What are some good Software Engineering books for people who didn't formally study Computer Science or Software Engineering?

Question

I'm a graduate in the electronic & telecommunication field, but working in a software company. I want to continue in this field and going for Masters in it. Can you recommend me some of the best books on software engineering, which cover almost all the topics in software engineering.

I am not looking for books about coding practices such as Code Complete, Pragmatic Programmer, but rather general software engineering references.

Answer 1

Two books that best meet your needs are probably:

• Ian Sommerville's Software Enginering
• Roger Pressman's Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach

I own and have read the 8th edition of Sommerville's book. I honestly think that it might be the best for you. The university that I graduated from recently switched to the Pressman book, but I'm not as much of a fan of it as Sommerville's, as some parts are questionable (such as citing answers.com for a definition).

It's a little older, but the book that I used when I took my undergraduate intro to software engineering course was Object-Oriented Software Engineering: Practical Software Development using UML and Java. It was published in 2002, which is before the latest Sommerville and Pressman book, but it's typically relevant to general software engineering topics (regardless of the name - it only uses UML and Java for examples, the concepts can be applied to any language or technology stack).

Another resources that you might want to look into is the IEEE's Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge. It's not so much of a book that you read, as a guide to finding other books that discuss topics that you want to know about. It covers the breadth of knowledge that the IEEE feels is important for a software engineer, and cites major publications in each area. The HTML version is free on the website, and you can purchase a physical book or PDF version as well.

If I was asked to come up with a short-list of books that would be my only resources for software engineering topics from across the lifecycle, it would look very much like:

• Karl Weigers's Software Requirements (2nd Edition)
• The Gang of Four's Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
• Bass, Clements, and Kazman's Software Architecture in Practice (2nd Edition)
• Steve McConnell's Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction
• Jorgensen's Software Testing: A Craftsman's Approach, Third Edition
• Steve McConnell's Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules
• Kan's Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering

The only book on that list that I haven't read is Jorgensen's testing book, but it is on my to-buy list after being highly recommended. The other books are actually recommended reading in the SWEBOK as well as course testbooks in the SE program at the Rochester Institute of Technology (at least, at the time I took the course).

Answer 2

I would the following books:

• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering This one is my personal favourite
• Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach w/ E-Source on CD-ROM by Roger R Pressman This was my favourite when I was doing my graduate course in CS
• Software Engineering by Ian Sommerville