Evolution and use cases of the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) in academia and industry

Hironori Washizaki , Juan Garbajosa,
Pankaj Kamthan, Kenneth E Nidiffer, Steve Schwarm, Steve Tockey, "Evolution and use cases of the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) in academia and industry," 29th Asia-Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC 2022), online, December 7th, 2022.

Transcript

1. Evolution and use cases of the Guide to the
   Software Engineering Body of Knowledge
   (SWEBOK) in academia and industry
   Moderator:
   Hironori Washizaki (Waseda University / National Institute of Informatics /
   SYSTEM INFORMATION / eXmotion, Japan)
   Panelists:
   Juan Garbajosa (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain)
   Pankaj Kamthan (Concordia University, Canada)
   Kenneth E Nidiffer (George Mason University, USA)
   Steve Schwarm (Retired/Part-Time Synopsys - Black Duck Software, USA)
   Steve Tockey (Construx Software, USA)
   

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2. View Slide

3. Guide to the Software Engineering
   Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK)
   http://swebokwiki.org
   • History: 2001 v1, 2004 v2, 2005 ISO/IEC Technical
   Report, 2014 v3, 2022 v4 soon!
   • Objective
   • Guiding learners, researchers and practitioners to
   identify and have common understanding on “generally-
   accepted-knowledge” in software engineering
   • Defining boundary of software engineering and related
   disciplines
   • Providing foundations for certifications and educational
   curriculum
   • Adoption
   • IEEE-CS software professional certification programs
   based on SWEBOK (Associate Software Developer,
   Professional Software Developer, Professional Software
   Engineering Master)
   • ISO/IEC 24773-4: Certification of software and systems
   engineering professionals - Part 4: Software engineering
   • Software Engineering Competency Model (SWECOM)
   Activities
   (and
   practices)
   Body of
   Knowledge
   Islands of
   Knowledge
   

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4. SWEBOK Evolution from V3 to V4
   • Modern software engineering, practice change and update, BOK grows and recently developed areas
   • Public review under progress! https://www.computer.org/volunteering/boards-and-committees/professional-
   educational-activities/software-engineering-committee/swebok-evolution
   Requirements
   Design
   Construction
   Testing
   Maintenance
   Configuration Management
   Engineering Management
   Process
   Models and Methods
   Quality
   Professional Practice
   Economics
   Computing Foundations
   Mathematical Foundations
   Engineering Foundations
   Requirements
   Architecture
   Design
   Construction
   Testing
   Operations
   Maintenance
   Configuration Management
   Engineering Management
   Process
   Models and Methods
   Quality
   Security
   Professional Practice
   Economics
   Computing Foundations
   Mathematical Foundations
   Engineering Foundations
   SWEBOK V3 SWEBOK V4
   Agile,
   DevOps
   Agile testing
   ・・・
   Agile security
   ・・・
   AI for SE, SE for AI
   

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5. Example of new knowledge area structure
   

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6. View on knowledge/skill/competency (Ref: ISO/IEC 24773 series)
   Knowledge Area
   Topic
   Knowledge Area
   Topic
   Reference
   Material
   Body of Knowledge Skills Competencies Jobs / Roles
   SWEBOK
   IEEE CS Software Engineering Professional Certifications
   SWECOM
   EITBOK
   Learning courses
   6
   

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7. Discussion
   • Software and systems engineering, and SWEBOK/SEBOK
   • Ken
   • Q1. What was the reason for SWEBOK's evolution? What was expected for the
   evolution?
   • Topics incl. modern software engineering, practice update, emerging areas such as AI/IoT
   • Juan, Steve S., Steve T., Pankaj
   • Q2. Why should academia pay attention to SWEBOK? Any use cases and values?
   • Topics incl. education such as curriculum and references, and research such as taxonomy and
   common ground
   • Pankaj, Ken, Juan
   • Q3. Why should the industry pay attention to SWEBOK? Any use cases and values?
   • Topics incl. certification, training and hiring, project onboarding, capability matrix
   • Steve S., Steve T.
   • Q4. What are the future directions of SWEBOK? What will future SWEBOK reflect?
   • Topics incl. profession evolution, new areas such as No-Code/IoT/AI/Quantum, evolving domains
   such as autonomous driving, social importance such as functional safety and diversity
   • Steve T., Pankaj, Ken, Juan, Steve S.
   • Open discussion and conclusion
   • Ken, Juan, Pankaj, Steve S., Steve T., Hiro
   

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8. Evolution and use cases of the Guide to the Software
   Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) in academia and
   industry
   - Special emphasis on Software and systems
   engineering, and SWEBOK/SEBOK
   APSEC 2022 SWEBOK PANEL
   6-9 DECEMBER 2022
   Dr. Kenneth E. Nidiffer
   knidiffe@gmu.edu
   703 217-0215
   

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9. Increasing Globalization, Productivity, Hyper-Connectivity and Complexity
   Increasingly Software-enable Systems Are a Significant Strategic
   Resource Leading to Transdisciplinary Engineering
   Manual
   Labor
   Water
   Steam
   Oil
   Software
   9
   Mechanisms Used to Increase Productivity/Creativity Over Time
   Source: K.E. Nidiffer
   

