AS 3611—1993

IEEE Std 610:12—1990

Australian Standard
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Glossary of software engineering

terminology
[IEEE title: IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering
Terminology]
 This Australian Standard was prepared by Committee IT/9, Information
Systems—Vocabulary and Software. It was approved on behalf of the Council of
Standards Australia on 24 May 1993 and published on 16 August 1993.

The following interests are represented on Committee IT/9:

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AOTC
Attorney-Generals Department
AUSTEL
Australian Association of Chief Information Officers
Australian Bankers’ Association
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Australian Chamber of Manufactures
Australian Computer Society
Australian Information Industry Association
Department of Defence
Department of Finance

Review of Australian Standards. To keep abreast of progress in industry, Australian Standards are subject
to periodic review and are kept up to date by the issue of amendments or new edit ions as necessary. It is
important therefore that Standards users ensure that they are in possession of the latest edit ion, and any
amendments thereto.
Full detail s of all Australi an Standards and related publications wil l be found in the Standards Australia
Catalogue of Publi cati ons; this informati on is supplemented each month by the magazine ‘The Australi an
Standard’, which subscribing members receive, and which gives detail s of new publications, new edit ions
and amendments, and of withdrawn Standards.
Suggesti ons for improvements to Australi an Standards, addressed to the head offi ce of Standards Australia,
are welcomed. Noti fi cati on of any inaccuracy or ambiguity found in an Australi an Standard should be made
without delay in order that the matter may be investigated and appropriate action taken.
 AS 3611—1993

Australian Standard
This is a free 7 page sample. Access the full version at http://infostore.saiglobal.com.

Glossary of software engineering

terminology

First publi shed as AS 3611—1993.

PUBLISHED BY STANDARDS AUSTRALIA

(STANDARDS ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA)
1 THE CRESCENT, HOMEBUSH, NSW 2140
ISBN 0 7262 8311 8
 2

PREFACE

This Standard was prepared by the Standards Australia Committee on Information

Systems— Vocabulary and Software. It is identical with and has been reproduced from IEEE Std
610.12, IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology.
Appendix A has been added to the back of this Standard showing corrections made by IEEE to their
original Standard. Marginal bars have been used to indicate where corrections have been made to
the text.
This Standard is published in support of other Australian Standards relating to software engineering.
The terminology used in this Glossary may not always be recognized as normal Australian usage.
However due to the global application of computing, users would be familiar with the alternative
expressions and be able to relate them to the Australian equivalent.
Under arrangements made between Standards Australia and the International Standards bodies, ISO
and IEC, as well as certain other Standards organizations, users of this Standard are advised that
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because of its origin, terms, definitions, examples and notes are given in spelling preferred in the
USA.
Copyright of the content of this Standard remains the property of IEEE. The copyright of this
edition is vested in Standards Australia.
In the bibliography in Clause 4 of this Standard, the following IEEE Standards are published as
Australian Standards.
Reference to International Standard Australian Standard
or other Publication
IEEE/ANSI AS
610.1 IEEE Standard —
Glossary of Mathematics of
Computing Terminology*
610.5 IEEE Standard —
Glossary of Data Management
Terminology*
729 IEEE Standard —
Glossary of Software
Engineering Terminology*
828 IEEE Standard 4042 Software configuration
for Software Configuration management plans
Management Plans
829 IEEE Standard 4006 Software
for Software Test Documentation test documentation
830 IEEE Guide for Software —
Requirements Specifications*
983 IEEE Guide for Software —
Quality Assurance Planning*
990 IEEE Recommended 4007 Ada as a program
Practice for Ada as a design language
Program Design Language

*Not published as an Australi an Standard. However, copies of the IEEE documents are available from Standards Austr alia’s National
Sales Off ice.
 3

1002 IEEE Standard —

Taxonomy for Software
Engineering Standards*
1008 IEEE Standard —
for Software Unit Testing*
1084 IEEE Standard —
Glossary of Mathematics
of Computing Terminology*
1012 IEEE Standard —
for Software Verification and
Validation Plans*
1016 IEEE Recommended 4008 Software design
Practice for Software descriptions
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Design Descriptions

*Not published as an Australi an Standard. However, copies of the IEEE documents are available from Standards Austr alia’s National
Sales Off ice.

