'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

Date:
Thu, 13 Aug 2026 22:00:00 +0000

Description:
There is no computing industry today without software engineering but the skill of programming once lacked any organization or structure

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter The computing industry was once unrecognizable from the one we see today, with the idea of discipline
centered around writing code treated as some kind of fantasy. That was before industry pioneer Margaret Hamilton coined the term while leading the flight software team for NASA's Apollo space program in the 1960s. "When I first
came up with the term, no one had heard of it before, at least in our world. It was an ongoing joke for a long time. They liked to kid me about my radical ideas." Margaret Hamilton, 2004 Pioneering an industry Hamilton was
describing the process by which she coined the term "software engineering" and, by doing so, defined an entire computer science discipline, in an interview. Quote of the day This article is part of TechRadar Pro's QOTD project to provide an insight into the minds of the brightest and most recognized figures in the technology industry today and in years gone by.
Read the full series here . Rather than an interview for any media outlet,
the transcript for this interview appeared in the first edition of the computer science textbook 'Fluency With Information Technology: Skills, Concepts, & Capabilities' by Lawrence Snyder and Ray Laura Henry. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

She recalled during this conversation a particularly memorable moment in
which a highly respected hardware guru explained to everyone in the meeting that the process of building software should also be considered an
engineering discipline just like hardware. That's because she and her colleagues had earned the respect of others in the room as being in an engineering field in their own right. Teething issues Before Hamilton coined the term and defined many of the processes and best practices that drove the software achievements at NASA during the Apollo mission, the approach to computing was in a state of disarray. You may like Quote of the day by Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen: "Software is eating the world" Quote of the day by former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki: 'Coding is like writing, and we live in a time of the new industrial revolution' commentary on society's relationship with programming Quote of the day by Steve Jobs: "Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think" advice on upskilling for the future

People, at the time, valued physical hardware and the components fitted underneath far more than the code that nobody could see. Programming, in a sense, wasn't seen as a real science until Hamilton came along.

During her time at NASA, she created vital on-board flight software, with a particular highlight being her error-detection-and-recovery system. Her contributions were immortalized in the 2022 short film 'To Go to the Moon' , in which she was portrayed by Dominque Roberts. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

This attitude led to a software crisis in the 1960s through the 1980s, with many projects running over budget and schedule and with the software that was published containing critical bugs, with costly consequences. This was the direct impact of a lack of professionalization in the field.



======================================================================
Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/when-i-first-came-up-with-the-term-no-one-had-he ard-of-it-before-quote-of-the-day-by-nasas-former-software-director-margaret-h amilton-on-the-birth-of-software-engineering


--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 (Linux/64)
* Origin: tqwNet Technology News (1337:1/100)