Resumen
Despite a half-century of practice, a distressingly large portion of today's software is over budget, behind schedule, bloated and buggy. All four factors generate risks and bugs can be life-critical. One's reach continues to exceed one's grasp. While hardware has grown following Moore's Law, software seems to be stuck with Gresham's Law. Most providers studiously avoid taking any responsibility for the software they produce. These observations are not new and they were eloquently presented at the 1968, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) conference for which the term "software engineering" was coined. For those who care about software, it is surprising why it is in bad shape and the author prescribes the study of both the current literature and the classics. According to him, it is not enough to learn from one's own experience; one should learn from the experiences of others. The author recommends three books that can be read and gives the important features of each. He says that articles in these books were written to stand alone and each has a new introduction, discussing its historical and modern relevance.