No Silver Bullet: Software Engineering Reloaded

A celebratory panel took place at the 22nd International Conference on object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications in Montreal. The occasion was the 20th anniversary of Fred Brooks\´ paper "no silver bullet: essence and accidents of software engineering." Fred suggested that useful solutions must address inherent complexity observing that object-oriented techniques have come closest to achieving this goal. David described a "silver bullet" as a technique that requires no training or experience to apply a silver bullet should find its mark without aim. Software engineering as a discipline has expanded significantly, both in terms of system complexity and the community\´s global extent. "no silver bullet" continues to be both an enjoyable must-read and an influential reference. People use languages without the ideas, so the object community still has much to do. It is nice to know that, when all else fails us, we have an innate decision-making tool to fall back on.