A cogent analysis of the underlying complexity of software engineering. Each problem is new; software is the most complex thing humans have ever built; it is impossible to measure complexity of something given that product. Software is fractal in complexity (really?)
B. Boehm, J. Brown, and M. Lipow. International Conference on Software Engineering, page 592--605. San Francisco, IEEE Computer Society Press, (1976)Later published as ``Characteristics of Software Quality'', TRW series on technology, North-Holland, 1978.