System Boundary

Boundaries define the limits of the problem or system to be developed

Anything outside the system is part of the environment
The system interacts with the environment via an interface
Determining boundaries is determining what is and what is not part of the
system
Items not in the system need to be considered if they have an influence on
the system
For items in environment to influence system, there must be an interface
with the system
When defining a problem it is important to define the boundaries so the
customer has realistic expectations of the limits of the new system

Copyright Laws

Copy right laws are in place to protect the legal intellectual property rights
of authors
Purpose is to provide economic incentives for creative activity and
promote progress in creative endeavour
It protects expression of ideas rather than ideas themselves

License Agreements

Intended to enforce the intellectual property rights of software developers

They also protect developers form legal action should their products result
in hardship or financial loss to purchasers

Case Tools

Computer Aided Software Engineering tools

Assist and coordinate the activities involved in the process of software
development
System modelling
Data dictionary creation
Production of documentation
Automatic test data generation
Software versioning
Production of source code

Quality Assurance

IMRETARU
Integrity
Maintainability
Reliability
Efficiency
Testability
Accuracy
Re-usebility

Useability

Software trends
Employment trends

Contract programmers
Outsourcing

Changing Nature of Applications

World wide web

Environment in which developers work. E.g. collaborating with people
around the world
Learning objects e.g. alot of resources in one place
Widgets
Applets
Apps
Mobile phone technologies
Cloud computing
Web 2.0 e.g. using sharing photos
Collaborative environments e.g. facebook, skype