Software Engineering Method and Theory

Semat seeks to develop a rigorous, theoretically sound basis for software engineering practice, and its wide adoption by industry and academia.

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News:

• [2012-01-15] The document "Semat: Three Year Vision" is available for download.
• [2011-12-25] The report of the 4th Semat workshop is available.
• [2011-11-29] The 4th Semat Workshop will be held at KTH Royale Institute of Technology, Stockholm from December 15-17, 2012. A special presentation on Semat will be given at 3pm - 6pm on December 16, 2011, in Aula on the 5th floor at Forum at KTH Royale Institute of Technology, Isafjordsgatan 39, Kista. Contact information: Mira Kajko-Mattsson (mekm2@kth.se)
• [2011-11-11] New corporate signatory: SICS, Sweden, Jakob Axelsson
• [2011-09-01] A new article about Semat by Ivar Jacobson appeared in CSI Communications.
• [2011-08-19] There has been a technical problem with the supporter registration system, which may have resulted in some registrations lost. If you have registered between July 19 and August 19 but your name is not in the list at the bottom of the page (you can search for it with Ctrl-F), please register again. We apologize for the inconvenience.
• [2011-08-17] New blog entry: Semat has reached Latin America.
• [2011-08-08] New corporate signatory: Huwaei, China, Chongxiao Li
• [2011-07-15] New Signatory: Robert V. Binder
• [2011-07-03] The OMG RFP "A Foundation for the Agile Creation and Enactment of Software Engineering Methods" has been approved on June 24, 2011. Becoming adopted as part of a standard body is a major milestone of the Semat initiative. We're happy with this achievement, which calls for broader submissions and more hard work to follow. We look forward to your participation and comments.
  ( Reading tip: Sections 1--5 introduce general rules for OMG proposals and standards; the actual technical content starts in Section 6).
• See older news.

Organization

Advisory Board: Ivar Jacobson, Bertrand Meyer, Richard Soley

Executive Committee Members: Paul McMahon (Chair), Arne-Jorgen Berre, Michael Goedicke, Shihong Huang, Mira Kajko-Mattsson, Bruce Macisaac, Ed Seymour, Ian Michael Spence

Semat Regional Chapters

• China Chapter: Chapter Chairman: Dr. Zhong Chen, Peking University, http://www.semat.org.cn/
• Latin American Chapter: Chapter Chairman: Dr. Carlos Mario Zapata Jaramillo, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, http://www.sematla.org/
• Others are underconstruction

Call for Action

Software engineering is gravely hampered today by immature practices. Specific problems include:

• The prevalence of fads more typical of fashion industry than of an engineering discipline.
• The lack of a sound, widely accepted theoretical basis.
• The huge number of methods and method variants, with differences little understood and artificially magnified.
• The lack of credible experimental evaluation and validation.
• The split between industry practice and academic research.

We support a process to refound software engineering based on a solid theory, proven principles and best practices that:

• Include a kernel of widely-agreed elements, extensible for specific uses
• Addresses both technology and people issues
• Are supported by industry, academia, researchers and users
• Support extension in the face of changing requirements and technology

SEMAT Blog

Leave your comments and contribute to the SEMAT blog.

SEMAT Working Documents

Official documents and working drafts produced by SEMAT workgroups are listed on a separate page.

SEMAT Meeting Reports

Reports of all SEMAT meetings are available on a separate page.

Other documents and references

Documents and other references related to the SEMAT initiative are available on a separate page.

Signatories:

These eminent members of our industry support the Semat Call for Action statement (the "Grand Vision"). The detailed implementation of that vision, the work of the Semat community and the standards efforts at OMG are carried out by independent groups, and may not represent the opinions of these signatories.

Corporate and academic signatories:

Questions, Answer, and Other Information to Follow SEMAT

Instructions, FAQ, and other useful documents are available on this page.

Semat tracks

We welcome a broad involvement of the community into the tracks' work. If you are interested, please contact us --- or a track leader directly --- stating your background, expertise, and how you could contribute to the specific track.

• Architecture (spike) Track (led by Paul McMahon)
• Requirements Track (led by Dave Cuningham)
• Theory Track (led by Michael Goedicke)
• Kernel Language Track (led by Michael Goedicke)
• Universal Track (led by Ian Spence)
• Assessment Track (led by Paul McMahon)
• Definition Track (led by Mira Kajko-Mattsson)
• Short reports from the Semat tracks.

Testimonials and SEMAT in the news

• What other people and the blogosphere think about SEMAT.
• A response to some critiques of Semat.
• Semat in languages other than English:
  • The Vision statement in Japanese, translation by Kenji Hiranabe.
  • The Semat website in Chinese, managed by Shihong Huang.

Contact us

• Contacts for this website and the SEMAT initiative.
• Acknowledgments to some contributors to the SEMAT initiative.

Semat.org access instructions

If you are experiencing DNS problems in accessing semat.org from China, you may find these instructions useful.

Supporters:

Want to become a supporter? Sign up!

(Please note that the supporters list is not updated automatically, hence it usually takes a few days before your name is added to the list.)

(Supporters are listed in reverse registration order.)

Currently SEMAT has 1679 supporters.

A team of people from Semat and a team of people from OMG have worked for more than six months on a Request For Proposal (RFP) for a kernel and a language.  You will find an extract of the proposal "A Foundation for the Agile Creation and Enactment of Software Engineering Methods" here. Your comments and feedback are very welcome.