Gaining intellectual control of software development

Recent disruptions caused by several events have shown how thoroughly the w orld has come to depend on software. The rapid proliferation of the Melissa virus hinted at a dark side of the ubiquitous connectivity that supports t he information-rich Internet and lets e-commerce thrive. Indeed, as softwar e plays an ever-greater role in managing the daily functions of modern life , its economic importance becomes proportidnately greater. Yet despite its critical importance, software remains surprisingly fragile. Prone to unpred ictable performance, :dangerously open to malicious attack, and vulnerable to failure at implementation despite the most rigorous development processe s, in many cases software has been assigned tasks beyond its maturity and r eliability. The authors discuss how the results from two workshops on softw are engineering research strategies, comissioned by the National Science Fo undations last year oint to new directions in software engineering Research involve harnessing future IT to empower people ana groups, ana to weave a new information fabric that is much more reliable, supple, and adaptable th an different technology.