Critical thinking analysis – Term Paper

Article analysis sample

In the article, we get to make an analysis Chapter 8 of Making Software which talks about of “Beyond Lines of Code” by Israel Herraiz and Ahmed E. Hassan. In the analysis, we will check on the metrics and drawbacks. This chapter has been written with a lot of skills in order bring out what the main topic covers. This is because it begins by giving people an assurance the complexity is experienced in almost all areas in the software life cycle. This already is like a clue of what is going to be talked about as it acts as a thesis statement for this chapter. It highlights that software are complex and this is the reason why people are never able to change them easily once it has been coded and is running.

This chapter still has the best metrics when it comes to choice of words to explain some concepts that deal with software it does this by using examples which are easily practical from the illustrations that are given. For instance, in the subtopic on Surveying Software, we see that it uses an example which based on research in order to give an illustration of the way a software is developed. It states that it is done like a survey where one begins from an unknown situation and finally comes up with an answered. When developing a software, it is not known whether it will work or not. The end results shows it all. (Herraiz and Hassan, 126)

Article review example

Documents that use case studies to illustrate ideas are always good when it comes to making people understand whatever is being presented. This is exactly what is seen in this chapter as there is the use of a case study to show the development of a software. This is where ArchLinux software distribution is used to illustrate an example of a software which comes as a package and what one needs in order to get the best out of it. For instance it says, “We have selected for our case study the ArchLinux software distribution which contains thousands of packages, all open source…There are two ways to install a package in ArchLinux: using the official precompiled packages, or installing from source code using the Arch Build System (ABS)” (Herraiz and Hassan, 127)

Even though the chapter is perfect in its presentation of ideas that concern doing things beyond the normal way of coding, it still has some drawbacks. The drawbacks come from some of the types of codes which have been touched on. The problem here is that it has been presented in such a way that only one is good is in coding and has had an experience can be in a position to understand. It does not give guidelines on where to start at but goes direct to talking about the coding types. Some of the codes talked about line of code and source line of code.

Article analysis example

The chapter utilizes some generalized terms and ideas which are scientific and computer based meaning that one who is not well conversant with software engineering terms cannot gain maximum information out of it. For instance, it uses words like algorithms and operands (Herraiz and Hassan, 136). This is especially to those who are still new in this field.

The other draw back from the chapter comes in giving examples of how a given a theory works or operates. For instance when explaining Effect on the Halstead’s Software Science metrics (Herraiz and Hassan, 127) we see that there are various graphs that have been used but their explanation does not give one a clear guideline of what is being talked about. In addition to this, figures and symbols which used have not been shown in the key.

An analysis of the chapter can still be done using ;Introduction to Software Engineering; written by Leondes. Using this book we get to see that they share some similarity in the way they present their ideas. For instance in Leondes; book, we see that the first chapter is also introduced using words which are in present tense and go straight to the point maintaining the scope. For example, it says, ;In the beginning semesters you were coding as an individual. ;The problems you were solving were small enough so one person could master them; (Leondes, 3). This a good way to introduce an argument or present a point it gets one ready for the book. The only difference now comes where all data and words used in this book is have been given illustations with diagrams and guiding points.

Work Cited

Andy Oram and Greg Wilson. ;Making Software: What really Works, and Why We Believe It; O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. 2011

Leondes. “Introduction to Software Engineering.” CRS Press. ISBN 2002