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10. Move to Transdisciplinary Engineering
    US NAE* and INCOSE* Grand Challenges
    Number Grand Challenge Group Number Grand Challenge Group
    1
    Advance personalized
    learning
    Joy of Living 8 Secure cyberspace Vulnerability
    2 Enhance virtual reality Joy of Living 9
    Restore and improve urban
    infrastructure
    Sustainablity
    3
    Engineer the tools of
    scientific discovery
    Joy of Living 10
    Provide access to clean
    water
    Sustainablity
    4
    Reverse engineer the
    brain
    Health 11 Provide energy from fusion Sustainablity
    5
    Engineer better
    medicines
    Health 12 Manage the nitrogen cycle Sustainablity
    6
    Advance health
    informatics
    Health 13
    Develop carbon
    sequestration methods
    Sustainablity
    7 Prevent nuclear terror Vulnerability 14
    Make solar energy
    economical
    Sustainablity
    * US NAE = US National
    Academy of Engineering
    *INCOSE = International Council of Systems Engineering
    

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11. So Where Does This Lead Us?
    • The scale of complicated and complex software-enable systems
    & services will continue to increase exponentially with intricate
    and often hidden interfaces & interrelationships, operating in a
    dynamic and non-deterministic world.
    • Increases in product functionality, software assurance goals
    and deliveries of overall value at the speed of relevance are
    dependent on transdisciplinary systems engineering teams
    working as intimately intertwined disciplines throughout the life
    cycle
    • Transdisciplinary team disciplines (including software
    engineering) need to be brought forward (from right to left) in the
    life cycle, and as system engineering partners (outside-in)
    versus specialty engineering functions executed late in the
    development life cycle.
    11
    Source: K.E. Nidiffer, NDIA 25th Annual Systems & Mission Engineering Conference, 11/1/2022 - 11/3/2022
    

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12. Q1. What was the reason for SWEBOK's evolution?
    What was expected for the evolution?
    • Topics incl. modern software engineering, practice update, emerging areas such as
    AI/IoT
    • Juan, Steve S., Steve T., Pankaj
    • Need to respond practice change and new fields such as AI
    • Cyber physical systems
    • Understanding on software is expanding dramatically. For example, architecture.
    Agile approach is needed for software AND systems engineering.
    • Local advances should be organized across over areas. Combinatorial testing.
    • Importance of Security is increasing!
    

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13. Q2. Why should academia pay attention to SWEBOK?
    Any use cases and values?
    • Topics incl. education such as curriculum and references, and research such as
    taxonomy and common ground
    • Pankaj, Ken, Juan
    • Common ground for education
    • Introducing subjects to students
    • Clear scope, direction. Good references.
    • Clarifying what is important.
    • Case study. Learning objectives and take aways.
    • Curriculum design and continuous learning
    • ABET accreditation and curriculum design. Evaluate program quality.
    • Continuous and life-long learning. Having diversity in career and learning based on common
    ground.
    • Essence of software engineering
    • Software engineering is more pragmatic.
    • Casual training in some countries.
    • Finding critical thinking!
    • Bridging academia and industry
    • Fill the gap.
    

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14. Q3. Why should the industry pay attention to
    SWEBOK? Any use cases and values?
    • Topics incl. certification, training and hiring, project onboarding, capability matrix
    • Steve S., Steve T.
    • Emphasize how activities and practices rather than coding are important.
    • Harvard: “Practical software engineering” was just about coding (in Ada)!
    • Software engineers != programmers or coders
    • Professional engineering license
    • In USA, “engineer” is a law-protected title.
    • Recruiting new members. Project onboarding.
    • “Can you tell the difference between these two patterns?”
    • Certified consultant
    • IEEE-CS used to provide certifications such as CSDA, CSDP
    • Professional development and capability matrix based on SWEBOK
    • HRD
    • Guiding further training and career growth. HR management.
    • Many review comments from academia and industry have been incorporated into SWEBOK
    evolution to bridge the gap.
    • Agile teams can utilize SWEBOK to visualize skills and competencies of team members.
    • SWEBOK process itself is important!
    

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15. Q4. What are the future directions of SWEBOK? What
    will future SWEBOK reflect?
    • Topics incl. profession evolution, new areas such as No-Code/IoT/AI/Quantum, evolving domains such as
    autonomous driving, social importance such as functional safety and diversity
    • Steve T., Pankaj, Ken, Juan, Steve S.
    • Emerging areas and topics
    • Model-driving approach and related no-code/low-code approaches could be considered more.
    • Testing AI systems
    • Better lifecycle and practices
    • Continuous development
    • Cross disciplinary
    • Social importance and more domains
    • Cybersecurity
    • Functional security. Heisenbugs.
    • Zero trust.
    • Reflecting software society
    • Big common ground
    • SWEBOK should again become ISO/IEEE standard.
    • Software and systems engineering
    • Era of digitalization and digital transformation
    • SWEBOK should respond to
    • Need to do better job!
    • Organizing knowledge, rather than leading software engineering
    • Human aspects
    

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16. Open discussion and conclusion
    • Ken, Juan, Pankaj, Steve S., Steve T., Hiro
    • Q. How to promote SWEBOK to industry? Does SWEBOK matter?
    • Simens in India: SWEBOK-based training program
    • Corporation and individual liability is increasing. SWEBOK would be a basis for defense.
    • SWEBOK can be a good ground for building better software.
    • Good guide. Good summary. NOT textbook.
    • Catalog of skills and knowledge. ToC. Map. Good reference.
    • Common terminology and taxonomy.
    • SWEBOK is neutral!
    

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