The term “software engineering” was coined in 1968 as a statement of aspiration. That year, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization convened a workshop by that name to assess the state and prospects of software production. Capturing the imagination of software developers, the NATO phrase “software engineering” achieved popularity during the 1970s. It now refers to a collection of management processes, software tooling, and design activities for software development. The resulting practice, however, differs significantly from the practice of older forms of engineering. Definitions development and a desceplain, spacifications, and common practice are discussed.