Software Development as an Engineering Problem.
Michael John Jackson · 1982
Abstract: It is hoped that software development can become a branch of engineering, but there are important differences. Software is intangible, complex, and capable of being transformed by a computer. Much effort has been devoted to overcoming the difficulties due to intangibility and complexity, but too little has been devoted to exploiting the third characteristic. A processoriented view of software may lead to substantial improvements in this and other respects.