Overview of ISO/IEC/JTC1 SC7/WG20: Certification of software and systems engineering professionals and SWEBOK Guide
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The document outlines the ISO/IEC 24773 series for the certification of software and systems engineering professionals, detailing the requirements for certification schemes. It emphasizes the importance of a Body of Knowledge (BoK), competencies, and ethical standards to validate professionals in this field. The series is structured in parts, covering general requirements, guidance on competencies, and specific focuses for both systems and software engineering.
Overview of ISO/IEC/JTC1 SC7/WG20: Certification of software and systems engineering professionals and SWEBOK Guide
- 1. Overview of ISO/IEC/JTC1 SC7/WG20 Certification of software and systems engineering professionals and SWEBOK Guide Hironori Washizaki ISO/IEC/JTC1 SC7/WG20 Convenor IEEE Computer Society 2025 President Waseda University, Professor September 20th 2024
- 3. Engineering discipline should have Decisions and activities by professionals make actual values for society. 3 Paul Star, “The Social Transformation of American Medicine,” Basic Books, 1982. There is an community- based environment for validating knowledge. Body of knowledge validated by communities is based on solid scientific foundation.
- 4. Body of Knowledge Skills Competencies Jobs / Roles Certifications Learning courses 4 ISO/IEC 24773 Software and systems engineering ─ Certification of software and systems engineering professionals ISO/IEC 24773 Software and systems engineering ─ Certification of software and systems engineering professionals • A standard series that defines requirements for certification schemes in software and systems engineering, developed by ISO/IEC/JTC1 SC7/WG20 • Part 1 (2021): General requirements • Part 2 (2024): Guidance regarding description of knowledge, skills, and competencies contained in schemes • Part 3 (2022): Systems engineering (referring to the INCOSE SE Handbook) • Part 4 (2023): Software engineering (referring to the SWEBOK Guide)
- 5. Overview of ISO/IEC 24773 series 5 Conformity assessment — General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons Guidance regarding description of knowledge, skills, and competencies contained in schemes General requirements Other Certification
- 6. Part 1: General requirements • Conformance to ISO/IEC 17024: Conformity assessment — General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons • Fundamental components – A job title (or role name) – A list of the tasks – A description of the level of accountability, responsibility, autonomy, authority and complexity of the work associated with the title. – A description of the BOK, cognitive levels, skills, and performance levels appropriate for the title – Any minimum educational qualification or experience required for a candidate – A description of the code of ethics and professional practices required – Any other information (if existing) that may assist the relevant professional community in identifying the systems or software engineering professionals to whom the certification applies • BOK and cognitive level – The necessary knowledge and knowledge areas required by the certification scheme shall be based on a BOK. – If the scheme contains another BOK other than the reference BOK contained in the appropriate part of this document, the contents of that other BOK shall be identified and mapped to the contents of the reference BOK. • Skill and performance level • Competence and proficiency level • Code of Ethics and Professional Practices • Maintenance of certification – Renewal of certification – Continuing professional development • References incl. – IEA Graduate Attributes and Professional Competencies, INCOSE SE Handbook, SE Competency Framework, IEEE-CS SWECOM, CEN eCF, IPA iCD 6
- 7. ISO/IEC 17024: 2012 Conformity assessment — General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons • General requirements – Legal matters – Responsibility for decision on certification – Management of impartiality – Finance and liability • Structural requirements – Management and organization structure – Structure of the certification body in relation to training • Resource requirements – General personnel requirements – Personnel involved in the certification activities – Outsourcing – Other resources • Records and information requirements – Records of applicants, candidates and certified persons – Public information – Confidentiality – Security • Certification schemes – Certification process requirements – Application process – Assessment process – Examination process – Decision on certification – Suspending, withdrawing or reducing the scope of certification – Recertification process – Use of certificates, logos and marks – Appeals against decisions on certification – Complaints • Management system requirements – General – General management system requirements 7
- 8. Key concepts in ISO/IEC 24773 • Body of knowledge (BOK) – collection of knowledge items or areas generally agreed to be essential to understanding a particular subject • Competence (competency) – ability to apply knowledge and skills to achieve intended results • Conformant certification scheme – a scheme that satisfies all requirements defined in this International Standard. – An issued certificate / certification provides a proof of ability of an individual over a certain period of time. – A certification scheme contains a re-certification mechanism for this purpose. – The ability addressed by the certification includes knowledge, skill and competence at adequate levels. – Competence involves the ability to apply knowledge and skills. • Qualification scheme – a scheme which is similar in some respects to certification schemes, but which does not incorporate a re-qualification requirement or a requirement for the maintenance of proficiency. – The focus of a qualification is to assure an ability at a certain point in time. 8
