Changlenges

To meet this challenge, software engineers have adapted many techniques from older engineering fields, as well as developing new ones. For example, divide and conquer, a well-known technique for handling complex problems, is used in many ways in software engineering. The software engineering process itself, for example, is usually divided into phases. The definition of these phases, their ordering, and the interactions between the phases specify a software life-cycle model. The best-known life-cycle model is the waterfall model consisting of a requirements definition phase, a design phase, a coding phase, a testing phase, and a maintenance phase. The output of each phase serves as the input to the next. See also Systems engineering.