SOFTWARE ENGINEERING EDITORIAL

This special issue is dedicated to the memory of Herbert A, Simon, in recognition of his research, his mentoring of a generation of junior researchers, his leadership of the Society for Design and Process Sciences and Software Engineering Society. It is now 35 years that the “software crisis ” was declared and the term „Software Engineering “ was coined by a Nato study group. The claim of this group was that the design, implementation, and evolution of software can be organized as an engineering-like activity (Naur, Randell, 1969). Since then the field never lost its attraction to researchers and funding agencies but rather grew to an extremely broad discipline including many aspects from computer science, mathematics, management, economics, and even psychology. It has nearly taken that time to establish software engineering as an accredited engineering discipline, a licensed profession, and an academic degree, which can be earned now at more than 70 universities in Australia, Europe, and North America. The body of knowledge in this field, which has accumulated over the past, is currently documented by the international SWEBOK1 project group initiated by the IEEE. In the early days, research and development in this area focused on pragmatic techniques and software engineering environments aimed at a coherent set of tools that supported all technical and manageria