 Copyri ght STANDARDS AUSTRALIA

Users of Standards are reminded that copyri ght subsists in all Standards Austr alia publi cati ons and soft ware. Except where the
Copyri ght Act all ows and except where provided for below no publi cati ons or soft ware produced by Standards Australi a may be
reproduced, stored in a retr ieval system in any form or transmitt ed by any means without prior permission in writ ing from
Standards Australi a. Permission may be condit ional on an appropri ate royalty payment. Requests for permission and informati on
on commercial software royalt ies should be directed to the head offi ce of Standards Austr alia.
Standards Austr alia wil l permit up to 10 percent of the technical content pages of a Standard to be copied for use
exclusively in-house by purchasers of the Standard without payment of a royalty or advice to Standards Austr alia.
Standards Austr alia wil l also permit the inclusion of its copyri ght material in computer soft ware programs for no royalty
payment provided such programs are used exclusively in-house by the creators of the programs.
Care should be taken to ensure that materi al used is fr om the curr ent edit ion of the Standard and that it is updated whenever the
Standard is amended or revised. The number and date of the Standard should therefore be clearly identif ied.
The use of materi al in print form or in computer software programs to be used commercially, with or without payment, or in
commercial contracts is subject to the payment of a royalty. This policy may be vari ed by Standards Austr alia at any ti me.
 4

CONTENTS

SECTION PAGE

1. Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2. Glossary Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3. Definitions for Software Engineering Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

4. Bibliography, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

APPENDIX A Corrections to IEEE 610.12 text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

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FIGU RES

Fig 1 Block Diagram . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. .. . . . . . .. .. . .. . ... .. .. .. 11

Fig 2 Box Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . ... . . . . . .. .. . .. . .. ... . . . . 11
Fig 3 Bubble Chart . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . ... . . . . . .. .. . .. . .. ... . . . . 12
Fig 4 Call Graph . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . ... . . .... . . . . . .. .. . .. . .... . . . .. 13
Fig 5 Case Construct . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. .. . . . . . .. .. . .. . ... .. .. .. 13
Fig 6 Data Flow Diagram . . . . . . ... . . ... . . .... . . . . . .. .. . .. . ..... . . .. 22
Fig 7 Data Structure Diagram. . . . .. . . . .. . . . ... . . . . . . .. .. . .. . .. .. . .. .. 22
Fig 8 Directed Graph . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. .. . . . . . .. .. . .. . ... .. .. .. 25
Fig 9 Documentation Tree . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . ... . . . . . .. .. . .. . ..... .. .. 26
Fig 10 Flowchart . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . ... . . .... . . . . . .. .. . .. . ... .. .. .. 31
Fig 11 Graph (1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . ... . . .... . . . . . .. .. . .. . ... .. .. .. 34
Fig 12 Graph (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . ... . . .... . . . . . .. .. . .. . ... .. .. .. 34
Fig 13 If-Then-Else Construct . . . . . .. . . . .. . . .. .. . . . . . .. . . . .. . . .. .. . . .. 36
Fig 14 Input-Process-Output Chart ... . . . .. . . . ... . . . . . .. .. . .. . ..... .. .. 38
Fig 15 Sample Software Life Cycle ... . . . .. . . . ... . . . . . .. .. . .. . ..... .. .. 66
Fig 16 Structure Chart . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. .. . . . . . .. .. . .. . ... .. .. .. 69
Fig 17 UNTIL Construct . . . . . . . .. . . . ... . . .... . . . . . .. .. . .. . ..... .. .. 77
Fig 18 WHILE Construct . . . . . . . .. . . . ... . . .... . . . . . .. .. . .. . ..... .. .. 80
 AUSTRALIAN STANDARD
STANDARDS AUSTRALIA
Australian Standard
Glossary of software engineering terminology
1. Scope
This glossary defines terms in the field of Software
Engineering. Topics covered include addressing;
assembling, compiling, linking, loading; computer
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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) [3]. 1 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.
2. Glossary Structure
Entries in the glossary are arranged alphabetically.
An entry may consist of a single word, such as
“software,” a phrase, such as “test case,” or an
1
Numbers in brackets corr espond to those in the Bibli ography
in Section 4.
COPYRIGHT
5
acronym, such as “CM.” Phrases are given in their
natural order (test plan) rather than in reversed
order (plan, test).
Blanks precede all other characters in alphabetizing.
Hyphens and slashes are treated as blanks.
Alternative spellings are shown in parentheses.
If a term has more than one definition, the
definitions are numbered. In most cases, noun
definitions are given first, followed by verb and
adjective definitions as applicable. Examples, notes,
and illustrations have been added to clarify selected
definitions.
The following cross-references are used to show a
term’s relationship to other terms in the dictionary:
Contrast with refers to a term with an opposite
or substantially different meaning.
Syn refers to a synonymous term.
See also refers to a related term.
See refers to a preferred term or to a term
where the desired definition can be found.
The word “deprecated” indicates a term or
definition whose use is discouraged because such
use is obsolete, misreading, or ambiguous. “DoD”
refers to usage by the U.S. Department of Defence.
3. Definitions for Software Engineering
Terms
1GL. Acronym for first generation language.
See: machine language.
2GL. Acronym for second generation language.
See: assembly language.
3GL. Acronym for third generation language.
See: high order language.
4GL. Acronym for fourth generation language.
5GL. Acronym for fifth generation language.
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AS 3611-1993, Glossary of software engineering

terminology
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