The Software Engineering Laboratory （SEL） is an organization sponsored by thNational Aeronautics and Space Administration/Goddard Space Flight Center

　　（NASA/GSFC） and created to investigate the effectiveness of software engineeringtechnologies when applied to the development of applications software. The SELwas created in 1976 and has three primary organizational members:NASA/GSFC， Software Engineering BranchUniversity of Maryland， Department of Computer ScienceComputer Sciences Corporation， Software Engineering OperationThe goals of the SEL are （1） to understand the software development process in theGSFC environment; （2） to measure the effect of various methodologies， tools， an

　　models on the process; and （3） to identify and then to apply successful development

　　practices. The activities， findings， and recommendations of the SEL are recorded inthe Software Engineering Laboratory Series， a continuing series of reports that

　　includes this documen