[Sigia-l] SWEBOK Guide Call for Reviewers

[Pierre Bourque]

Apologies for multiple copies of this message

Call for Reviewers
Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (Trial Version)
Review Period:  June 2, 2003 to June 30, 2003
To sign up: Please fill in the electronic form found at www.swebok.org
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The purpose of this review cycle is to gather proposed changes to be 
incorporated in the 2003 version of the Guide to Software Engineering Body 
of Knowledge (SWEBOK) scheduled for year-end. The three review cycles 
leading to the publication of the Trial Version in May 2001 (version 0.95) 
were based on expert opinions.  Now that the Trial Version of the Guide has 
been available for two years and has been used in varying contexts for 
different purposes, strong preference will be given to changes based on 
trial usage.

The purpose of the Guide is to characterize the contents of the software 
engineering discipline, to promote a consistent view of software 
engineering worldwide, to clarify the place of, and set the boundary of, 
software engineering with respect to other disciplines, and to provide a 
foundation for curriculum development and individual licensing material. 
All deliverables are available without any charge at www.swebok.org.

The Trial Version of the SWEBOK Guide was endorsed in 2001 for trial usage 
by the Board of Governors of the IEEE Computer Society and is undergoing 
the final steps for publication as a Technical Report by the International 
Organization for Standardization (ISO TR 19759).  The Guide to the Software 
Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) is a project of the IEEE Computer 
Society with corporate support from Boeing, the Canadian Council of 
Professional Engineers, Construx Software, MITRE, the National Institute of 
Standards and Technology, the National Research Council of Canada, Rational 
Software, Raytheon, and SAP Labs (Canada).

Close to 500 reviewers from over 40 countries participated in the three 
review cycles leading to the Trial Version providing roughly eight thousand 
comments.  Each individual reviewer comment, the identity of the reviewer 
who provided the comment and its resolution are publicly available on 
www.swebok.org. The next review cycle will be conducted with a similar 
approach.

The SWEBOK Guide seeks to identify and describe the subset of software 
engineering knowledge that is generally accepted.   Generally accepted 
knowledge applies to most projects most of the time, and widespread 
consensus validates its value and effectiveness (1).  A complementary 
definition states that generally accepted knowledge should be included in 
the study material for a software engineering licensing examination that 
graduates would take after gaining four years of work experience.  Although 
this criterion is specific to the U.S. style of education and does not 
necessarily apply to other countries, it was deemed useful.  Research 
topics and specialized topics are therefore out of scope.

The Trial Version is organized into 10 chapters dealing with the following 
Knowledge Areas: software requirements, software design, software 
construction, software testing, software maintenance, software 
configuration management,  software engineering management, software 
engineering process, software engineering tools and methods, and software 
quality.   The SWEBOK Guide also includes by reference a list of related 
disciplines that are important to software engineers.

Please note that adequate information to implement a recommended change 
must be provided by the reviewer for it to be considered. Well described 
recommended actions will be given more attention and credence than vague or 
imprecise ones.  All reviewers will be recognized by having their name on 
the list of contributors.  Reviewers will send in their proposed changes 
via a Web interface.  Detailed review instructions will be sent to all 
signed-up reviewers on June 2.

To sign up as a reviewer, please fill in the electronic form available at 
www.swebok.org.

For further information, please contact Pierre 
Bourque  (pbourque at ele.etsmtl.ca)


(1) Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of 
Knowledge, see www.pmi.org



**************************************************
Pierre Bourque
Professeur/Professor
Ecole de technologie superieure
Departement de genie electrique
1100, rue Notre-Dame Ouest
Montreal (Quebec), Canada H3C 1K3
Telephone: (1) 514-396-8623
Fax : (1) 514-396-8684
pbourque at ele.etsmtl.ca
Home page available via / Page Personnelle disponible via
http://www.lrgl.uqam.ca/team/membres.html

Co-editor
Guide to the Software Engineering
Body of Knowledge
http://www.swebok.org
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