Software engineering body of skills (SWEBOS)

Abstract

The development of complex software systems requires a mixture of various technical and non-technical competencies. While there are some guidelines what technical knowledge is required to make a good software engineer, there is a lack of insight as to which non-technical or soft skills are required to master complex software projects. This paper proposes a body of skills (SWEBOS) for software engineering. The collection of necessary skills is developed on the basis of a clear, datadriven research design. The resulting required soft skills for software engineering are described precisely and semantically rich in a three-level structure. This approach guarantees that skills are not just characterized in a broad and general manner, but rather they are specifically adapted to the domain of software engineering.

Soft Competencies and Satisfaction Levels for Software Engineers: A Unified Framework

“…In proposing a body of skills (SWEBOS) for software engineering, Sedelmaier and Landes identified and structured soft competencies of software engineers into three categories [3]. These include (i) comprehension of the complexity of software engineering processes, (ii) awareness of problems and understanding of cause-effect relationships, and (iii) team competency including communication skills.…”

“…According to IEEE software engineering competency is defined as the knowledge, skills and attitudes of software developers to fulfill a task in a software development project [2]. This includes both soft and hard competencies [3]. Lenberg et al pointed out that research work on software engineering competency (SEC) is not necessarily lacking.…”

“…Harris & Rogers, define soft skills or competencies as "work ethics, positive attitude, social grace, facility with language, friendliness, integrity and the willingness to learn" [5, p.19]. Thus, the identification and use of soft competencies help in the development of complex software, because the software development involves a combination of soft and hard competencies [3,6].…”

Grading students' programming and soft skills with open badges: A case study

“…There is no such thing as globally accepted, standard benchmarks and procedures to measure students' soft skills (“PISA 2015 Draft collaborative problem solving framework,” ), although national and international efforts in this direction do exist (“21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics ‐ ITL Research,” ; “21CLD Student Work Rubrics ‐ ITL Research,” ; “Assessment & Teaching of 21st Century Skills,” 2012). Non‐technical (soft) skills are mentioned in SWEBOK V3.0 and the IEEE/ACM curriculum , but recommendations go only as far as “which soft skills a software engineer should have and what a particular soft skill exactly means” (Sedelmaier & Landes, ). It is for these reasons that a generic pedagogical model and framework for soft skills as well as a generic rubric were developed in the GRASS project (GRASS D2.2 Pedagogical Approaches, ; GRASS D2.2 Supporting Document GRASS Pedagogical Rubric, ).…”

“…Software engineering courses and programming courses in general are usually focused on developing, assessing and grading technical skills only. Even the latest guidelines for teaching and learning software engineering, namely SWEBOK V3.0 and the IEEE/ACM curriculum , are focused on technical competencies and give only “marginal consideration to vaguely characterized non‐technical (soft) skills” (Sedelmaier & Landes, ).…”