Development of Software Engineering: A Research Perspective

In the past 40 years, software engineering has emerged as an importantsub-field of computer science and has made significant contribution tothe software industry. Now it is gradually becoming a new independentdiscipline. This paper presents a survey of software engineeringdevelopment from a research perspective. Firstly, the history ofsoftware engineering is reviewed with focus on the driving forces ofsoftware technology, the software engineering framework and themilestones of software engineering development. Secondly, afterreviewing the past academic efforts, the current research activities aresurveyed and new challenges brought by Internet are analyzed. Softwareengineering researches and activities in China are also reviewed. Thework in Peking University is described as a representative.