computer science

SIGSOFT

SIGSOFT is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand SIGSOFT rather than just read about it. In short: The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)'s Special Interest Group on Software Engineering (SIGSOFT) provides a forum for computing professionals from industry, government, and academia to examine principles, practices, and new research results in software engineering. SIGSOFT was officially formed in 1976 as the Special Interest Committee on Software Engineering (SICSOFT) by Tony Wasserman and R.

Key takeaways

SIGSOFT belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect SIGSOFT to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of SIGSOFT from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)'s Special Interest Group on Software Engineering (SIGSOFT) provides a forum for computing professionals from industry, government, and academia to examine principles, practices, and new research results in software engineering. SIGSOFT was officially formed in 1976 as the Special Interest Committee on Software Engineering (SICSOFT) by Tony Wasserman and R. Stockton Gaines, and converted to SIGSOFT in 1977. SIGSOFT focuses on issues related to all aspects of software development and maintenance, with emphasis on requirements, specification and design, software architecture, validation, verification, debugging, software safety, mining software repositories, software processes, software management, measurement, user interfaces, configuration management, software engineering environments, AI for software engineering, and CASE tools. SIGSOFT (co-)sponsors conferences and symposia including the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE), the ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE) and other events. SIGSOFT publishes the informal bimonthly newsletter Software Engineering Notes (SEN) newsletter with papers, reports and other material related to the cost-effective, timely development and maintenance of high-quality software.

SIGSOFT History The term "Software Engineering" was used as the theme of the first NATO Software Engineering Conference in 1968, recognizing the need for systematic approaches to software development. SIGSOFT was officially established in 1976, evolving from advocacy efforts beginning in 1973. The organization has been instrumental in establishing the academic discipline of software engineering and fostering the growth of the software engineering research community worldwide.

Founding and early years (1975–1979) 1973: Tony Wasserman wrote to Peter J. Denning (then ACM President) advocating the formation of a dedicated ACM special interest group (initially framed around programming / programming methodology). 1975: Tony Wasserman and Stockton Gaines drafted a petition supporting an ACM Special Interest Committee on Software Engineering; an organizational meeting was held at the International Conference on Reliable Software in April in Los Angeles (≈80 attendees). This conference is often referred to as ICSE-0. Jean Sammet (ACM President) supported the formation of SICSOFT. 1976: SICSOFT was officially approved (often cited as SIGSOFT’s birth). Initial officers included Thomas B. Steel, Jr. (initial chair), Tony Wasserman (chair), Susan L. Gerhart (vice chair), Peter A. Freeman (secretary/treasurer), and Peter G. Neumann (newsletter editor). Major publications launched included SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes (newsletter editor: Peter G. Neumann). 1977: Successful conversion from SICSOFT to SIGSOFT (effective July 1, 1977), approved by the ACM SIG/SIC Board. 1979: ICSE 1979 is noted as the first ICSE co-sponsored by SIGSOFT, chaired by Friedrich (Fritz) L. Bauer with program chairs Manny M. Lehman and Leon G. Stucki.

Building a conference ecosystem (1980s–1990s) 1980: SIGSOFT established formal guidelines for organizing both SIGSOFT symposia and ICSE conferences. 1981: The first SIGSOFT Software Engineering Symposium (Tool and Methodology Evaluation) was held (general chair William Riddle, program chair Victor Basili). 1986–1988: A testing-focused meeting lineage developed (including early workshops such as the 1978 testing workshop chaired by Ed Miller), and SIGSOFT expanded its conference footprint; TOSEM was approved by ACM in 1988. 1992: ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM) published its first issue (first Editor-in-Chief: W. Richards Adrion). 1993: The first SIGSOFT FSE symposium was held (general chair Barry Boehm, program chair David Notkin), cementing FSE as a flagship SIGSOFT venue. It has been established as a continuation of the series of ACM SIGSOFT Symposia on Software Development Environments (SDE), which were held from 1984-1992 and were co-sponsored with SIGPLAN initially. 1995: SIGSOFT established the Conference Attendance Program for Students (CAPS) to support student travel and participation. 1999: Alexander L. Wolf (ACM SIGSOFT Chair), Mehdi Jazayeri (ESEC Steering Committee Chair), Patricia Ryan (ACM Chief Operating Officer), and Roger Johnson (President of Council of European Professional Informatics Societies) signed a Joint Sponsorship Agreement that established the ESEC-FSE series.

Modernization and growth (2000s–2020s) 2001: The SIGSOFT Impact Project started during the 2001–2005 executive committee led by Alexander L. Wolf (chair) and Mary Jean Harrold (vice chair).

2008: The original SIGSOFT logo first appeared in 2008. It was replaced in January 2019 with the current logo.

2009: Revised SIGSOFT bylaws were approved (including longer leadership terms and increased at-large representation). Leadership at the time included David S. Rosenblum (chair) and Matthew B. Dwyer (vice chair), with Will Tracz as newsletter editor and Tao Xie as history liaison. 2015: Matt Dwyer (EiC of IEEE TSE) and David S. Rosenblum (EiC of ACM TOSEM) launched the journal-first initiative for software engineering at ICSE 2015 in May in Florence. 2010s–2020s: SIGSOFT continued stewarding and co-sponsoring major venues such as ICSE, FSE/ESEC-FSE, and ISSTA, reflecting the field’s global growth (e.g., ICSE leadership included chairs such as Martin Glinz for ICSE 2012 in Zürich and David Notkin for ICSE 2013).

SIGSOFT Executive Committee

Officers Chair: Marsha Chechik — University of Toronto (Canada) Vice Chair: Massimiliano Di Penta — University of Sannio (Italy) Most Recent Past Chair: Thomas Zimmermann — Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine (USA)

At-Large Members Claire Le Goues (SIGSOFT Awards) — Carnegie Mellon University (USA) David Lo (Student Mentorships and Support; Secretary–Treasurer) — Singapore Management University (Singapore) Emerson Murphy-Hill (Director of Communication) Kelly Blincoe (Memberships and Community) — University of Auckland (New Zealand)

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

The original SIGSOFT logo first appeared in 2008.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with SIGSOFT

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what SIGSOFT claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to SIGSOFT before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about SIGSOFT ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of SIGSOFT

In research: SIGSOFT appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses SIGSOFT in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: SIGSOFT is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Groups, Organizations established in 1976, Software engineering organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for SIGSOFT outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study SIGSOFT in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what SIGSOFT means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain SIGSOFT out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is SIGSOFT in simple terms?

Why does SIGSOFT matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study SIGSOFT?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on SIGSOFT.