Document Summary:

Software engineering has not reached the status of a legitimate engineering discipline and a recognized profession. Since 1993, the IEEE Computer Society and the ACM have been actively promoting software engineering as a profession, notably through their involvement in the Joint IEEE Computer Society and ACM Steering Committee for the Establishment of Software Engineering as a Profession.

Achieving consensus by the profession on a core body of knowledge is a key milestone in all disciplines and has been identified by the Steering Committee as crucial for the evolution of software engineering toward a professional status. This report, written under the auspices of this committee, is the first step in a four-year project designed to reach this consensus.

Focus:

The software engineering body of knowledge is an all-inclusive term that describes the sum of knowledge within the profession of software engineering. Since it is usually not possible to put the full body of knowledge of even an emerging discipline, such as software engineering, into a single document, there is a need for a Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge. This guide will seek to identify and describe that subset of the body of knowledge that is generally accepted, even though software engineers must not only be knowledgeable in software engineering, but also of course in other, related disciplines.

Objectives:

The objectives of the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge project are therefore to:

- characterize the contents of the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge
- provide a topical access to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge;
- promote a consistent view of software engineering worldwide;
- clarify the place of, and set the boundary of, software engineering with respect to other disciplines such as computer science, project management, electrical engineering and mathematics;
- provide a foundation for curriculum development and individual certification and licensing material.

The intended audience for the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge includes: private and public organizations, practicing software engineers, makers of public policy, professional societies, students and educators, as well as researchers.