SEMAT (Software Engineering Method and Theory) is an initiative to reshape software engineering such that software engineering qualifies as a rigorous discipline. SEMAT and Essence are big thinking for software developers.
There are millions of software engineers on the planet in countless programs, projects and teams; the millions of line of software that run the world are testament to their talents, but as community we still find it difficult to share our best practices, truly empower our teams, seamless integrate software engineering into our businesses, and maintain the health of our endeavors avoiding embarrassing and unnecessary catastrophic failures.
The industry’s habit of constantly switching between no methods and the latest “one true way” (an affliction that sadly is even affecting the agile community) is not the way forward. As an industry we need to establish a solid foundation that will 1) enable teams to understand and visualize the progress and health of their endeavors regardless of their way of working, and 2) easily share, adapt, and “plug and play” with their practices to create the innovative ways of working they need to excel and continuously improve. A foundation that SEMAT and Essence provides by establishing an actionable common ground all teams can share and freeing the practices from the shackles of big process.
In the same way that Google map shows you where you are, where you want to go, and the best way to get there when making a journey SEMAT and Essence can do the same for teams of engineers developing software.
This Google Tech Talk was presented in Zürich by Ivar Jacobson & Ian Spence
More on SEMAT: http://semat.org/
Slides of the presentation: http://www.ivarjacobson.com/uploadedFiles/Pages/Knowledge_Centre/Resources/Presentations/Resources/SEMAT%20presentation%20at%20Google.pdf