Guest Editors' Introduction to the Special Section on the First International Conference on the Quantitative Evaluation of systems (QEST).

The article discusses the first International Conference on the Quantitative Evaluation of SysTems, entitled QEST 2004, which was held at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Topics such as modeling formalisms and methodologies, theory, tools, and case studies, as well as performance, dependability, and safety were discussed at the conference. The review received over 80 paper submissions and narrowed them down to 28 for publication. The guest editors present several brief descriptions that are presented in this issue, including "Backward Bisimulation in Markov Chain Model Checking" and "Analysis of Restart Mechanisms in Software Systems." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]