Lehman, M. M. “Laws of Software Evolution Revisited.” In Software Process Technology, edited by Carlo Montangero, 108–24. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 1996.

Lehman, M.M. “On Understanding Laws, Evolution, and Conservation in the Large-Program Life Cycle.” Journal of Systems and Software 1 (1979): 213–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/0164-1212(79)90022-0.

———. “Programs, Life Cycles, and Laws of Software Evolution.” Proceedings of the IEEE 68, no. 9 (September 1980): 1060–76. https://doi.org/10.1109/PROC.1980.11805.

Lehman, M.M., J.F. Ramil, P.D. Wernick, D.E. Perry, and W.M. Turski. “Metrics and Laws of Software Evolution-the Nineties View.” In Proceedings Fourth International Software Metrics Symposium, 20–32, 1997. https://doi.org/10.1109/METRIC.1997.637156.

If you're interested in some scientific background to Software Engineering, I can recommend the book "Making Software" (O'reilly) by Andy Oram & Greg Wilson. It's a bit old now, but addresses and challenges many common beliefs about Software Engineering.

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/making-software/9780596...