Review 2

Please read the No Silver Bullet article available at IEEE's Digital Library.

Then answer the following questions.

  1. Define the term essential difficulties as it is used by Brooks.
  2. Define the term accidental difficulties as it is used by Brooks.
  3. List and briefly describe the four essential difficulties of developing software systems that Brooks identifies.
  4. Define what Brooks means by a "silver bullet" and reconstruct his argument as to why he believes there is no silver bullet for software engineering.

Please submit your work by uploading either a .txt document or a .pdf document containing your answers to these questions. Do NOT submit .doc, .docx, .odt, or other document formats. (Note to Microsoft Word users: If you don't want to create a .pdf document, Word should provide a "Save as Text" command to create a .txt version of your document.)

In-class students: Submit your work for this assignment by 11:55 PM on Saturday, January 26th.

CAETE students: Submit your work for this assignment by 11:55 PM on Saturday, February 2nd.

© Kenneth M. Anderson, 2008.