[PRL] Fwd: SEMAT - SOFTWARE ENGINEERING METHOD AND THEORY

[Karl Lieberherr]

Restart on a solid basis ...


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ivar Jacobson <ivar at ivarjacobson.com>
Date: Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 5:38 AM
Subject: SEMAT - SOFTWARE ENGINEERING METHOD AND THEORY
To: Ivar Jacobson <ivar at ivarjacobson.com>


Hello,
You may have heard that the three of us have been quietly planning a
"revolution". The goal is to re-found software engineering as a
rigorous discipline.  We recognize that the natural tendency in our
field is to perturb systems minimally into approximate correctness,
but this path cannot be sustained any longer if we are to support the
computing industry and help it meet the demands of society. We need to
restart on a solid basis, taking advantage of all that has been
learned in software engineering theory and practice over the past five
decades.

The effort is underway, It is now public at www.semat.org.  On this
site you will find the Call for Action statement and the people &
companies that have agreed to become signatories.

CALL FOR ACTION STATEMENT: SOFTWARE ENGINEERING METHOD AND THEORY

Software engineering is gravely hampered today by immature practices.
Specific problems include:

The prevalence of fads more typical of fashion industry than of an
engineering discipline.
The lack of a sound, widely accepted theoretical basis.
The huge number of methods and method variants, with differences
little understood and artificially magnified.
The lack of credible experimental evaluation and validation.
The split between industry practice and academic research.

We support a process to refound software engineering based on a solid
theory, proven principles and best practices that:

Include a kernel of widely-agreed elements, extensible for specific uses
Addresses both technology and people issues
Are supported by industry, academia, researchers and users
Support extension in the face of changing requirements and technology

Some of the well-known signatories to this Call for Action include
Pekka Abrahamsson, Scott Ambler, Victor Basili, Jean Bézivin, Dines
Bjorner, Barry Boehm, Alistair Cockburn, Larry Constantine, Erich
Gamma, Tom Gilb, Ellen Gottesdiener, Sam Guckenheimer, Brian
Henderson-Sellers, Watts Humphrey, Martin Griss, Ivar Jacobson,
Philippe Kruchten, Stephen Mellor, Bertrand Meyer, James Odell, Meilir
Page-Jones, Bob Martin, Ken Schwaber, Alec Sharp, Richard Soley.

Note that so far we have intentionally just identified a serious
problem in the software community, we have not provided any solution.
This much harder work will start soon.  In the meantime, we have
started to make the "SEMAT" initiative much more widely known through
an article in well-known publications.  If you are interested in
following this initiative, please go to our web site and show support
by pressing the "sign up" button.
Most welcome

   -- Ivar Jacobson, Bertrand Meyer, Richard Soley

PS. We apologize if you have got this email by mistake.