In the fall of 1968, NATO hosted in Garmisch- Partenkirchen, close to Munich, a conference devoted to the problems of the computer industry that was having a great deal of trouble in producing large and complex programs. The term Software Engineering (SE) was not in general use at that time, its adoption for the title of this conference was deliberately provocative. As a result, the conference and its report have played a major role in gaining general acceptance of the term SE.