Question

Discuss FOUR "silver bullets" that have been proposed by the software engineering industry.

Based by the article No Silver Bullet - Essence and Accident in Software Engineering

Answer 1

Complexity. Software entities are more complex for their size than perhaps any other human construct because no two parts are alike (at least above the statement level).

Conformity. Software people are not alone in facing complexity. Physics deals with terribly complex objects even at the "fundamental" particle level. The physicist labors on, however, in a firm faith that there are unifying principles to be found, whether in quarks or in unified field theories.

Changeability. The software entity is constantly subject to pressures for change.

Invisibility. Software is invisible and unvisualizable. Contradictions and omissions become obvious. Scale drawings of mechanical parts and stick-figure models of molecules, although abstractions, serve the same purpose. A geometric reality is captured in a geometric abstraction.