An initial comparison of software and engineering designs of automotive cruise control systems

We contribute to the debate about the relation between software design and standard engineering design. We do this by examining the approaches taken by both disciplines to the design of a small embedded system. The example chosen is that of an automotive cruise control system whose design is described in both computing and automotive literature. We do not attempt to argue that software development should be more like other engineering disciplines nor do we support the argument that software development is too complex or different in nature to be compared to traditional engineering.