Vision

The creation, deployment, evolution, and meaning of software and its role in modern society is changing and expanding as a result of new technologies, new applications, and new social factors. The Internet, the World-Wide-Web, multimedia interfaces, and neighborhood software stores have added new dimensions to traditional issues and topics in software engineering. The International Conference on Software Engineering is changing with the discipline to encompass the new emphases and the broadened sweep of topics and concerns which confront today's software professionals and researchers.

The theme of the 1997 International Conference on Software Engineering is "Pulling Together." Pulling together denotes coordinated action of many individuals in achieving a common goal. It also describes the coming together of many different perspectives, concerns, and abilities to find a common ground and a way of achieving cooperation. Pulling together is fundamentally dynamic in nature, and is often a matter of explicit negotiation and communication. Major changes have been instituted in ICSE 97 to help the software engineering community pull together, in the full sense of that phrase.

ICSE 97 includes a widened range of conference activities, a widened range of participants, and new technical areas. A broadened outlook challenges old beliefs, promotes new ideas and new synergies, and provides for a dynamic, exciting program. New or expanded conference activities include a doctoral symposium, lessons and reports from software engineering organizations, a mentor program, posters, and a commercial exhibit.

A major addition to the conference is a suite of sessions and activities focusing on the interests and needs of the practicing professional. Numerous invited presentations, timely panel topics, experience reports, and an expanded tutorial program are included.

As the discipline expands, papers and presentations on topics such as software engineering and the WWW, end-user involvement in software development and customization, usability testing, design for an international marketplace, and intelligent applications are encouraged.

We hope that you will pull together with us, bringing new ideas, new concerns, and new goals, thus helping us to find common ground and reach new objectives.