Agile and Lean Software Engineering and the SWEBOK: Position Paper for Panel: Educational and Professional Implications of SWEBOK

Abstract

This position paper addresses the usefulness (or otherwise) of the Software Engineering Body of knowledge (SWEBOK) version 3 for software practitioners in industry, and the consequent need for the SWEBOK to evolve to better address current industry practice. The position taken in this paper is that agile and lean methods are now the predominant approach to software engineering, and that the limited and anachronistic coverage of agile methods in the SWEBOK, coupled with the absence of any acknowledgement of lean approaches, is undermining software engineering education, the career prospects of graduates, and the software industry as a whole. It is therefore proposed that the agile methods section of the SWEBOK is revised and expanded such that it provides a valid body of knowledge for contemporary software engineering.