Customer Reviews

Software Engineering (6th Edition)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sommerville gives a keen view of the entire breath of this broad topic. His text is filled with easy to understand illustrations and chapter summaries. The examples are end-to-end because he provides the needed preliminaries (concepts and foundations) to understand the results. His treatment of requirements engineering and formal specification methods is quite good. In addition to the key points (of each chapter) he provides pointers to other resources on each subtopic. I find this text better for use in the classroom than the other leading text (which I use as a reference) because Sommerville's presentation provides a more logical flow and organization (i.e., its easier to read). I used the slides that are available (.ppt) from his web site to supplement my lectures.

I checked several books on Software Engineering but this one was the only one readable by an ordinary human being. I was in for a nice surprise because it has a support page on the web (see "preface") and you can download an updated chapter with recent stuff and examples in Java. At least someone cares to keep up with new things such as UML. I'd give this book 4.5 stars, but someone else says they gave it 4 instead of 4.5, so I'll give it 5.

Sommerville has updated his classic textbook. We are using it for part of a Master in Software Engineering program. While you won't get detail on any one topic, you will find a very current (java, UML, distributed arch) review of many SE topics. Supposedly a big improvement over the last version. Clear, good examples, and reccomended readings that get you to key articles in the literature. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that I reserve that for pure classics. It is hard to get a textbook into that category.

I used this book in a 400 level college course on software engineering, and found it to be exceedingly shallow in its coverage of the topic. The work is a worthy attempt at providing a broad overview of the discipline. However, in my estimate it covers too much material in too little space and presents too few practical examples of the type that might be applicable to a "real-world" software project. Further the text only gives lip service to the wide array of tools now available. In all honesty I don't see how any one could give this book more than three starts (apologies to the other reviewers), especially considering that the book is now in its sixth edition.

I was at the used book store recently and had the good fortune of acquiring Stephen R. Schach's excellent book: "Software Engineering with Java." If you are a college professor looking for a course text, I would highly recommend taking a look at this book.

This book is an encyclopedic volume of knowledge about Software Engineering, and proceeds from the beginning of the process to the end, with tangents being in the last few chapters. It has the feel of a textbook, with exercises and Key Points at the end of each chapter.

That said, it isn't very entertaining and if it hadn't been my course book, I would have chosen a different Software Engineering text. This book is a great supplemental reference to get more detailed information. I keep it on my shelf at work as a handy reference.

I read this book as a text book for an Introduction to Software Engineering course. The book starts with the planning and requirements stages of software development and progresses through develop, test, and implementation. Terms, processes, and procedures are described. A thorough introduction for a new engineer, or an overview of current trends and buzzwords for seasoned professionals.

If you are a software project manager and would like additional insight into the software development life cycle (SDLC), then this is the book for you. It gives a conceptual overview on each phase of the SDLC as well as in depth knowledge that will help you determine how best to proceed with your project.

I only gave it three stars because it is formatted more like a text book, which gives it an eerie feeling, but that is of course relative.

While reading the contents list of the book, you already start feeling a software engineer. The author explains every important step of software engineering as promised in the contents list. All kind of specification posibilities, design systems, reliability and verification approaches are topics that opened my eyes. On the other hand, the part of object-oriented only told about OO as a modeling approach and hardly surpassed the level of buzzword. Perhaps some more attention in a next version? Still, the book is perfect for the novice at the topic of software engineering.(2000-06-29)

excellent diagrams. concise and clear summaries. brief chapters. broad coverage. the perfect software engineering 101 textbook

I used this book for an introductory course on software engineering. Although the book gives an expansive view of the field, there isn't enough detail or in-depth examples to make it anything more than an academic treatise. I don't feel that I could use much of what I've learned in an actual project - I would have to resort to more specific references.

Now, the premise of having an entire book on software engineering may be more to blame than the clarity or presentation of the material. But software engineering is a practical field, and a software engineering text that doesn't provide practical information isn't useful. For this reason, I cannot give the book a passing grade.