Software engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of Software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software.
The term software engineering first appeared in the 1968 NATO Software Engineering Conference and was meant to provoke thought regarding the current “ Software Crisis “at the time Since then, it has continued as a profession and field of study dedicated to creating software that is of higher quality, more affordable, maintainable, and quicker to build. Since the field is still relatively young compared to its sister fields of engineering, there is still much debate around what software engineering actually is, and if it conforms to the classical definition of engineering. It has grown organically out of the limitations of viewing software as just programming. "software development " is a much used term in industry which is more generic and does not necessarily subsume the engineering paradigm. Although it is questionable what impact it has had on actual software development over the last more than 40 years, the field's future looks bright according to Money Magazine and Salary.com who rated "software engineering" as the best job in America in 2006.
