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SEMAT Position Statement

SEMAT Position Statement. March 17, 2010 Brian Henderson-Sellers PhD, DSc, MASCE, FIMA, FACS, FIEAust, CPEng Director, COTAR Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology University of Technology, Sydney. Overview. 1 st My “philosophy” for SE and SEMAT

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SEMAT Position Statement

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  1. SEMAT Position Statement March 17, 2010 Brian Henderson-Sellers PhD, DSc, MASCE, FIMA, FACS, FIEAust, CPEng Director, COTAR Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology University of Technology, Sydney

  2. Overview 1st My “philosophy” for SE and SEMAT 2nd Some urgent issues in SE Method and Theory

  3. Philosophy for SEMAT Engineering applies science to real world problem solving No theory of its own - relies on theories in other, more fundamental disciplines

  4. Relevant established theories • Category and set theory: mathematics • Estimation theory: statistics and signal processing • Measurement theory: mathematics • Systems theory : ecology and meteorology • Organizational theory: behavioural psychology • Operational research: mathematics

  5. Perils of ignoring theories Ignorance of existing theories is dangerous Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse – a civil engineering lesson!

  6. (a) (b) (d) WorkUnit +Context 1 +StartTime +EndTime +Duration +Component 0..* +Parent 0..1 Task Technique Process (c) Life Cycle Process Group SE has no agreed set of concepts Process Work Definition Process Activity SE has no accepted terminology Activity Activity Task Task Step Note List +Child 0..*

  7. In practice • What is frequently called a process is just a set of ordered steps (a.k.a. procedure) • Problem with many current ISO software engineering standards. (Arguably a process also includes resources, people etc.) • Move away from Tayloresque factory processes to flexible processes that consider local situational context (risks, skills, culture etc.)

  8. SE – still a proto-discipline SE – today is • an empirically-based proto-discipline • has almost no data Analogy can be drawn with the state of in business and management BEFORE their quality revolutions

  9. SE Method and Theory • My proposal • Quantify and codify Validation Validation Methods Methods BASICS Basics

  10. Start with basics • Basics layer has a reliance on logic and mathematics - e.g. set theory, category theory, VDM • Measurement framework is a vital element • Concepts (the “kernel language”) depicted using formal mathematics or less formal visualizations based on this e.g. ontological structures, metamodels

  11. endeavour method methodologies assessment quality tools metamodel Detour to metamodelling (one option)

  12. A metamodel • is simply a model (of models) • is often the core of CASE/CAME tools. Thus, implicitly accepted by users as being a “rule set” • can provide an extensible framework across multiple abstraction levels

  13. Stages provide macro organization to the methodology Producers perform create Work Products Work Units produce& maintain are documented using Languages & notations A simplified architecture

  14. The ISO/IEC 24744 metamodel powertypes

  15. project metamodel method Powertypes solve non-transitivity “MySystem” Requirements Specification “MySystem” Req. Spec. Version 1.5 Req. Spec. Document Must be approved: yes Title Version RequirementsSpecificationDocument Document Document Kind Title Version Name MustBeApproved

  16. Powertype pattern Resource (a metamodel class) Metamodel domain Method domain powertype “instantiation” regular class instantiation Clabject in method (a.k.a. process model) Object in method More simply

  17. Pattern Universal Practice Alpha Activity Competency Stage Producer WorkProduct Task StateGraph Part of a possible SEMAT metamodel Mostly powertype patterns Ensure “Risk/Uncertainty” & “Quality” included

  18. Having established the basics • How to create level 2 (Methods) • Best candidate Situational Method Engineering • SME uses method fragments, each defined in to be conformant to some Level 1 definition • Ontological descriptions may be useful here • Detour to SME - a good example

  19. Method fragments Construction Guidelines uses conformant to SME in a nutshell Repository Metamodel conformant to Step 1: Method engineer conformant to (e.g. ISO/IEC 24744) Methodology M Step 2: Project Manager Methodology Instance

  20. Level 3 is also vital • Engineering disciplines are observationally-validated • Good quality data are vital to provide empirical evidence for “good practice” • Accept validated concepts into “body of knowledge” (link to SWEBOK) • Eschew “proof by assertion” – common today in SE

  21. Outreach • Agree and employ standards • Propagate new vision Validation Methods BASICS “Quantify and Codify”

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