As you will see in Section 2, you can identify a number of different activities or tasks that an individual or group of individuals might perform in a software development project.Īn individual can successfully build small software systems because it is possible for that person to understand all that is needed about the problem and its solution. The concept of decomposition can also be applied to the way you develop a software system. We will expose some form of hierarchy in our attempt to simplify a complex system. In terms of our earlier definition of a system, we are looking for patterns and/or components within a system and creating internal boundaries around them to identify smaller subsystems, sometimes referred to as modules. We can decompose a problem into smaller and smaller parts or chunks until each one can be comprehended or dealt with by an individual.

How can we cope with tricky problems or situations where there is just too much information? The main technique for dealing with such messy situations is decomposition. However this covered the idea that it was easier to rule over groups in conflict with each other.

The Romans had a strategy called divide et impera – divide and rule. Unfortunately there is a limit to how much we can take in and understand at any one time. In order to provide such solutions, the software systems themselves have become larger and more complex. As computing technology has improved, we have tried to construct software systems that can deal with larger and more complex problems.

Divide et impera building guide