The development of software engineering requires the dynamism and innovation of the software development process and the strengthening of its legal and economic foundations. To develop high-quality software that meets customer requirements, its regulatory framework must be regulated and standardized. There are hundreds of international standards covering software life cycle processes. The article analyzes the software development standards and emphasizes the importance of their application for quality management. Information is provided on the areas of application of these standards and on the leading organizations developing the software engineering standards. The classifications of the standards according to different characteristics of the software are shown. Training of the professional software engineers is a priority. In the training process, they must acquire a wide knowledge base and ability for the development, documentation, life cycle management of software, personnel management, etc. In this regard, several educational standards are developed by the international organizations. Based on the study of these standards, the relevance of developing a curriculum in Azerbaijan based on the international standards and the consideration of the peculiarities of the national education for the training of the professional software engineers is emphasized. At the same time, the importance of training the existing basic standards, profiles of standards and their application problems to students and specialists in software engineering is shown. In the end, it is recommended to develop and adopt the national standards for software engineering in Azerbaijan, based on world experience in the development and implementation of standards (pp.83-95).