I didn’t make it up…
An article published here a few years ago, reproducing a note I wrote much earlier (1992), pointed out that conventional wisdom about the history of software engineering, cited in every textbook, is inaccurate: the term “software engineering” was in use before the famous 1968 Garmisch-Partenkichen conference. See that article for details.
Recently a colleague wanted to cite my observation but could not find my source, a 1966 Communications of the ACM article using the term. Indeed that text is not currently part of the digitalized ACM archive (Digital Library). But I knew it was not a figment of my imagination or of a bad memory.
The reference given in my note is indeed correct; with the help of the ETH library, I was able to get a scan of the original printed article. It is available here.
The text is not a regular CACM article but a president’s letter, part of the magazine’s front matter, which the digital record does not always include. In this case historical interest suggests it should; I have asked the ACM to add it. In the meantime, you can read the scanned version for a nostalgic peek into what the profession found interesting half a century ago.
Note (12 November 2018): The ACM Digital Library responded (in a matter of hours!) and added the letter to the digital archive.
Eiffel Software
Home page at ETH
Informatics Europe
LASER summer school
Propulsion Academy
The ACM Digital Library (with its usual efficiency) responded to my request right away and made the page officially available (with a better scan than mine): https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3291288.