IEEE's “Body of Knowledge” for Software Engineering. The IEEE Computer Society has been developing its own statement of the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK). They are now calling for a review of SWEBOK, which you can participate in at www.swebok.org. SWEBOK pushes the traditional, documentation-heavy approaches. I have read several drafts of it over the years but I chose to not be involved in the official process because I believed that:

• The document had little merit and probably wouldn’t get much better;
• My comments wouldn’t have much influence.
• These grand, in my view highly premature, efforts to standardize and regulate the field come and go but don’t really have enough influence to worry about.

In retrospect, I think that keeping away from SWEBOK was a mistake. I think it has the potential to do substantial harm. I urge you to get involved in the SWEBOK review, make your criticisms clear and explicit, and urge them in writing to abandon this project. Even though this will have little influence with the SWEBOK promoters, it will create a public record of controversy and protest. Because SWEBOK is being effectively pushed as a basis for licensing software engineers and evaluating / accrediting software engineering degree programs, a public record of controversy may play an important role. [Cem Kaner's blog]

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