Why a 2010 SWEBOK Guide?

Early on, the committee in charge of the 2004 SWEBOK Guide knew it had to plan for revisions, and in fact outlined a process for doing so in Appendix B of the 2004 Guide. There are many reasons for doing so, including the following:

• Practices change. New tools, methods, and types of software make good practice in software engineering an ever-changing target. Topics that were once experimental may have now reached the state of generally accepted knowledge. And even though the Guide focuses on the most widely accepted and long-lasting of practices, it’s possible for the environment that software operates in to change significantly because of business and job changes. For example, it has become clear in just the past few years that good software practice must pay increasing attention to security. Economics can also affect what methods become best practices in software engineering.

 

• Other viewpoints emerge. Other Computer Society products—notably the Certified Software Developer Professional (CSDP) exam and the Software Engineering 2004 curriculum guide—offer slightly differing views of the body of knowledge. So it makes sense to take the opportunity to exam them and better align the 2010 SWEBOK Guide with them where it makes sense. For example, it seems reasonable that there should be a core set of references for these products, so part of the work on the 2010 SWEBOK Guide will establish that core set. The comparison among these efforts has also suggested the need for new knowledge areas and the revision of others.

 

• The body of knowledge grows. Since 2004, many of the books cited in the first SWEBOK Guide have been revised and new articles have been added to the body of knowledge. The 2010 Guide should account for these changes.

These factors drive the need for a new version of the SWEBOK Guide.