“In spite of millions of software professionals worldwide and the ubiquitous presence of software in our society, software engineering has only recently reached the status of a legitimate engineering discipline and a recognized profession.”

 

Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) 2004.

 

 

“Software industrialization will occur when software engineering reaches critical mass in our classrooms and workplace worldwide as standard operating procedure for the development, operation and maintenance of software.”

 

Mitch Barnett 2007.

 

I had the good fortune to have been taught software engineering by a few folks from Motorola University early in my career (1994 – 96).  One of the instructors, Karl Williams, said to us on our first day of class, “we have made 30 years of software engineering mistakes which makes for a good body of knowledge to learn from.”  He wasn’t kidding.  A lot of interesting stories were told over those two years, each of which had an alternate ending once software engineering was applied.

 

Over 16 years, I have worked in many different software organizations, some categorized as start-ups, others as multi-nationals like Eastman Kodak and Motorola, and a few in-between.  I have performed virtually every role imaginable in the software development industry: Business Analyst, Systems Analyst, Designer, Programmer, Developer, Tester, Software/Systems/Technical Architect, Project/Program/Product Manager, QA Manager, Team Lead, Director, Consultant, Contractor, and even President of my own software development company with a staff of 25 people.  These roles encompassed several practice areas including, product development, R&D, maintenance and professional services.

 

Why am I telling you this?  Well, you might consider me to be “one” representative sample in the world of software engineering because of my varied roles, practices areas and industries that I have been in.  For example, in one of the large corporations I worked in, when a multi-million dollar software project gets cancelled, for whatever reason, it does not really impact you.  However, if you happen to be the owner of the company, like I have been, and a software project of any size gets cancelled, it directly affects you, right in the pocket book.

 

I wrote this series on software engineering to assist people in our industry on what the real world practice of software engineering is, how it might be pragmatically applied in the context of your day to day work, and if possible in your geographical area, how to become a licensed professional software engineer.  Whether you are a seasoned pro or a newbie, hopefully this series will shed some light on what real world software engineering is from an “in the trenches” perspective."

 

One interesting aspect of real world software engineering is trying to determine the knowledge and skill of the team you are on or maybe joining in the near future if you are looking for work.  While there are various “maturity models” to assist in the evaluation process, currently only a small percentage of organizations use these models and even fewer have been assessed.

 

Did I mention that software engineering is a team sport?  Sure you can get a lot done as “the loner”, and I have been contracted like that on occasion. I am also a team of one on my pet open source project.  However, in most cases you already are, or will be part of a team.  From a software engineering perspective, how mature is the team?  How would you tell?  I mean for sure.  And why would you want to know?

 

Software engineering knowledge and skill levels are what I am talking about.  Software engineering is primarily a team sport, so let’s use a sports team analogy, and since I am from Canada, it’s got to be hockey.  A real “amateur” hockey team may be termed “pick up” hockey or as we call it in Canada, “shinny."  This is where the temperature has dropped so low that the snow on the streets literally turns to ice – perfect for hockey.  All you need are what look like hockey sticks, a makeshift goal and a sponge puck. I can tell you that the sponge puck starts out nice and soft at room temperature, but turns into real hard puck after a few minutes of play.  The first lesson you learn as a potential hockey star is to wear “safety” equipment for the next game.

 

Pick-up hockey is completely ad-hoc with minimal rules and constraints.  At the other end of the spectrum, where the knowledge and skill level is near maximum maturity level, is the NHL professional hockey team.  The team members have been playing their roles (read: positions) for many years and have knowledge and skills that represent the top of their profession.

 

How does one become a professional hockey player?  It usually starts with that game of shinny and over the years you progress through various leagues/levels until at some point in your growth, it is decided that you want to become a professional hockey player.  Oh yes, I know a little bit about talent (having lived the Gretsky years in Edmonton), luck of the draw, the level of competition and sacrifices required.  The point being it is pretty “obvious” when you join a hockey team at what knowledge and skill level the team is at.  And if you don’t, it becomes pretty apparent on ice in about 10 minutes as to whether you are on the right team or not – from both your and the teams perspective.

 

In the world of software engineering, it is not obvious at all if you are on the right team or not and may take a few months or longer to figure that out.  Why?  Unlike play on the ice where anyone can see you skate, stick handle and score, it is very difficult for someone to observe you think, problem solve, design, code and deliver quality software on time, on budget.  This goes for your teammates as well as the evaluation of… you.

 

Software engineering is much more complicated than hockey for many different reasons, one of them being that the playing field is not in the self contained physical world of the hockey rink.  The number of “objects” from a complexity point of view is very limited in hockey, in fact, not much more complex than when you first started out playing shinny, other than the realization for wearing safety gear, a small rule booklet and a hockey rink. 

 

The world of software engineering is quite a bit more complex and variable, particularly in the knowledge and skills of the team players.  It is more likely that your team has a shinny player or two, a NHL player and probably a mix of everything in-between.  Without levels or leagues to progress through, it is actually more than likely, it is probably fact that the team is comprised of members at all different levels of software engineering knowledge and skill.  Why is this not a good thing?

 

This knowledge and skills mix is further exacerbated by the popularity of “resource pools” that organizations favor these days.  The idea is to assemble a team for whatever project comes up next with resources that are available from the pool.  As any coach will tell you, at any level of league play, you cannot assemble a team overnight and expect them to win their first game or play like a team that has been playing together for seasons of play.  This approach just compounds the fact of a mixed skill level team by just throwing them together and expecting a successful delivery of the software project on their very first try.  We have no equivalent to “try outs” or training camps.

 

And that’s a big issue.  People like Watts Humphrey, who was instrumental in developing the Software Engineering Institutes, Capability Maturity Model realized this and developed the Personal Software Process.  Before you can play on a team, there is some expectation that the knowledge and skill levels are at a certain point where team play can actually occur with some certainty of what the outcome is going to be.  I have a lot of respect for Watts.

 

So how do we assess our software engineering knowledge and skills?  In part, that is what the guide to the SWEBOK is about.  It identifies the knowledge areas and provides guidance to book references that covers those knowledge areas for what is accepted as general practice for software engineering. 

 

The other assessment part is to compare our knowledge and skills to what is required to becoming a licensed professional engineer (P.Eng.)  We will do this first before we look at SWEBOK in detail.

 

I see licensing professional software engineers as a crucial step towards software industrialization.  I base this on my “in the trenches” experience in the electronics world prior to moving into the software development world.  The professional electronics engineers I worked with had a very similar “body of knowledge”, except in electronics engineering, that was required to be understood and practiced for 4 years in order to even qualify to become a P. Eng. 

 

Most importantly, the process of developing an R&D electronics product and preparing for mass production, which I participated in for two years a long long time ago, was simply standard operating procedure.  There was never any question or argument as to what the deliverables were at each phase of the project, who had to sign them off, how the product got certified, why did we design this way, etc.  Comparatively speaking to our software industry, that’s what the guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge is all about, a normative standard operating procedure for the development, operation and maintenance of software.  Yes, it is an emerging discipline, yes, it has limitations, but a good place to start don’t you think?

 

In Part 2, we are going to look at the requirements in British Columbia for becoming a licensed software engineer.  We will use these requirements to assess the knowledge and skill level to uncover any gaps that might need to be filled in the way of exams or experience.  If you want to have a look ahead, you can review the basic requirements for becoming licensed as a P. Eng., and the specific educational requirements and experience requirements for becoming a professional software engineer.

 

PS. Part 2 posted

 

PPS.  Happy Unofficial Programmer's Day!