This book is not only a product of the authors’ efforts, but its contents and style have been influenced by the contributions of hundreds, maybe thousands, of others.
The list of references at the end the book is a good starting point. The authors of these works have provided us with the knowledge and support we needed to learn about, teach, and write about software engineering.
The students in the courses the authors have taught in computer science, computer engineering, and software engineering deserve special thanks. They have provided us with a testbed for almost all the ideas and approaches presented in this book. The authors have used the case method approach, along with the DigitalHome scenarios, exercises, and artifacts, in a variety of classes: introductory software engineering, software construction, object-oriented design, software architecture, software requirements, and software quality. Student performance and feedback has been invaluable in determining how best to explain and use the case method approach.
Initial work on the DigitalHome case study was funded as part of the NSF project: “The Network Community for Software Engineering Education” (SWENET) (NSF 0080502). Later work on the case study project was funded through NSF’s (DUE-0941768) “Curriculum-wide Software Development Case Study”. Also, under DUE-0941768, the authors delivered two faculty workshops on case study teaching, in which we used DH scenarios, exercises, and artifacts. The faculty attendees provided both real-time feedback during discussion sessions and a formal evaluation of the material at the end of the workshop. This gave us invaluable information about how to modify and assemble our material to best assist others teaching software development courses.
Finally, we offer our special thanks and appreciation to our esteemed colleague, Dr. Salamah Salamah, who influenced much of the style and content of this book. He conducted multiple reviews and provided valuable feedback throughout the development of the manuscript. We also extend our thanks to two of our former graduate students, Bapu Hirave and Langpap Bernd, who were so helpful in the development of the DigitalHome artifacts.