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What other Stack Exchange sites are there that may be able to answer my questions about software engineering or software development?

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The following sites may be of interest to members of the Software Engineering community.

Before posting, be sure to read their Help Centers to fully understand what these communities expect from high quality questions and any specific rules they may have. As always, if you aren't sure if your question is a good fit, post on a Meta site and you can be directed to an appropriate site on the Stack Exchange network, if one exists.

If a site doesn't exist yet, check out Area 51, where users can collaborate to define and launch new Stack Exchange sites. If there's a proposal for your idea, you can follow it and contribute to it's definition. If not, you can create a new proposal.

More detailed information about each site follows:

Code Review

Code Review Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for seeking peer review of your code. We're working together to improve the skills of programmers worldwide by taking working code and making it better.

If you are looking for feedback on a specific working piece of code from your project in the following areas…

  • Best practices and design pattern usage
  • Security issues
  • Performance
  • Correctness in unanticipated cases

then you are in the right place!

Computational Science

Computational Science Stack Exchange is for questions and answers about computational methods used in technical disciplines.

First-time posters are strongly advised to read Eric Raymond's How to Ask Questions the Smart Way for advice on how to ask good questions (not for technical answers). Although written for an audience asking questions about open source software, the same advice applies when asking questions about any subject area.

This site is run by volunteers; the best way to get an answer to your question is to ask it in a way that makes it easy for someone with a broad computational science background to answer it with 15 minutes of effort or less.

Topics that are usually a good fit for this site:

  • Questions about software packages or languages used broadly in computational science (e.g., PETSc, MATLAB, Trilinos, LAPACK, SLEPc, R, NumPy, SciPy, Julia, Maple, Octave) except Mathematica (which has its own site now). In general, high-level questions (e.g., about language/package features) are best. Questions that are essentially about debugging a code sample, or about low-level language syntax are a poor fit for this site, and are usually closed; such questions should be asked on language-/package-specific forums. Package developers interested in using this site as a resource should look at this meta question. Package developers answering questions should look at this meta question for guidelines on disclosing project affiliations.
  • Questions about algorithms or methods used to solve problems in applied mathematics (e.g., finding roots of a polynomial, finding the eigenvalues/eigenvectors of a matrix, solving an elliptic/parabolic/hyperbolic PDE)
  • Questions that ask about appropriate methods for a given application area (e.g., what numerical methods would I use when modeling shock waves, what numerical methods would I use when modeling combustion, what graph algorithms would I use if I wanted to understand social networks)

Computer Science

Computer Science Stack Exchange is for students, researchers and practitioners of computer science.

Computer science, also sometimes called computing science, is the science of computation and its applications. This site covers theoretical and applied computer science at any level, including but not limited to:

  • algorithms, models of computation
  • programming language semantics, formal methods
  • computer architecture, networks
  • machine learning, artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, natural language processing
  • vision, graphics

CrossValidated

CrossValidated is for statisticians, data miners, and anyone else doing data analysis or interested in it as a discipline. If you have a question about

  • statistical analysis, applied or theoretical
  • designing experiments
  • collecting data
  • data mining
  • machine learning
  • visualizing data
  • probability theory
  • mathematical statistics
  • statistical and data-driven computing

Cryptography

Crypto Stack Exchange is for software developers, mathematicians and others interested in cryptography.

Cryptography Stack Exchange is for asking questions about the mathematics and properties of cryptographic systems, their analysis ("cryptanalysis") and subsidiary topics that generally make up cryptology, such as random number generation. As such, we welcome questions on topics such as:

  • Asymmetric and symmetric cryptographic algorithms
  • Cryptographic protocols
  • Cryptanalysis techniques
  • Hash functions, hashing
  • Entropy and information theory
  • Cryptographically Secure (Pseudo-)Random Number Generation

Database Administrators

dba.se is for those needing expert answers to advanced database-related questions concerning traditional SQL RDBMS and NoSQL alternatives.

If you have a question about...

  • Database Administration including configuration and backup / restore
  • Advanced Querying including window-functions, dynamic-sql, and query-performance
  • Data Modelling and database-design, including referential-integrity
  • Advanced Programming in built-in server-side languages including stored-procedures and triggers.
  • Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence including etl, reporting, and olap

…then you're in the right place to ask your question!

Data Science

Please look around to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to ask and answer your own question.

Examples of questions that are likely to be on-topic for Data Science Stack Exchange:

  • Given process monitoring data arriving every 10ms, what statistical tool should I use to best characterize a change in the process - mean? a distribution?
  • When is it suitable to apply L1 regularization for feature selection?
  • I would like to produce a infographic on the 'Brexit' referendum. Given public opinion data across the UK, what are some meaningful techniques to visaualize it in a dashboard?
  • When executing an ARIMA model in Spark, what are the pros and cons of using Python instead of R?
  • Given Facebook Likes, is there an ML technique to predict age and gender?

