Process, Methods, and Tools

Any engineering approach (including software engineering) must rest on an organizational commitment to quality.

The foundation for software engineering is the process layer. Software engineering process is the glue that holds the technology layers.

Process defines a framework for a set of key process areas (technical methods are applied, work products (models, documents, data, reports, forms, etc.) are produced, milestones are established, quality is ensured) that must be established for effective delivery of software engineering technology.

Software engineering methods provide the technical how-to's for building software.

Methods encompass a broad array of tasks that include requirements analysis, design, program construction, testing, and support.

Software engineering tools provide automated or semi-automated support for the process and the methods. When tools are integrated so that information created by one tool can be used by another, a system for the support of software development, called computer-aided software engineering, CASE.