According to Niklaus Wirth at computer.org, Software engineering began in the 1960’s. It was during these years that computing became its own field. In the early days, computers were a way for other engineers and scientists to make computations. As time passed, people realized computers were complex enough that it was worth it to dedicate completely to them.
After the initial boom in computing, problems became apparent. In the early days, programming wasn’t well understood. This lead to projects failing or being badly planned. Another problem was in what direction to take computers. Many languages and approaches existed, but people didn’t know what to choose. This period was known as the Software Crisis.
With such big problems, engineers worldwide wanted find a solution. In a way, the approach ended causing more problems. Wikipedia mentions “The search for a single key to success never worked. All known technologies and practices have only made incremental improvements to productivity and quality. Yet, there are no silver bullets for any other profession, either”. Software engineers had to learn that there were many ways to get things done, no one method or language would fix the situation.
This situation improved with time. Another big change to the field was the introduction of the Internet. With it, the range of projects that could be developed grew tremendously. Many new ways to manage projects were created, some using new concepts, some reusing old ideas. These include Extreme Programming and Scrum.
