A Review of Software Engineering Research in China

Introduction Since the 1980s, the history of software engineering research in China has been a long journey of Chinese researchers pursuing a combination of basic and applied research, driven by industrial needs and national priorities. The history of software engineering research in China can be approximately divided into four major phases: In the first phase (around the 1980s and early 1990s), driven by national priorities in opening a new research and development direction for software, the focus was on training the first generation of software engineering talents and developing computer-aided software engineering (CASE) environments to support structured software development. In the second phase (around the mid and late 1990s), driven by national priorities on broadening application of information technology and further developing software industry, Chinese researchers continued developing CASE environments, but with the goal of promoting object-oriented technologies, and developing software component and software product line technologies for software reuse. In the third phase (around the 2000s), driven by national priorities on frontier research and fundamental research, the focus was on developing software component technologies, researching Internetware (a blue-sky software paradigm for Internet computing), and trustworthy software technologies. In the fourth phase (starting around 2010 until now), driven by national priorities on enhancing the fundamental research and fully promoting innovation-driven informationalization, the focus is on researching open source software, software quality assurance, Internetware, and instilling intelligence in software engineering tools and processes. In all four phases, pursuing practical impact and aiming to satisfy industrial and national needs have been major goals. During the third and fourth phases (since around 2001), Chinese researchers have increasingly contributed to publishing in major international conferences along with major journals on software engineering. In addition, in these two phases, besides addressing immediate industrial and national needs, they have also been pursuing blue-sky research to aim to shape the future of software industry, as exemplified by various research projects around Internetware.