Guest Editorial Software Management: We Must Find a Way

SOFTWARE management is a term which inspires many different reactions from the broad range of practitioners in the field of data processing. The term has many dimensions ranging from the first and second line manager of a software development activity who plies his trade with little to fall back on other than his prior experience, and native skills and intuition. Contrast this with a senior executive who, because of lack of understanding of software management, is frustrated in trying to determine if his company can produce a software program on schedule and within budget. The data processing landscape is littered with examples of major software developments which faltered and then expired. That this situation should exist, after almost a quarter-century of experience with implementing these systems, is one of the enigmas of the rapidly expanding data processing industry.