On the Role of Logic and Algebra in Software Engineering

Software engineering is a field of high relevance for many practical areas of advanced technology. It is essential also for a number of safety critical systems and technical infrastructures. Stimulated by the exponential growth of the power and speed of electronic hardware we observe an exponential growth in the functionality, the size, and complexity of software. In contrast to electronic hardware where we expect that everything is built based on carefully investigated theories with a deep scientific understanding, software creation still is to a large extend ad hoc. Nevertheless, due to the rising quality demands for software and the necessary improvement of productivity by advanced tools we see a growing need for a proper foundation and comprehensive theory of software engineering. In the following we outline the role that we see for logic and algebra in the emerging field of software engineering.

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