The subject of this book is the control of software engineering. The
rapidly increasing demand for software is accompanied by a growth in the
number of products on the market, as well as their size and complexity.
Our ability to control software engineering is hardly keeping pace with
this growth. As a result, software projects are often late, software
products sometimes lack the required quality and the productivity
improvements achieved by software engineering are insufficient to keep
up with the demand This book describes ways to improve software
engineering control. It argues that this should be expanded to include
control of the development, maintenance and reuse of software, thus
making it possible to apply many of the ideas and concepts that
originate in production control and quality control. The book is based
on research and experience accumulated over a number of years. During
this period I had two employers: Eindhoven University of Technology and
Philips Electronics. Research is not a one-man activity and I would like
to thank the following persons for their contributions to the successful
completion of this project. First and foremost my Ph. D. advisers Theo
Bemelmans, Hans van Vliet and Fred Heemstra whose insights and
experience proved invaluable at every stage. Many thanks are also due to
Rob Kusters and Fred Heemstra for their patience in listening to my
sometimes wild ideas and for being such excellent colleagues.