Astronomical Software Strategies

This chapter presents an overview of astronomical software development. It looks at the sort of software that is needed for astronomy, at how it is produced, and at how things have changed over the years. Rapid technological change has led software developers to attempt to design and build increasingly ambitious systems. As the complexity of systems increases, and as their production starts to involve international collaboration, so the way projects are managed has to change, and software developers have had to abandon some of their old habits and learn new styles of working.