Chapter 1. Introduction

Fifty software engineers from 11 different countries, “all concerned professionally with software,” attended a NATO Science Committee conference in Garmish, Germany in October 1968. While most discussions were focused on the technical aspects of design, production, implementation, distribution, and service of software, there were also reports on “the difficulties of meeting schedules and specifications on large software projects.” This may have been the first public recognition of the importance of software project management—needless to say, those difficulties of “schedules and specifications” continue to trouble us today. Shortly afterward, 22 international leaders in software development from academia, industry, and ...

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