Summary of the Dagstuhl workshop on future directions in software engineering: February 17–21, 1992, Schloß Dagstuhl

ABSTRACT

The intent of the workshop was to bring together leading scientists for identifying promising directions for future research in Software Engineering. The motivation for the workshop was the realization that Software Engineering research was not in good shape, with the present emphasis on management and risk control diverting attention from hard, technical subjects.After week-long, intensive discussions of a great number of issues, the following topics were seen as most crucial for progress:1. Developing the area of software architecture as a foundation of Software Engineering;2. Learning to master evolving systems;3. Building a scientific basis for Software Engineering;4. Emphasizing science and engineering know-how when educating practitioners.Formal methods, domain specific knowledge, special purpose languages, and reuse were seen as important approaches, but not as solutions or ends in themselves. There was also a fair amount of introspection on proper method, evaluation, and experimentation in Software Engineering research.This report contains participants' position statements and a record of the discussions. The editors hope that it may help make research in Software Engineering an exciting and thriving endeavor once again.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  A. General Literature
  A.0 GENERAL
      Subjects: Conference proceedings

Additional Classification:
  D. Software

General Terms:
Design