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.