'When I first came up with the term, no one had heard of it before' — Quote of the day by NASA's former software director Margaret Hamilton on the birth of software engineering

In the early days of computing, the industry was vastly different from what it is today. Margaret Hamilton, a software pioneer, coined the term "software engineering" while working on the flight software team for NASA's Apollo space program in the 1960s. This groundbreaking concept involved treating the process of writing code as a legitimate engineering discipline, much like hardware engineering.

During a meeting with a respected hardware expert, Hamilton explained that just like hardware, the process of building software should also be considered an engineering discipline. Her colleagues recognized her contributions, and Hamilton's team earned the respect they deserved for their engineering prowess in the field.

Before Hamilton's groundbreaking work, the approach to computing was disorganized. People placed more value on physical hardware than on the unseen code. Programming was not seen as a real science until Hamilton's arrival at NASA, where she developed essential on-board flight software, including an error-detection-and-recovery system.

Hamilton's innovative approach played a crucial role in addressing the software crisis that plagued the industry from the 1960s to the 1980s. Many projects faced budget overruns and schedule delays, and the published software often contained critical bugs with costly consequences. This was a direct result of the lack of professionalization in the field.