4.9 Liaison Report - IEEE-CS Professional Practices Committee

1. 4.9Liaison Report - IEEE-CS Professional Practices Committee John Harauz Prepared for IEEE CS SAB Spring Meeting. Los Angeles 15-16 May 2007 For Computer Society Internal Use Only For Computer Society Internal Use Only

2. SEVOCAB - The Computer Society's new online vocabulary for software and systems engineering http://www.computer.org/sevocab • Database contains 4000 definitions gathered from more than 100 authoritative, consensus-based sources including standards of the IEEE Standards Association, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 (software and systems engineering), the Project Management Institute (PMI) and a few other sources. • e.g., if you type "verification", you will find six definitions taken from six standards as well as numerous other definitions that include the word "verification" either as part of the phrase being defined or the definition itself. • A new international standards project will use the database as a tool to begin reducing the number of different definitions. From time to time, snapshots of the database contents will be published as ISO/IEC 24765 and adopted as an IEEE standard. For Computer Society Internal Use Only

3. SEVOCAB - Computer Society's new online vocabulary for software and systems engineering • The web view of the database will be publicly accessible as a resource to all software and systems engineering practitioners and teachers. We hope that SEVOCAB will become the "goto" place for software and systems engineering terminology. • Numerous parties collaborated on this project. • IEEE-SA, SC 7, and PMI contributed their intellectual property. • The IEEE Computer Society (led by Seema Gupta) developed the database and the web site and will continue to operate those facilities. • Annette Reilly CSDP, serves as project editor and led the working group to bring the project to its public release. For Computer Society Internal Use Only

4. Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) • PPC is developing a new certification, CSDA, that hopefully will appeal to the Computer Society's 7500 student members and others entering the field. • Studies of the marketplace have suggested that the current design point of the CSDP certification—baccalaureate plus four years of experience—is not the point where potential employers want the most help in evaluating job candidates. They would like to have a credential that would be appropriate for new graduates. • The methodology for developing a fair, reliable and valid examination includes a survey to determine the items to be included in a test specification, followed by item-writing sessions that will create questions implementing the test specification. • The job analysis survey was distributed to nearly 50,000 software engineering professionals on 18 April. • Plan to complete exam development in early 2008. For Computer Society Internal Use Only

5. Certified Software Development Professional Program • Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) Refresh - Having passed the five-year mark, refresh effort started to ensure the CSDP certification remains current in considering knowledge and skills that are relevant in the marketplace. It will follow a process similar to that for CSDA but will be time-phased to trail that effort. • Revised CSDP Online Course - The online training course that prepares candidates for the CSDP examination is being refreshed and being reorganized to more explicitly track the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge. It was planned for release at the end of April. After an introductory offer, the cost for the course will be $395 for IEEE Computer Society members and $495 for non-members. For Computer Society Internal Use Only

6. Certified Software Development Professional Program • Value of Certification Survey and CSDP Success Stories – PPC plans to improve the value of existing certifications; hence their attractiveness to others. • Started gathering "success stories". The most compelling of these will be placed on a web site as a resource for use in talking with employers and customers about the credential. • A "value of certification" survey started to gather data that may be useful in quantifying the benefit of CSDP to its holder as well as employers and customers. • CSDP Operations – Spring 2006 Testing Window • A total of 42 candidates have registered to take the exam. Of those candidates, 10 are registered to take the exam in China (6 passed) and 32 in the rest of the world. • In addition to the candidates noted above, Samsung has submitted two applications for the exam. • Samsung plans a CSDP preparation course in late April and they have promised an unspecified number of additional applications at that time. • More than 625 CSDP holders at the end of 2006. For Computer Society Internal Use Only

7. A Notable (Planned) Project: Assurance • Long historical background • A 65-page draft has been prepared: • Principal drafter, Sam Redwine, James Madison University • Moore provided material from FCD 12207, FCD 15288, ISO/IEC 15289 and IEEE Std 1228 • Reviewed and improved by a study group in IEEE CS • The draft contains requirements and guidance for: • Assurance cases • Associated documents, e.g. assurance plan, reports, analyses • The process view is comprehensive—it touches every process of 15288 and 12207 (except for the enterprise processes). • IEEE-CS tabling as an “alternative proposal” to SC 7/WG 7 for the revision of ISO/IEC 15026. For Computer Society Internal Use Only

8. A New Concept: The “Process View” • Concept introduced in FCD 15288 • Addresses a particular engineering interest • Gathers together process activities that address those interests • Cuts across all or part of the life cycle • Like a process, a process view has: • Purpose • Outcomes • Unlike a process, it does not have activities and tasks. Instead, it musters activities and tasks from existing processes and adds guidance on how to use them to achieve the purpose and outcomes. The term “view” comes from IEEE Std 1471. For Computer Society Internal Use Only

9. Intended Relationships of Key Software Engineering Process Standards 24748:GuidetoLifeCycleManagement Revised 15289:Document-ation Other standards providing details of selected SW processes Other standards providing details of selected system processes Revised 12207:Life cycle processes for SW Revised 15288:Life cycle processes for systems 15026: Additional practices for higher assurance systems Interoperation Revised 16326:ProjectMgmt + Revised 15939:Measure-ment Revised 16085:RiskMgmt Common vocabulary, process architecture, and process description conventions For Computer Society Internal Use Only

10. TECHNICAL & MANAGEMENT PROCESSES CORE ASSURANCE PROCESS Œ  Plan Assurance Activities Assurance Needs Assurance Plan Ž Assurance Plan Perform Risk Management Activities Establish & Maintain Assurance Argument Risk Information Assurance Argument Improvement information Assurance Measures  Assurance Argument Monitor & Control Assurance Activities & Products Perform Measurement Activities Assurance Measures Assurance Issues Rev 3 For Computer Society Internal Use Only