SEMAT (Software Engineering Methods and Theory) is an international initiative designed to
identify a common ground, or universal standard, for software engineering. It is supported by
some of the most distinguished contributors to the field. Creating a simple language to describe
methods and practices, the SEMAT team expresses this common ground as a kernel–or
framework–of elements essential to all software development.
The Essence of Software Engineering introduces this kernel and shows how to apply it when
developing software and improving a team’s way of working. It is a book for software professionals,
not methodologists. Its usefulness to development team members, who need to evaluate and
choose the best practices for their work, goes well beyond the description or application of
any single method.
“Software is both a craft and a science, both a work of passion and a work of principle.
Writing good software requires both wild flights of imagination and creativity, as well as the hard
reality of engineering tradeoffs. This book is an attempt at describing that balance.”
—Robert Martin (unclebob)
“The work of Ivar Jacobson and his colleagues, started as part of the SEMAT initiative,
has taken a systematic approach to identifying a ‘kernel’ of software engineering principles and
practices that have stood the test of time and recognition.”
—Bertrand Meyer
“The software development industry needs and demands a core kernel and language for defining
software development practices—practices that can be mixed and matched, brought on board from
other organizations; practices that can be measured; practices that can be integrated; and practices
that can be compared and contrasted for speed, quality, and price. This thoughtful book gives a
good grounding in ways to think about the problem, and a language to address the need,
and every software engineer should read it.”
—Richard Soley
Table of Contents:
Foreword by Robert Martin xvii Foreword by Bertrand Meyer xxi
Foreword by Richard Soley xxiii
Preface xxvii
Acknowledgments xliii
Part I: The Kernel Idea Explained 1
Chapter 1: A Glimpse of How the Kernel Can Be Used 3
1.1 Why Is Developing Good Software So Challenging? 4
1.2 Getting to the Essence of Software Engineering: The Kernel 5
1.3 Using the Kernel to Address Specific Challenges: An Example 6
1.4 Learning How to Address Development Challenges with the Kernel 10
Chapter 2: A Little More Detail about the Kernel 13
2.1 How to Use the Kernel to Address a Specific Challenge: An Example 13
2.2 Introducing the Alphas 14
2.3 Alphas Have States to Help a Team Achieve Progress 18
2.4 There Is More to the Kernel 21
Chapter 3: A 10,000-Foot View of the Full Kernel 23
3.1 Organizing the Kernel 24
3.2 The Essential Things to Progress and Evolve: The Alphas 25
3.3 The Essential Things to Do: The Activities 32
3.4 Competencies 35
3.5 Finding Out More about the Kernel 36
Chapter 4: The Kernel Alphas Made Tangible with Cards 37
4.1 Using Cards As Aids to Address a Specific Challenge: An Example 38
4.2 Making the Kernel Come Alive 41
Chapter 5: Providing More Details to the Kernel through Practices 43
5.1 Making a Practice Explicit 44
5.2 How Explicit Should Practices Be? 45
5.3 Building Methods from Practices 47
5.4 Learning Methods and Practices 48
Chapter 6: What the Kernel Can Do for You 51
6.1 Developing Great Software 52
6.2 Growing 54
6.3 Learning 55
6.4 Evolving 55
6.5 Further Reading 56
Part II: Using the Kernel to Run an Iteration 59
Chapter 7: Running Iterations with the Kernel: Plan-Do-Check-Adapt 61
7.1 Terminology Used 61
7.2 Plan-Do-Check-Adapt 62
7.3 Setting the Scene 64
7.4 The Focus for the Next Few Chapters 66
Chapter 8: Planning an Iteration 69
8.1 Planning Guided by Alpha States 70
8.2 Determining the Current State in Our Story 73
8.3 Determining the Next State in Our Story 73
8.4 Determining How to Achieve the Next States in Our Story 73
8.5 How the Kernel Helps You in Planning Iterations 78
Chapter 9: Doing and Checking the Iteration 79
9.1 Doing and Checking the Iteration with the Kernel 79
9.2 Doing and Checking the Iteration in Our Story 81
9.3 How the Kernel Helps You in Doing and Checking the Iteration 84
Chapter 10: Adapting the Way of Working 87
10.1 Adapting the Way of Working with the Kernel 87
10.2 Adapting the Way of Working in the Story 88
10.3 How the Kernel Helps You in Adapting the Way of Working 90
Chapter 11: Running an Iteration with Explicit Requirement Item States 93
11.1 Working with Explicit Requirement Items 93
11.2 Planning an Iteration in Our Story 95
11.3 Doing Another Iteration in Our Story 97
11.4 Adapting the Way of Working in Our Story 100
11.5 Discussion 102
11.6 Further Reading 103
Part III: Using the Kernel to Run a Software Endeavor 105
Chapter 12: Running a Software Endeavor: From Idea to Production 107
12.1 The People in Our Story and Challenges along the Way 107
