IEEE Software is a broad-based practitioner-oriented magazine of IEEE Computer Society targeting software professionals, including business analysts, requirements engineers, designers, architects, developers, process improvement experts, testers, quality engineers, and project managers. It features peer-reviewed articles, special focus sections, regular columns by prominent authors, technology news, experience reports, and opinion pieces. The topics it covers include software processes and practices, software project management, development tools and infrastructure, requirements engineering, software design and architecture, empirical evaluations of software technologies and techniques, human and social aspects of software development, programming languages and paradigms, development of distributed and enterprise software, software testing and software quality.

The following individuals have served the magazine as the editor in chief:

• Bruce Shriver
  Bruce Shriver
  Bruce Shriver is a computer science academic and a consultant and entrepreneur in the area of high-performance computer systems. Shriver received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He has published and lectured extensively throughout the US and abroad...
  
  , 1983–1986
• Ted Lewis
  Ted Lewis (computer scientist)
  Ted Lewis is an American computer scientist and mathematician. A professor at the Naval Postgraduate School and formerly a professor at Oregon State University, he has also held positions at Eastman Kodak Company, for which he served as Director, Digital Business Development and Senior Vice...
  
  , 1987–1990
• Carl Chang
  Carl Chang (computer scientist)
  Carl Kochao Chang is Professor and Chair of the Department of Computer Science at Iowa State University and Editor-in-Chief for IEEE Computer . He received a PhD in computer science from Northwestern University...
  
  , 1991–1994
• Alan M. Davis
  Alan M. Davis
  Alan Mark Davis is a Professor of Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship in the College of Business at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. He is also President and CEO of Spiral Funds, Inc. Davis earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...
  
  , 1995–1998
• Steve McConnell
  Steve McConnell
  Steven C. McConnell is an author of many software engineering textbooks including Code Complete, Rapid Development, and Software Estimation...
  
  , 1999–2002
• Warren Harrison, 2003–2006
• Hakan Erdogmus
  Hakan Erdogmus
  Hakan Erdogmus is a software engineering researcher and consultant based in Ottawa, Canada. He is the founder and owner of Kalemun Research Inc. His expertise lies in software development practices and processes and the economics of software development, with a special focus on agile software...
  
  , 2007–2010
• Forrest Shull, since 2011

Volume 21, 2004

• Issue 1: Developing with Open Source Software, Quality Resolutions for the New Year
• Issue 2: Practical Requirements Engineering Solutions, Also: Programming Distributed Systems
• Issue 3: Return on Investment, Agile Requirements: Opportunity or Oxymoron?
• Issue 4: Successful Process Change, Also: New Open Source Department
• Issue 5: The Business of Software Engineering, Also: A Field Study of Agile’s Pair Productivity
• Issue 6: Persistent Software Attributes, XP for Mission-Critical Products

Volume 22, 2005

• Issue 1: Innovation in Requirements Engineering, Evidence-Based Software Engineering
• Issue 2: Postmodern Software Design, Hypermedia Systems Development Practices
• Issue 3: Adapting Agility, Also: Programming Language Trends
• Issue 4: COTS Integration, China’s Shifting Software Industry
• Issue 5: Project Management, Following the Research Money
• Issue 6: Predictor Models, Economics of Learning and Flexibility

Volume 23, 2006

• Issue 1: Aspect Oriented Computing, Victor Basili and Software Quality
• Issue 2: Software Architecture, Grady Booch’s New Architecture Column
• Issue 3: Requirements Engineering, Frank Perry on Security and Quality
• Issue 4: Software Testing, How Developers Use the Eclipse IDE
• Issue 5: Global Software Development, Brokering Technology Transfer
• Issue 6: Curriculum Development, Grady Booch on Goodness of Fit

Volume 24, 2007

• Issue 1: SE Challenges in Small Companies
• Issue 2: Stakeholders in Requirements Engineering
• Issue 3: Test-Driven Development
• Issue 4: Software Patterns
• Issue 5: Dynamically Typed Languages
• Issue 6: Service-Centric Software Systems

Volume 25, 2008

• Issue 1: Security for the Rest of Us
• Issue 2: Quality Requirements
• Issue 3: Quantitative Project Management
• Issue 4: Developing Scientific Software
• Issue 5: Software Development Tools
• Issue 6: Opportunistic System Development

Volume 26, 2009

• Issue 1: Mining Software Archives
• Issue 2: Capturing Design Knowledge
• Issue 3: Embedded Software
• Issue 4: Domain-Specific Modeling
• Issue 5: End-User Software Engineering
• Issue 6: Human Aspects of Software Engineering

Volume 27, 2010

• Issue 1: Project Management
• Issue 2: Agility and Architecture
• Issue 3: Software Product Lines
• Issue 4: Software Evolution
• Issue 5: Multiparadigm Programming
• Issue 6: Framing Stakeholders’ Concerns

Volume 28, 2011

• Issue 1: Parallelism on the Desktop
• Issue 2: Software Protection
• Issue 3: Software Components: Beyond Programming
• Issue 4: Software Business
• Issue 5: Engineering Fun
• Issue 6: Climate Change: Science and Software