This article, which is part of an excellent issue covering the major areas of computing, reports on the status of each area. This particular article gives a good overview of the topic of software engineering, and the major issues and specialties in the field.

Although the paper never defines software engineering concisely, the entire article does serve as a way of defining the subject. Such approaches as prototyping, reuseable code, and specification languages are only a few of those topics effectively introduced and summarized. The diagrams and charts have been carefully selected and integrated into the textual material. The bibliography, though brief (26 citations), has been carefully chosen.

In all, this is a fine survey article. It is well worth including in a bibliography and should be assigned reading for anyone in undergraduate and beginning graduate courses on software engineering. In addition, it will serve well as a synopsis of the subject for practicing professionals who wish to update their knowledge on the status of current research in the field.