12.2 Understanding the Organizational Context 109
Chapter 13: Building the Business Case 111
13.1 Getting Ready to Start in Our Story 111
13.2 Understanding the Opportunity and the Stakeholders 115
13.3 Understanding the Solution 117
13.4 Preparing to Do the Work 119
13.5 Establishing a High-Level Plan 121
13.6 Building the Schedule 125
13.7 How the Kernel Helps You in Getting Started 128
Chapter 14: Developing the System 131
14.1 Building the Skinny System—Getting Things Working 135
14.2 Engaging the Stakeholders 136
14.3 Starting Development 138
14.4 Establishing an Agreed-on Way of Working 139
14.5 Making the Skinny System Usable—Getting Things Working Well 143
14.6 Keeping the Stakeholders Involved 144
14.7 Evolving a Usable System 146
14.8 Getting to a Good Way of Working 148
14.9 Evolving a Deployable Solution—Concluding the Work 149
14.10 Gaining Acceptance 151
14.11 Getting to Delivery 152
14.12 Done! Completing Development Work 154
14.13 How the Kernel Helps You Develop Great Software 156
Chapter 15: Operating the Software 157
15.1 Setting the Scene 157
15.2 Going Live—Successfully Deploying the System 161
15.3 Deploying the System 162
15.4 Handing Over between the Two Teams 164
15.5 Supporting the System until Retirement 167
15.6 Our Story Ends 170
15.7 Further Reading 170
Part IV: Scaling Development with the Kernel 173
Chapter 16: What Does It Mean to Scale? 175
Chapter 17: Zooming In to Provide Details 179
17.1 Making Practices Precise for Inexperienced Members 180
17.2 An Example: A Requirements Elicitation Practice 182
17.3 An Example: An Acceptance Testing Practice 184
17.4 Understanding How Practices Work Together 186
17.5 Value of Precise Practices 188
Chapter 18: Reaching Out to Different Kinds of Development 191
18.1 Agreeing on the Practices to Use 192
18.2 Adapting to Your Development Life Cycle 193
18.3 Building a Method Incrementally during Development 194
18.4 Methods in Large Organizations 197
18.5 Putting Teams in Control of Their Methods 198
Chapter 19: Scaling Up to Large and Complex Development 201
19.1 An Example of Large Development 202
19.2 Organizing Work Using the Alphas 204
19.3 Visualizing Development with the Alphas 208
19.4 Coordinating the Development Teams through Alphas 210
19.5 Empowering Teams to Scale 212
19.6 Further Reading 213
Part V: How the Kernel Changes the Way You Work with Methods 215
Chapter 20: Thinking about Methods without Thinking about Methods 217
20.1 You Think about Methods All the Time 218
20.2 Doing Rather Than Discussing 219
Chapter 21: Agile Working with Methods 221
21.1 The Full Team Owns Their Method, Rather Than a Select Few 222
21.2 Focus on Method Use Rather Than Comprehensive Method Description 223
21.3 Evolve Your Team’s Method, Rather Than Keeping Your Method Fixed 224
Part VI: What’s Really New Here? 227
Chapter 22: Refounding Methods 229
22.1 Not a Lack of Methods, but a Lack of a Foundation—a Kernel 229
22.2 The Kernel Values Practicality 230
22.3 The Kernel Is Actionable and Extensible 232
Chapter 23: Separation of Concerns Applied to Methods 235
23.1 Separating the Kernel from Practices 236
23.2 Separating Alphas from WorkProducts 237
23.3 Separating the Essence from the Details 238
Chapter 24: The Key Differentiators 241
24.1 Innovations with Methods 241
24.2 Practical Tools for Software Teams and Professionals 242
Part VII: Epilogue 245
Chapter 25: This Is Not the End 247
Chapter 26: . . . But Perhaps It Is the End of the Beginning 249
Chapter 27: When the Vision Comes True 253
27.1 The Software Professional 253
27.2 The Industry 254
27.3 The Academic World 255
27.4 An Exciting Future 256
27.5 Further Reading 257
Appendix A: Concepts and Notation 261
Appendix B: What Does This Book Cover with Respect to the Kernel? 263
B.1 Inside the Kernel, and Inside This Book 263
B.2 Outside the Kernel, but Inside This Book 264
B.3 Inside the Kernel, but Outside This Book 265
Appendix C Bibliography 267
C.1 SEMAT Working Documents 267
C.2 SEMAT: Other Documents and References 268
C.3 Other References 270
About the Authors 271
What People Are Saying about This Book 275
Index 287
About the Author :
Dr. Ivar Jacobson, one of the prime movers behind SEMAT, is the principal author of six books, including, with Pan-Wei Ng, Aspect-Oriented Software Development with Use Cases (Addison-Wesley, 2005).
Dr. Pan-Wei Ng is the Asia Pacific CTO and chief scientist at IvarJacobson International and coaches large-scale development extensively.
Paul E. McMahon, principal of PEM Systems, is the author of Integrating CMMI® and Agile Development (Addison-Wesley, 2011).
Ian Spence, chief scientist and principal consultant at Ivar Jacobson International, is the coauthor of Managing Iterative Software Development Projects (Addison-Wesley, 2007).
Svante Lidman is a senior productivity expert at Hansoft and has been leading and coaching software development teams for twenty years.
