Book excerpt: The best way to learn software engineering is by understanding its core and peripheral areas. Foundations of Software Engineering provides in-depth coverage of the areas of software engineering that are essential for becoming proficient in the field. The book devotes a complete chapter to each of the core areas. Several peripheral areas are also explained by assigning a separate chapter to each of them. Rather than using UML or other formal notations, the content in this book is explained in easy-to-understand language. Basic programming knowledge using an object-oriented language is helpful to understand the material in this book. The knowledge gained from this book can be readily used in other relevant courses or in real-world software development environments. This textbook educates students in software engineering principles. It covers almost all facets of software engineering, including requirement engineering, system specifications, system modeling, system architecture, system implementation, and system testing. Emphasizing practical issues, such as feasibility studies, this book explains how to add and develop software requirements to evolve software systems. This book was written after receiving feedback from several professors and software engineers. What resulted is a textbook on software engineering that not only covers the theory of software engineering but also presents real-world insights to aid students in proper implementation. Students learn key concepts through carefully explained and illustrated theories, as well as concrete examples and a complete case study using Java. Source code is also available on the book’s website. The examples and case studies increase in complexity as the book progresses to help students build a practical understanding of the required theories and applications.