A Concept of Software and Software Engineering

Engineering medicine business architecture and painting are concerned not with the necessary but with the contingent — not with how things are but with how they might be — in short with design. (Simon 1996) Software development slowly evolves from some form of elaborated craftsmanship to become a real software engineering profession. This evolution is not new (Shaw 1990; Ford & Gibbs 1996) but oh! so very slow. Although the term ‘software engineer’ has been pre-empted long ago and adorns the business card of many software developers the evolution of this industry to a real level of engineering is not easy. Today (in 2001) software development is 40% hacking (code deliver let the user test) 20% craftsmanship (lots of oral tradition and ‘death march’ projects) and at best 20% engineering.