Book excerpt: This volume presents a selection of the presentations from the first annual conference on Analytical Methods in Software Engineering Economics held at The MITRE Corporation in McLean, Virginia. The papers are representative of the issues that are of interest to researchers in the economics of information systems and software engineering economics. The 1990s are presenting software economists with a particularly difficult set of challenges. Because of budget considerations, the number of large new software development efforts is declining. The primary focus has shifted to issues relating to upgrading and migrating existing systems. In this environment, productivity enhancing methodologies and tools are of primary interest. The MITRE Software Engineering Analysis Conference was designed to address some of th,~ new and difficult challenges that face our profession. The primary objective of the conference was to address new theoretical and applications directions in Software Engineering Economics, a relatively new discipline that deals with the management and control of all segments of the software life-cycle. The discipline has received much visibility in the last twenty-five years because of the size and cost considerations of many software development and maintenance efforts, particularly in the Federal Government. We thank everyone who helped make this conference a success, especially those who graciously allowed us to include their work in this volume.