engineering programs.

For example, the kernel supports the values of the Agile Manifesto. With its focus on checklists and results, and its inherent practice independence, it values individuals and interactions over processes and tools. With its focus on the needs of professional software-development teams, it values the way of working and fulfilling team responsibilities over methods.

The kernel does not in any way compete with existing methods, be they agile or anything else. On the contrary, the kernel is agnostic to a team’s chosen method. Even if a team is already using a particular method, the kernel can still help. Regardless of the method used, as Robert Martin pointed out in his foreword to The Essence of Software Engineering, projects—even agile ones—can get out of kilter, and when they do, teams need to know more. This is where the real value of the kernel lies. It can guide a team in the actions they need to take to get back on course, to extend their method, or to address a critical gap in their way of working. It focuses on the needs of the software professional and values the “use of methods” over “the description of method definitions” (as has been normal in the past).

The kernel does not just support modern best practices; it also recognizes that a vast amount of software is already developed and needs to be maintained. It will live for decades and will have to be maintained in an efficient way. This means the way you work with this software will have to evolve alongside the software itself. New practices will need to be introduced in a way that complements the ones already in use. The kernel provides the mechanisms to migrate legacy methods from monolithic waterfall approaches to more modern agile ones and beyond, in an evolutionary way. It allows you to change your legacy methods practice-by-practice, while maintaining and improving the teams’ ability to deliver.

How the kernel will help you. Use
of the kernel has many benefits for ex-
perienced or aspiring software profes-
sionals, and for the teams they work
in. For example, it helps you assess
the progress and health of software-
development endeavors, evaluate cur-
rent practices, and improve your way
of working. It also helps you improve
communication, move more easily be-
tween teams, and adopt new ideas. It
will help the industry as a whole by im-
proving interoperability among teams,
suppliers, and development organiza-
tions.

Related articles on queue.acm.org

There’s no Such Thing as a Free (Software) Lunch

Jay Michaelson

http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1005066

Purpose-Built Languages

Mike Shapiro

http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1508217

Open Source to the Core

Jordan Hubbard

http://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=1005064

References

1. Azoff, m. Apt methods and Tools, Fujitsu. Ovum Technology Report. Reference Code O100032-002 (Jan. 2011).

2. Fujitsu, Ivar Jacobson International AB, model driven Solutions. Essence—kernel and language for software engineering. Initial submission, 2012, version 1.0.

3. Jacobson, I. and meyer, B. methods need theory.

Dr. Dobb’s Journal, (2009).

4. Jacobson, I., meyer, B. and Soley, R. Call for action:
The SEmAT initiative. Dr. Dobb’s Journal, (2009).

 

Ivar Jacobson, the chairman of Ivar Jacobson International, is a father of components and component architecture, use cases, the Unified modeling Language, and the Rational Unified Process. He has contributed to modern business modeling and aspect-oriented software development.

Pan-Wei ng coaches large-scale systems development involving many millions of lines of code and hundreds of people per release, helping them transition to a lean and agile way of working, not forgetting to improve their code and architecture and to test through use cases and aspects. He is the coauthor, with Ivar Jacobson, of Aspect-oriented Software Development with Use Cases.

Paul McMahon is an independent consultant focusing on coaching project managers, team leaders, and software professionals in the practical use of lean and agile techniques in constrained environments. He has been a leader in the SEmAT initiative since its inception.

Ian Spence is CTO at Ivar Jacobson International and the team leader for the development of the SEmAT kernel. He has introduced hundreds of projects to iterative and agile practices as well as led numerous successful large-scale transformation projects working with development organizations of up to 5,000 people.

Svante Lidman has extensive experience building high-performance enterprise software-development teams. He has held positions at Hansoft AB, Ivar Jacobson International, microsoft, Rational Software, Objectory, among others. Since mid-2010 Lidman was the leading change agent in the largest lean/agile transition ever done in Scandinavia.