First, we give a short account of the preclassical (Babbage, Ludgate) and classical (Zuze, von Neumann, Wilkes) initial steps in establishing programming concepts. The net result of the 1945–1955 decade was a thorough underestimate of the role software would play in the next decade. This decade saw the explosion of the sales of computing machinery and correspondingly a rapidly growing demand for personnel “to be delivered with the computer.” Nevertheless, the necessity for sound training was felt and before 1960, at many places steps were undertaken. In the third decade, starting about in 1965, we have the “software crisis.“ Since programmed systems, unlike hardware systems, do not demand costly raw materials, systems were built bigger and bigger, and, alas, not better. Unreliability, both with respect to deadlines and functional flaws, was one of the prominent net results. Software engineering is a term used to comprise a bundle of techniques and principles which help to overcome the software crisis. To ...