The Software Measurement Body of Knowledge

The Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) project of the IEEE Computer Society has developed an international consensus on a Guide to the key knowledge in the Software Engineering domain This SWEBOK Guide is being adopted by the international standardization community as ISO 19759. The SWEBOK Guide includes 10 distinct Knowledge Areas (KAs) and three common themes: Quality, Tools and Measurement. As Measurement is present in all the KAs, some reviewers have suggested representing Measurement as a distinct KA. A recent analysis of software measurement topics comparing SWEBOK to the ISO standard on Metrology and the Abran/Jacquet measurement process model has highlighted a lack of “generally accepted” sources, as well as some missing knowledge types, even in the area of exploitation of measurement results in quality and prediction models. According to the “generally accepted” criteria of the Project Management Institute in the PMBOK, software engineering measurement, as of 2003, would still be considered rather immature in terms of knowledge maturity. At the same time, the speed of research on software measurement has recently been on the increase, and several international standards on software measurement are coming out, both for software processes (CMMI, ISO 15504, 15939) and for software products (ISO 14143, 19761, 9126, etc.). Such results are strengthening the knowledge developed over the last 30 years in terms of measurement processes and methods. We are therefore of the opinion that such recent work is rapidly closing important gaps in software-related measurement knowledge, which could move relatively quickly towards the “generally accepted” threshold for establishing a new KA in the SWEBOK. This paper therefore proposes, on the basis of the Trial version of the SWEBOK Guide, of recent work and of the SWEBOK editorial criteria, an initial taxonomy for a Software Measurement body of knowledge.