Papers
Seminal and accessible academic papers in software engineering. Preference is given to papers available through free/open-access sources.
Foundational
| Title | Author(s) | Year | Why Read It |
|---|---|---|---|
| No Silver Bullet — Essence and Accident in Software Engineering | Frederick P. Brooks Jr. | 1986 | Argues that there is no single breakthrough that will improve software productivity by an order of magnitude. Still relevant decades later. |
| The Cathedral and the Bazaar | Eric S. Raymond | 1997 | Influential essay on open-source development models. Essential reading for understanding collaborative software development. |
| On the Criteria To Be Used in Decomposing Systems into Modules | David L. Parnas | 1972 | The foundational paper on modularity and information hiding — concepts that underpin all modern software design. |
Agile & Process
| Title | Author(s) | Year | Why Read It |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manifesto for Agile Software Development | Beck, Beedle, et al. | 2001 | The original Agile Manifesto. Short, essential reading to understand the philosophy behind Agile practices used in SE projects. |
| Scrum: Development and the Art of the Possible | Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland | 2020 | The official Scrum Guide — the framework used in the SE course projects. |
Software Quality & Testing
| Title | Author(s) | Year | Why Read It |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Survey on Software Testing Techniques | Various | 2023 | Comprehensive survey covering modern testing techniques — useful reference for the testing milestone in SE projects. |
Contributing
Know a great SE paper? See our Contributing Guide.