A software system is a

system A system is a group of interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its open system (systems theory), environment, is described by its boundaries, str ...

of intercommunicating components based on

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

forming part of a computer system (a combination of hardware and software). It "consists of a number of separate programs, configuration files, which are used to set up these programs, system documentation, which describes the structure of the system, and user documentation, which explains how to use the system". A software system differs from a computer program or software. While a computer program is generally a set of instructions ( source, or object code) that perform a specific task, a software system is more or an encompassing concept with many more components such as specification, test results, end-user documentation, maintenance records, etc.' The use of the term software system is at times related to the application of systems theory approaches in the context of

software engineering Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...

. A software system consists of several separate computer programs and associated

configuration file A configuration file, a.k.a. config file, is a computer file, file that stores computer data, data used to configure a software system such as an application software, application, a server (computing), server or an operating system. Some applic ...

documentation Documentation is any communicable material that is used to describe, explain or instruct regarding some attributes of an object, system or procedure, such as its parts, assembly, installation, maintenance, and use. As a form of knowledge managem ...

, etc., that operate together. The concept is used in the study of large and complex software, because it focuses on the major ''components'' of software and their ''interactions''. It is also related to the field of

software architecture Software architecture is the set of structures needed to reason about a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements a ...

. Software systems are an active area of research for groups interested in

in particular and

systems engineering Systems engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering and engineering management that focuses on how to design, integrate, and manage complex systems over their Enterprise life cycle, life cycles. At its core, systems engineering uti ...

in general. Academic journals like the '' Journal of Systems and Software'' (published by

Elsevier Elsevier ( ) is a Dutch academic publishing company specializing in scientific, technical, and medical content. Its products include journals such as ''The Lancet'', ''Cell (journal), Cell'', the ScienceDirect collection of electronic journals, ...

) are dedicated to the subject. The ACM '' Software System Award'' is an annual award that honors people or an organization ''"for developing a system that has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions to concepts, in commercial acceptance, or both"''. It has been awarded by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) since 1983, with a cash prize sponsored by

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

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{{Authority control Systems engineering Software engineering terminology

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References