Electrical Engineering

This site is for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts. We ask and answer questions about electrical and electronics engineering topics, which include electronics, physical computing, and those working with microcontrollers, Arduinos and embedded systems. We feel the best Electronics Design questions have a schematic, links to pertinent datasheets or some source code in them, but if your question generally covers …

  • a specific electronics design problem
  • the theory and simulation of electromagnetic forces
  • a communication scheme
  • the writing of firmware for bare-metal or RTOS applications

Engineering

Please look around to see if your question has been asked before. It’s also OK to ask and answer your own question.

Questions on Engineering Stack Exchange are usually well-received when they:

  • Identify a specific engineering problem
  • Require expert engineering knowledge to solve
  • Include any relevant drawings, images or references that may be necessary to understand the problem
  • Excite or challenge experienced professionals in the field

Game Development

Game Development Stack Exchange is for professional and amateur video/computer game developers. If you have a question relating to ...

  • game design (level design, gameplay, mechanics, etc)
  • asset pipelines (creation, storage, editing, etc)
  • game-specific programming issues (engine architecture, game-related APIs, networking, tools, etc)
  • project management (testing, team management, scheduling, publishing, etc)
  • game industry (careers, trends, technology, etc)

Hardware Recommendations

Hardware Recommendations is a community-run website to help you find a specific product for your needs. That means you can ask for a recommendation for hardware to perform a specific task. However, you should be aware that "hardware" is not an all-encompassing term — for details of what hardware is accepted on this site, please see What is Hardware?. In essence, we can help you if you're looking for a recommendation for hardware that is "an electronic item that is, interfaces with, or connects to a computer to operate".

Information Security

IT Security Stack Exchange is for Information Security professionals to discuss protecting assets from threats and vulnerabilities. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • web app hardening
  • network security
  • social engineering, including phishing
  • risk management
  • policies
  • penetration testing
  • security tools
  • using cryptography
  • incident response
  • physically securing the office, datacentre, information assets etc.

Law

Law Stack Exchange is for legal professionals, students, and others with experience or interest in law.

The best questions are those that have specific answers; Law Stack Exchange is not a general discussion forum. In general, ask here if you have a question which covers:

  • Statutes or court decisions
  • Legal terms and language, doctrines and theory
  • Legal process and procedure
  • Historical legal applications
  • Dealing with legal professionals

Mathematics

Mathematics Stack Exchange is for people studying mathematics at any level and professionals in related fields. We welcome questions about:

  • Understanding mathematical concepts and theorems.
  • Mathematical problems such as one might come across in a course or textbook. (First read our how to ask a good question page.)
  • Solving mathematical puzzles.
  • Software that mathematicians use (except Mathematica, which has its own Stack Exchange site).

Network Engineering

Network Engineering Stack Exchange is for asking questions about professionally managed networks in a business environment.

If your question is about

  • operating, maintaining, purchasing or managing an enterprise / service provider network;
  • planning or designing an enterprise / service provider network;
  • model or product line features and differences;
  • lab scenarios involving on-topic equipment;
  • tools used by network professionals;
  • servers operating as a router/switch/firewall;
  • design or theory of protocols used to operate a network (e.g. IP, TCP, routing protocols, STP, etc);
  • content delivery networks;
  • production troubleshooting or problem resolution;
  • physical infrastructure (e.g. standard color coding of cables, types of fiber, etc);
  • implementing and enforcing network security or policies;

and meets the following requirements

  • under your direct control (if the network is not under your control you will not likely be able to provide the information required to answer your question);
  • hardware that has a paid support option (enterprise/provider class products, some small business class devices);

then this is likely the correct place to ask unless it meets any of the off-topic conditions detailed below.

Open Source

Open Source Stack Exchange is a question & answer site about a group of related movements which encourage people to give up some of the rights given to them by copyright law, by using licenses which give others the freedom to use and transform their creative works, and which optionally (by using copyleft/share-alike licenses) ensure that these works will always be made available with the same rights. This site is not limited to software, but also covers art, literature, hardware, databases and more.

These movements have been spearheaded by a group of organisations: FSF, OSI, Creative Commons, Free Culture. These organisations prefer a variety of different terms (free, open source, libre) and sometimes define them with slight differences. But on this site these terms should in general be considered to be synonymous, except for questions which ask directly about their differences.

You've come to the right place if you have questions about:

  • the history and philosophies of the FSF, OSI, CC etc
  • understanding, applying, and complying with Free & Open licenses
  • how communities collaborate together to produce, distribute, market and sometime monetize these projects
  • what license to use for a specific situation - but please read How do I ask for a license recommendation? first

Project Management

The site is for project management practitioners, academics and amateur theorists. This is a site about the field of project management for people who love the subject. Our site includes the following topics:

This site is about...

  • Project Management Practices and Theory
  • Agile
  • Scrum
  • PRINCE2
  • Tool Usage in Project Management
  • Project Manager Career Advancement

Reverse Engineering

Reverse Engineering Stack Exchange is for researchers and developers who explore the principles of a system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation.

