The cost of software development is now the dominating cost in computer systems. As hardware costs decline, improved efficiency of software production becomes the key target if further reductions in computing costs are to be achieved. Accordingly the Alvey Committee identified software engineering as one of the four underlying technologies for the UK national programme of cooperative research in information technology.

Coming as it does at the start of the Alvey programme, I welcome this book by Martyn Ould and Nick Birrell, for it presents a picture of software engineering techniques that are already in existence and can therefore be exploited now. If the techniques set out in the book are widely applied we can look forward to a very significant improvement in the efficiency of software production.