Homework 1 No Silver Bullet

Due: Tuesday, September 1, 12:30 PM

Introduction

No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering, by Fred Brooks, is a classic paper about software engineering. It first appeared in Information Processing 1986 in 1986 and was later published in IEEE Computer in April 1987. Brooks's phrase "no silver bullet" has become a standard part of the vocabulary of software engineering. Every person working in software development should know what it means and what Brooks argues about the creation of software.

You can find the paper here.

Tasks

1. State in two sentences or less the main point of the paper.


2. In three to four sentences, summarize Brooks's argument as applied either to a programming language or to a programming style.


3. Evaluate Brooks's argument based on your own experience as a software developer, either on academic programming assignments or on the job in industry.

All three answers should fit on two printed pages.

Deliverables

By the due date and time, submit your answers in hard copy, in a respectable form.