On software engineering and software methodologies a software developer's perspective

In this survey paper, the terms software engineering and software methodologies are studied through tracing the recent IEEE's International Conference in Software Engineering from 2006 on and IEEE Software magazine articles including its 25^th anniversary recommendation of 35 top-pick articles listed in Jan/Feb 2009 issue. The question stipulated throughout the paper is the following: is software engineering a true engineering discipline? Mary Shaw brought up this question in her top-pick article in Software's December 1990 issue where she wrote, “Software engineering is not yet a true engineering discipline, but it has the potential to become one. Older engineering fields suggest the character software engineering might have.” By surveying progresses made in software engineering over the last four decades, the paper considers the questions: who are the constituents in the software engineering profession? And what software methodologies do software engineers apply in our professional work? By presenting the current state of software and its development, the paper concludes with a future of software engineering where we—the software development professionals— may go from here.