Cem Kaner writes about Software Engineering’s Body of Knowledge. Martin Fowler has some good commentary. The basic point is that these practices could be codified into a certification program in which certified software engineers could be sued for malpractice for not following them. The thing that is a problem for Agile thinkers is that SWEBOK is very waterfall-ish. However, the document is open for public review. So feel free to give it a bad one.
Software engineering certification will come one day, so we should take some time to think about how to make it work. There are good arguments in favor of certification and even the sort of document-heavy, big-design-up-front style SWEBOK current promotes. The best explanation I’ve read was from Alistair Cockburn about the failure modes of a piece of software. In the extreme case when software failure could result in loss of life, a heavy process with all of its checks and balances makes good sense.
If this is the sort of process that software engineering certification requires, then we must make sure that the market is free to hire non-certified software developers depending on their needs. For truly critical software, certified engineers can be hired, but most software doesn’t need this level of rigor. For these projects companies should be free to give up the ability to sue for malpractice and hire non-certified developers. Agile developers will be cheaper and/or faster in this sort of market.
This might even be the key to publicizing the fact that different software projects require different approaches. One size does not fit all. Sometimes you’ve got to make it come down to dollars and cents for business to take notice.
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