The goals of the SWEBOK project has been to develop a topical guide to the body of knowledge (BoK) supporting the discipline of software engineering. The project, sponsored by IEEE Computer Society, is over three years old and is nearing completion of its third and final stage. However, there has been some disagreement as to whether there is currently a common core software engineering body of knowledge at its current stage of evolution, and if so, what is size and contents of that BoK. This panel will present the current status of the SWEBOK and discuss its strengths and weakness, as well as address the more general question of the possible existence and nature of a software engineering body of knowledge. Issues related to internationalization, certification, and accreditation will be examined. The need for various computing societies to be invited to and contribute to the improvement of the SWEBOK project will also be highlighted.
The panel discussion will have two parts:The first part will be an informative session. A short history will be presented and issues related to the curriculum, accreditation, and the maturity of the field to warrant a defined BoK will be discussed.
In the second part, the panel members will discuss and debate the planned experimentation of the guide, its shortcomings, and how various computing societies may and should cooperate to improve the guide.