THE STATE OF SOFTWARE ENGINEERING MATURITY AND LICENSURE

• Main Author: Dean, Travis Lawrence
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@CalPoly 2011
• Subjects: Software engineering; maturity model; professional; profession; licensing; Other Computer Engineering
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/469; https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1496&context=theses

IEEE-CS is pursuing licensing for software engineers, but ACM believes that software engineering is too immature, and regulating the profession would be premature. In 1996, Norman Gibbs and Gary Ford from Carnegie Mellon University performed a qualitative survey of the maturity of the software engineering profession. I apply this model to the present state of the art in software engineering and analyze the results for 2010. I analyze the maturity of software engineering to determine that the profession is not yet ready for licensure. This is not because the infrastructure of software engineering is too immature, but because we have failed to establish an appropriate body of knowledge for software engineers. I also show that once an appropriate body of knowledge is established, licensure will be an appropriate next step and will open the way for the profession to fully mature.