Margaret Hamilton, who led an MIT software team for NASA's Apollo program and helped establish software engineering as a discipline, died on September 30 at 90 (Janine Liberty/MIT News)

Margaret Hamilton’s leadership of MIT’s Apollo software team helped prove that software could be engineered with the same rigor as hardware, shaping the modern discipline of software engineering. For CIOs and technology leaders, her legacy underscores the strategic value of disciplined software development, systems thinking, and mission-critical reliability in IT organizations—especially where failures carry high business risk. Her influence remains foundational to how enterprises build, govern, and trust complex digital systems.