If you have a question about ...

  • software analysis (static or dynamic)
  • disassembly or decompilation
  • hardware analysis and testing
  • tools commonly used for reverse engineering hardware or software
  • deterring reverse engineering efforts

Server Fault

Server Fault is for questions about managing information technology systems in a business environment.

If your question is about:

  • managing the hardware or software of servers, workstations, storage or networks
  • tools used for administering, monitoring, or automating these
  • deployment to and management of third-party provided information technology platforms

Signal Processing

Signal Processing Stack Exchange is for practitioners of the art and science of signal, image and video processing.

Software Quality Assurance and Testing

Software Quality Assurance & Testing Stack Exchange is for software quality control experts, automation engineers, and software testers.

Software Recommendations

This site is for questions asking for recommendations of software ready-to-use to accomplish a particular task, that is, “what software can I use to do …?”. While this includes software libraries for development use, note that recommendations of tutorials, data sources, media libraries (e.g. icon collections) etc. are off-topic – as are questions like “what technology to use for …?”

Good software recommendation requests have two components:

  • A purpose — a task to accomplish, a user story
  • Some objective requirements — a minimum set of features

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow is for professional and enthusiast programmers, people who write code because they love it. We feel the best Stack Overflow questions have a bit of source code in them, but if your question generally covers…

a specific programming problem, or a software algorithm, or software tools commonly used by programmers; and is a practical, answerable problem that is unique to software development

… then you’re in the right place to ask your question!

Super User

Super User is for computer enthusiasts and power users. If you have a question about …

  • computer hardware,
  • computer software, or
  • personal and home computer networking

and it is not about …

  • programming and software development,
  • video games or consoles,
  • websites or web services like Facebook, Twitter, and WordPress,
  • electronic devices, media players, cell phones or smart phones, except insofar as they interface with your computer,
  • issues specific to corporate IT support and networks,
  • asking for a product, service or learning material recommendation,

Unix & Linux

Unix and Linux Stack Exchange is for users of Linux, FreeBSD and other Un*x-like operating systems.

If your question is about:

  • Using or administering a *nix desktop or server
  • The Unix foundation underlying OS X (but generally not frontend application questions)
  • The underlying *nix OS on an embedded system or handheld device (e.g. an Android phone)
  • Shell scripting
  • Applications packaged in *nix distributions (note: being cross-platform does not disqualify)
  • UNIX C API and System Interfaces ( within reason )

then you're in the right place. Note that Ubuntu posts are a special case. If your question applies to Ubuntu only, or you're looking for answers that are Ubuntu-specific, you should post it on the Ask Ubuntu Stack Exchange site. If your question applies to other distros or you welcome more generic solutions, you're in the right place here.

If your question is a programming question, requiring knowledge of programming languages other than unix shell scripting languages, ask on Stack Overflow.

Please note that requests for learning materials (tutorials, how-tos etc.) are off topic. The only exception is questions about where to find official documentation (e.g. POSIX specifications).

User Experience

User Experience Stack Exchange is for User Experience Designers, Information Architects, and Human Computer Interaction researchers. If you have a question about...

  • Specific UX design problems
  • UX issues that can be solved with expert advice or existing research
  • Questions about HCI and user research

… then you’re in the right place to ask your question!

The Workplace

The Workplace Stack Exchange is a Q&A site about the workplace and other career-related topics. With your help we're working to build a library to every question about the workplace related to:

  • Finding employment (resumes/cv/cover letters, recruiters, hiring-managers, interviews, negotiations, etc.)
  • Maintaining employment (promotions, pay increases, harassment, bullying, poor working conditions, communication problems, etc.)
  • Leadership in the workplace (motivating people, encouraging people, making decisions, holding hard conversations, intervening in unproductive situations, asking for and giving help, etc.)
  • Terminating employment (notice period, breaking the news, handing over work, reference letters, relieving letters, etc.)

Writers

Writers Stack Exchange is for authors, editors, reviewers, bloggers, copywriters, professional and aspiring writers.

...

Questions on these topics are welcome here:

  • Non-fiction, technical, or scholarly writing
  • Writing fiction, poetry, song lyrics
  • General copywriting, style, and organization
  • Professional-level blogging
  • The publishing and editing process itself
  • Questions about specialized writing tools

On the other hand, these kinds of questions aren't allowed here:

  • Questions seeking to interpret or analyze an existing work, although there are exceptions if is being applied to a real-world writing project.
  • Proofreading requests.
  • Requests to critique your work. However, please do feel free to use your own writing as examples in on-topic questions.
  • The strictly interpreted correctness of English grammar or syntax rules (please ask those on English Stack Exchange, instead).
  • Finding a professional to write for you, be your agent, etc.
  • A specific, localized shopping recommendation as described here.
  • Asking how to write a particular kind of email, letter, memo, or other correspondence -- or, more generally. asking "what should I write about" (more about this here).
  • Requests to rephrase something - a few sentences, or even a single sentence.
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