IEEE Software’s mission is to be the best source of reliable, useful, peer-reviewed information for leading software practitioners—the developers and managers who want to keep up with rapid technology change. The authority on translating software theory into practice, this bimonthly magazine positions itself between pure research and pure practice, transferring ideas, methods, and experiences among researchers and engineers. Peer-reviewed articles and columns by real-world experts illuminate all aspects of the industry, including process improvement, project management, development tools, software maintenance, web applications and opportunities, testing, and usability.

Technical articles are peer-reviewed carefully to ensure they offer practical and reliable ideas and techniques to readers. The departments cover key concerns of software development: requirements, design, architecture, tools, technologies, empirical evidence, and quality. We also publish insightful lessons-learned articles by people with stories to tell.

Software engineering experts in architecture and design, quality, project management, education, requirements, and many other areas of expertise help guide the selection of what we publish. Our Letters to the Editor, Point-Counterpoint debates, and Sounding Board contributions from thought leaders challenge the status quo and stimulate debate. The magazine has been helping train newcomers to software engineering since 1984, as professors, project managers, and developers pass on articles for their colleagues and students to read.

Special Issue on Taking Flight: Software for Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems
Submission Date: 2026-05-08

Small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS) are increasingly transforming domains such as disaster response, environmental monitoring, precision agriculture, and infrastructure inspection. As their presence grows and missions become more complex, these systems are evolving from isolated devices into networked, autonomous swarms. This shift introduces unprecedented challenges for software engineering, particularly in designing reliable, adaptable, and safe sUAS platforms capable of operating in dynamic, mission-critical, and ethically sensitive environments.

Beyond technical challenges, the growing autonomy of aerial systems raises critical concerns for software engineers and society alike, including dual-use risks, privacy, accountability, sustainability, and regulatory compliance. Addressing these challenges demands rigorous engineering methods that span the full software life cycle, from eliciting requirements and architecting dependable systems, to testing under diverse operational conditions, deploying in critical contexts, and assuring trustworthy runtime behavior under uncertainty.

For software practitioners, sUAS represent a unique intersection of embedded, cyber-physical, and AI-enabled systems. This special issue aims to advance the engineering of trustworthy, adaptive, and responsible software for sUAS, inviting contributions that combine scientific insight with practical relevance. We especially welcome papers that demonstrate tangible improvements in software quality, reliability, assurance, and societal impact.

We seek submissions addressing both foundational and emerging challenges, emphasizing methods, practices, and case studies that unite research and real-world application to advance the state of practice in this rapidly evolving field.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

    Requirements engineering for sUAS command, control, and mission planning
    Software architecture for modularity, resilience, and adaptation
    Verification, validation, and simulation of sUAS flight software
    Digital twins, runtime monitoring, and adaptive assurance mechanisms
    Testing and integration in uncertain or adversarial environments
    Human–machine teaming and operator-in-the-loop control
    Certification, traceability, and safety assurance for adaptive or ML-enabled flight systems
    Ethical, legal, and societal implications of autonomous aerial software
    Responsible AI, Data governance, and privacy in sUAS sensing and analytics
    Benchmarking, reproducibility, and open datasets for sUAS software evaluation
    Cross-cutting concerns such as AI assurance, software sustainability, supply chain security, and trustworthy autonomy