Stanford's Computer Industry Project (SCIP) is a long-term, interdisciplinary study of the production and consumption of information technology. We take a global, systemic perspective on softwareÑthe total production of all the programmers in four categories: product publishing houses, software services firms, corporate IS departments, and engineering groups embedding software in all kinds of products from cars to cellular phones. After two years of interviewing software industry experts in the US and Japan, we have identified the key issues that will shape the industry's future. No issue was more pressing or of more universal concern than the management of the software development process. Creating software is still more of a craft than true engineering or manufacturing. Methods for meeting changing requirements,

achieving timely delivery, estimating the effort involved, and assuring quality are still in their infancy, and, despite careful attention by serious minds, have not improved much in 25 years! In 1995, the SCIP Software Industry Study undertook a pilot survey of software development practices in one narrow corner of the software worldÑthe software publishers. This talk will summarize our findings from the interviews and review the results of our pilot survey.
Shirley Tessler is a co-director of the SCIP Software Industry Study, She is a Wharton MBA and Stanford MSCS with 15 years' experience in banking and corporate finance. Her expertise is in software startup financing and management. Her current research interest is in the area of electronic communities.