The IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering is an archival journal published monthly. We are interested in well-defined theoretical results and empirical studies that have potential impact on the construction, analysis, or management of software. The scope of this Transactions ranges from the mechanisms through the development of principles to the application of those principles to specific environments. Since the journal is archival, it is assumed that the ideas presented are important, have been well analyzed, and/or empirically validated and are of value to the software engineering research or practitioner community. Specific topic areas include: a) development and maintenance methods and models, e.g., techniques and principles for the specification, design, and implementation of software systems, including notations and process models; b) assessment methods, e.g., software tests and validation, reliability models, test and diagnosis procedures, software redundancy and design for error control, and the measurements and evaluation of various aspects of the process and product; c) software project management, e.g., productivity factors, cost models, schedule and organizational issues, standards; d) tools and environments, e.g., specific tools, integrated tool environments including the associated architectures, databases, and parallel and distributed processing issues; e) system issues, e.g., hardware-software trade-off; and f) state-of-the-art surveys that provide a synthesis and comprehensive review of the historical development of one particular area ofinterest.