IEEE 610.12-1990 Historical

This glossary defines terms in the field of Software Engineering. Topics covered include addressing; assembling, compiling, linking, loading; computer performance evaluation; configuration management; data types; errors, faults, and failures; evaluation techniques; instruction types; language types; libraries; microprogramming; operating systems; quality attributes; software documentation; software and system testing; software architecture; software development process; software development techniques; and software tools. Every effort has been made to include all terms that meet these criteria. Terms were excluded if they were considered to be parochial to one group or organization; company proprietary or trademarked; multi-word terms whose meaning could be inferred from the definitions of the component words; or terms whose meaning in the computer field could be directly inferred from their standard English meaning. This glossary is an update and expansion of IEEE Std 729-1983, IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology (ANSI) L3I.l It increases the number of terms from approximately 500 to 1300, and updates or refines the definitions of many terms included in the initial glossary. A few terms that were included in the initial glossary have been moved to other glossaries in the 610 series. Some definitions have been recast in a system, rather than software, context. Every effort has been made to preserve the fine work that went into the initial glossary.