Shared understanding is essential for efficient communication in software development and evolution projects when the risk of unsatisfactory outcome and rework of project results shall be low. Today, however, shared understanding is used mostly in an unreflected, intuitive way. This is particularly true for implicit shared understanding. In this paper, we investigate the role, value and usage of shared understanding in Software Engineering. We contribute a reflected analysis of the problem, in particular of how to rely on implicit shared understanding. We discuss enablers and obstacles, compile existing practices for dealing with shared understanding, and present a roadmap for improving knowledge and practice in this area.

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Structured programming has proved to be an important methodology for systematic program design and development. Structured programs are identified as compound function expressions in the algebra of functions. The algebraic properties of these function expressions permit the reformulation (expansion as well as reduction) of a nested subexpression independently of its environment, thus modeling what is known as stepwise program refinement as well as program execution. Finally, structured programming is characterized in terms of the selection and solution of certain elementary equations defined in the algebra of functions. These solutions can be given in general formulas, each involving a single parameter, which display the entire freedom available in creating correct structured programs.

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