Why I signed up for SEMAT

I’ve recently become a signatory to SEMAT (Software Engineering Method and Theory).  They’ve been trying to get me to sign up for some time but I resisted so far.  Why did I change my mind?

Originally, SEMAT was branded as “a revolution in software engineering”.  I didn’t like that: I’m old enough to have seen plenty of “revolutions” come and go.  I did not want to go down the revolution road again.  I decided to wait and see.

Now SEMAT has had its first workshop and seems to have made a good start.  The revolutionary language has vanished.  People that I greatly respect are involved.   SEMAT now starts to look like an opportunity to make a difference.

Here is a quote from the workshop report that I really like, attributed to the late Robin Milner:  "Language is the raw material of software engineering, rather as water is the raw material for hydraulic engineering".

This week, Ivar asked me again: so this time I joined. Let’s see where it leads.