Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
How are
software
packages
developed?
PEOPLE USE COMPUTERS because they help solve problems.
What do you use a computer for? To access email? To type out your
history paper? To keep track of the transactions in your checking ac
count? In each of these cases, the computer solves a problem for you:
It figures out how to connect to the Internet, determines how to com
municate with your keyboard and display what you type, records de
posits and checks written, and maintains your running account bal
ance. These computer solutions do not develop spontaneously from
primordial elements. (At least, no one has witnessed such solutions
springing into existence from nothing and lived to report the event.)
Rather, they emerge from a coordinated effort between hardware
and software. Computer solutions result from the building of appro
priate equipment (hardware), the development of logical techniques
(called algorithms) that specify how the problem can be solved, and
the translation of these techniques into software. The process of
problem solving and developing software requires considerable time
and effort, and is the focus of this chapter
development?
Software sometimes begins with a fuzzy idea or vision related to
the solution to a problem. We may recognize a problem and have a
general sense that a computer might help in the solution. For example,
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