Guest editorial

THE TERM "software engineering" has a seductive turn to it and, like any seductress, can be both rewarding and dangerous. Since the NATO conferences in 1968 and 1969 the application of engineering principles to computer program design and development has been consciously investigated and the results codified as software engineering. This process has been without question a constructive step toward bringing order from chaos and such efforts are to be applauded, encouraged, and emulated. As reports of experience with the techniques of software engineering emerge, it is becoming evident that what have heretofore been hypothetical "good ideas" do, in fact, work.