Rationale-based software engineering / Janet E. Burge.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [269]-293) and index.

Introduction -- What is rationale and why does it matter -- What makes software different -- Rationale and software engineering -- Learning from rationale research in other fields -- Decision-making in software engineering -- Uses for rationale -- Presentation of rationale -- Evaluation -- Support for collaboration -- Change analysis Part -- Rationale and software engineering -- Rationale and the software life-cycle -- Rationale and requirements engineering -- Rationale and software design -- Rationale and software verifcation, validation, and test -- Rationale and software maintenance -- Rationale and software reuse -- Frameworks for rationale-based software engineering -- A conceptual framework -- An architectural framework -- Rationale-based software engineering.

The authors describe in detail the capture and use of design rationale in software engineering to improve the quality of software. Their book is the first comprehensive and unified treatment of rationale usage in software engineering. It provides a consistent conceptual framework and a unified terminology for comparing, contrasting and combining the myriad approaches to rationale in software engineering. It is both an excellent introductory text and a uniquely valuable reference.

Many decisions are required throughout the software development process. These decisions, and to some extent the decision-making process itself, can best be documented as the rationale for the system, which will reveal not only what was done during development but the reasons behind the choices made and alternatives considered and rejected. This information becomes increasingly critical as software development becomes more distributed and encompasses the corporate knowledge both used and refined during the development process. The capture of rationale helps to ensure that decisions are well thought out and justified and the use of rationale can help avoid the mistakes of the past during both the development of the current system and when software products (architecture and design, as well as code) are reused in future systems. Burge, Carroll, McCall, and Mistrik describe in detail the capture and use of design rationale in software engineering to improve the quality of software. Their book is the first comprehensive and unified treatment of rationale usage in software engineering. It provides a consistent conceptual framework and a unified terminology for comparing, contrasting and combining the myriad approaches to rationale in software engineering. It is both an excellent introductory text for those new to the field and a uniquely valuable reference for experienced rationale researchers. The book covers the use of rationale for decision making throughout the software lifecycle, starting from the first decisions in a project and continuing through requirements definition, design, implementation, testing, maintenance, redesign and reuse.

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