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|a It is not necessary to start with a definition of software Engineerring : the present book, a consolidated effort of a group of experts, care - fully prepared in a two - week seminar in Garmisch, Dec. 71/Jan. 72, and presented at a EEC sponsored course in Febr. - March 72, illustrates the use of the term. In 1967 and 1968, the word "software Engineering" has been used in a provocative way, in order to demostrate that something was wrong in the existing desing, production and servicing of software. The situa-tion has considerably changed since then ; many peoble show concern about the problems of software engineering and some of the manufactures, to wich the provocation was mainly addressed, clain that they already obey the principles of software engineering, whatver this may mean. Soon "software engineering" will turn up in the advertisements. But although the problems are indeed much better understood, the material is still not concentrated and systematized. The reports of the Nato Science Committee sposored conferences of Garmisch and Rome are useful collection of material, but not much more. In order to have teaching material available, more has to be done. This book brings a first step in this direction. Our intention in the planning of this course was to cover as much as we can at the moment of all the aspects of the theme,and to contibute further to the systematización of the field. We do not actually debate is essential to point out where there is a need for software engineering should influence computer Sciense and should penetrate in its curricula. Thus we will try to find out as much as possible whether a topic of software enginneering is something you can mention as a kind of theme to your students in an academic environment. In this respect, muy major concern was that today one still finds it extremely difficult, as many people told to me, to digest the material at hand so that it could be used in a course. Therefore, we envisaged publication of the lecture notes despite their somewhat tentative nature. In selecting the participants we took some effort to assure that what- ever they may learn here is spread out, in particular is propagated in the universities and the major manucfactures. It is not quite accidental that efforts on "software Engineering" have been carried on to a large extent outside the United States. The continet which is in sharp contrast to the affluent us computer community. leads to ware demand for the most economical solutión. But the roots of the software misery go deeper. It comes from the fact that people are forced to live with machines that they do not wat. They simply receive them and have to make the best out of it. Sometimes, with the chance of buying a new machine, there is some hope that the situation will improve, but for simple market consideration, the manucfacturer does everything he can do to make the customer stay with the product, and this usually ends all hopes for improvements. Thus, software engineering. for the time being, is partly a defense stratagem.But I hope that some day this situation will turn around, I hope one day software engineering considerations will dictate how machines are to be built and then to be use. Thus, what we hace to work for is also preparing the gropup for our future life. On the other hand, failure in mastering the software crisis may lead to stragulation of scientific users that depend on the computer today, in particular in "Big Sciense", and may thus do harm also to sciense and economy in a rich natión. In the preparation of the Adavanced course, I enjoyed the advice and help of colleagues and friends. I owe thanks to the co-director, Prof.L.Bolliet, and to the lecturers for their encouraging support. In particular, I am obliged to the German representative in the subgroup for education in informatics of group PREST of the EEC, Dr .R. Gnatz, for his help; in this connection the moral support from Mr. Desfosses (EEC) and the financial support from the Ministry of Education and sciense of the Federal Republic of Germany should be gratefully acknowledged. The conference Staff will forgive me for not mentioning all of them, my thanks to them go by the name of Mr. Hans Kuss of the them, my thanks to the them go by the name of Mr. Hans kuss of the Mathematics Institute of the Technical University Munich, who also was the responsible redactor of this publication. Munich, June 1972 Friedrich L.Bauer
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