improving collaboration between development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) teams to deliver software faster and more reliably.

Continuous Integration (CI)

A DevOps principle where developers frequently merge code changes into a shared repository and automatically test them.

Continuous Delivery (CD)

A DevOps principle where software updates are automatically prepared and deployed to production quickly and safely.

Scalability

The capability of a WebApp to handle growing numbers of users and increasing data loads without crashing by expanding server, database, or storage capacity.

Microservices Architecture

An architectural style, as demonstrated by Netflix, where each application feature is handled by separate, independent services.