Software engineering management is an essential technique for software industry. A mature software enterprise should pay close attention to SE management, put quality to first priority as the lifeblood for its business development. Today a gratifying evidence appears in China, that most of software companies and professionals has started to attach importance to SE management practices. The trend on CMM-based SPI is just a clear proof. The purpose of this column is to conform to the trend and take the advantage of our expertise in SE for contributing and promoting SE technology transfer.
      The first part chosen in this column happens to be the Software Process Management & Improvement, focused on the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) and Software Process Improvement based on that model. It introduces some Supporting Tools and explains how to carry out Quantitative Management, collect process data and do process measurement for reaching a higher maturity level.

      The Project Management is another focal point in SE management, also a key area for implementing CMM level 2. The column touches upon a series of important PM issues, such as: project planning, software estimation, risk management, schedule management, issue tracking, review & inspection, configuration management, change control, team management & human factor, document management, PM tools as well as related PM resources sites.
      The Requirement Engineering Section describes Requirement Elicitation & Analysis, Requirement Specifications & Non-Functional Requirements, Requirement Confirmation, Requirement Traceability, Requirement Management & Change Control, Requirement Presentation & Tools, and Modern Structured Analysis Technique etc.
      The Software Design section discusses main design methods, software architecture and related resource links to design techniques.
      As for the software quality part, it is introduced first some popular Software Quality Models, then the main section on Software Quality Management & Assurance, covering such issues as: software quality engineering, QA techniques, various software testing techniques, software review & inspection, .independent verification & validation, coding standards, software quality attributes, software metrics & measurement, defect prevention, cleanroom software engineering, and further resources on software quality.
      Object-Oriented Analysis & Design (OOAD) is a widely recognized and applied technique by most software enterprises. In this section, some major OO methodologies are introduced. Special attentions are put on UML and Design by Contract.
      Component-Based Development/Software Engineering (CBD/CBSE) is an important technical direction to be pursued by Chinese software enterprises for improving the software reusability and adopting a totally new development paradigm. The contents introduced are: repository-based development, application assembly, common framework and plug-in components, patterns & frameworks, components specifications & related standards, research & development of component library, COTS and component marketplace etc.
      For those techniques to be recommended, the column has explicitly listed two sections: one for Best SE Practices which should be followed effectively by many software companies; and another for Usability Engineering, a frequently neglected part by many software enterprises here.
      Therefore, it is vital to awake the developers' consciousness of usability and let them to put usability consideration in the whole life cycle of software development. Only doing that can make an user-truly satisfied system.
      Another major contribution in this column is our comprehensive and systematic collection of main Software Engineering Standards, and Document Templates & Checklists in Common Use. Developers can easily follow these standards and samples through reuse, even to create their own company standards if necessary.
      Many links to other international SE sites has also been given in this column to make resources much more abundant.