Software Engineering

Daniel Farrell

Software Engineer, Red Hat SDN Team

OpenDaylight Integration/Packaging PTL

(delivery pipelines, DevOps tools)

OpenDaylight Integration/Test Committer 

OPNFV CPerf PTL

(performance testing)

OpenDaylight Technical Steering Committee

(tech leadership)

Journey to job

What is Software Engineering

Example Software Engineers

Kool-Aid: My favorite parts of the job, conclusions

"I like biology and medicine..." *click*

Linux!

"I'm avoiding BioMed work to hack on Linux all night..."

BioMed -> Computer Science!

NCSU IEEE Robotics

^^best training in Uni

Internships in early SDN

Open Source + SDN -> Red Hat CTO Office

Create software

Create: Design, develop, test, doc, maintain

Software: Everywhere! All types, all layers.

Engineering -> Certified Engineer

^^We ignore this

Build on hardware via EE/ECE

Robot team: EE/ECE, ME, CS

"Software Engineering vs Computer Science?"

"Science vs Engineering"

Science: Study physical world

Engineering: Build on science to create 

Computer Science: Turing Machine

(what can be computed)

Engineering: CPUs

(do computation)

Computer Science: Graph Theory

(shortest/weighted paths)

Software Engineering: Google Maps

(running software implementation)

Pure CS is possible

Most people use CS degree as foundation

"Developer" ~= "Engineer"

"Software Engineer" == "Software Developer"

Convention: "Web Developer" over "Web Engineer"

Web-based content

Front-end user interface

(HTML, CSS, JavaScript)

Back-end infrastructure

(databases, Ruby, Python, Linux servers)

User-facing apps on mobile devices

Android/iOS Software Development Kits

C++, Java

Simulated phones

Emphasis on aesthetic design, usability

Software that's close to hardware

Low-level code for devices

(SSDs, RAM, network interface)

Embedded systems

(robots, IoT, automotive)

Assembly, C, Linux, Python

Create games

Development via engines of shared libs

(Unity, Unreal, LibGDX, OpenGL)

Underpinned by CS: Computer Graphics

^^quickly underpinned by math

Validate software

Functionality: does it work?

Performance: how fast is it?

Usability: is it easy to use?

Security: does it have known vulnerabilities?

Layers of automated tests per-change

Make the Internet work

Software logic of how data flows

Distributed Routing -> Software Defined Networking

(BGP, RIP, OSPF -> OpenDaylight, OVN)

Specialized Hardware -> Common Software

(hardware switches/firewalls -> vSwitches, VNFs)

Manage infrastructure

DevOps*: Automate everything, infra-as-code, modern delivery

(Ansible, Puppet, Packer, Docker, Vagrant)

DevOps* - Proper definition would take 45mins

Code change ->

tests pass ->

release artifacts built ->

more tests pass ->

release published ->

systems updated

Important work, few workers

Programming language creation, compilers

Operating System Kernel

Security

(audit, design)

Open Source

Open Source: Development method

Open Source: Communities

Creative activity

Lasting, positive impact

(efficient software -> less energy -> less climate change)

Flexibility: Work from home, flexible hours

$$$

Travel

Software is eating the world

Engaging, creative, well-rewarded job

Skills to build: critical thinking, communication

(math: over-emphasized in stereotype)

Self-driven learning very possible

(Degree de-emphasized)

Room to job-shape into something fun for you