- 10. Towards inter-exchange and mutual recognition of certifications and certified engineers globally via ISO/IEC 24773 • Certification bodies: offering conforming certification to be globally accepted and recognized • Industry organizations: compare various certifications for professionals in systems and/or software engineering • Individual professionals: obtain certification to be globally accepted and recognized • Employers: choose or recognize such certifications • Training vendors: provide professional training in globally recognizable way • Universities: higher education and curriculum development aligned with BOKs and certification schemes • (Governments and regulatory bodies) 10 Reference BOK BOK x BOK y Certification A Certification B Knowledge area
- 11. Part 2: Guidance regarding description of knowledge, skills, and competencies contained in schemes • Recommendations — Body of knowledge (BOK) – General – Scope and depth of a BOK – Construction or assembly of BOK: content hierarchy and guides to BOK – Professional orientation and style – Separation of topics and orthogonality – Treatment of knowledge and references to other disciplines and other basic knowledge domains – Objectivity and verifiability – Presentation of practical knowledge versus pure theory – Bibliography and referenced source materials – Validation of BOK – Maintenance of BOK • Recommendations — Description of skills – Skills are related both to knowledge and competency – Skills are acquired and developed – Skills differ from individual (personal) attributes – Skills have performance levels – Groups of skills and highly specific skills – Maintenance of skills definitions and performance levels • Recommendations — Description of competencies – General. – General objectives in describing competencies – Separation of competencies from titles or roles within organizations – Lower-level competencies and work products – Use of external competency definitions – Generic competencies – Other professional competencies – Proficiency Levels. – Maintenance of competency definitions and proficiency levels • Other general recommendations. – Individual attributes – Assessment and validation of assessment.. • Assessment of knowledge and cognitive skills • Assessment of competencies • Assessment of experience relative to competencies – Guidance regarding code of ethics, code of conduct and ethical behavior • References incl. – IEA Graduate Attributes and Professional Competencies, IEEE-CS SWEBOK, SWECOM, INCOSE SE Competency Framework, CEN e-CF, SFIA Framework, IPA iCD 11
- 12. 12 Knowledge Skills Competencies Body of Knowledge Knowledge Area 1: Topic 1.x: Theory, Practice, Standards Topic 1.y: Theory, Practice, Standards Knowledge Area 2: Topic 2.x: Theory, Practice, Standards Performance Level Skill Group 1: Skill 1.1 Skill 1.2 … Skill 1.n Performance Level Skill Group 2: Skill 2.1 Skill 2.2 … Skill 2.n Proficiency Level Competency Area 1: Comp 1.A Comp 1.B Comp 1.C Proficiency Level Competency Area 2: Comp 2.A Comp 2.B Comp 2.C Proficiency Level Other Professional Competency Area 3: Comp 3.A Comp 3.B Comp 3.C Cognitive Levels Proficiency Level Generic Competence Self Organization Time Management Prof. Communication Prof. Development … Certification Scheme Required for Applied in Job X Job Y Job Z
- 13. Part 3: Systems engineering • Requirements specific to certification schemes for systems engineering professionals • Fundamental components of a conformant scheme – A list of skills mapped to knowledge areas of the reference BOK and defined competencies • Knowledge - Identification of a body of knowledge (BOK) – The reference BOK is the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook • Skills – Identification of skills – Assessment of skills • Competence – These may be drawn from the competencies defined in the INCOSE Systems Engineering Competency Framework • Professional attributes • Certification renewal 13
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- 16. Part 4: Software engineering • Requirements specific to certification schemes for software engineering professionals • Fundamental components of a conformant scheme – Each task or activity associated with the Scheme shall be “mapped” to at least one of the following • KA of the Guide to the SWEBOK, ISO/IEC TR 19759 • Process, activity or task of ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 • Technical skill area of IEEE Software Engineering Competency Model (SWECOM) V1 • Knowledge – The reference BOK is the IEEE-CS SWEBOK Guide • Skill – Examples of software engineering skills • Competence – Examples of software engineering competencies – Exemplar mapping of competencies to related skills and knowledge • References incl. – IEEE-CS SWEBOK, SWECOM, CEN e-CF, SFIA Framework, IPA iCD 16
- 17. Body of Knowledge Skills Competencies Jobs / Roles SWEBOK Software Engineering Professional Certifications SWECOM EITBOK Learning courses 17 Products and program by IEEE Computer Society ISO/IEC 24773 Software and systems engineering ─ Certification of software and systems engineering professionals • SWEBOK, EITBOK, SWECOM • Professional Certifications
- 18. Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK Guide) https://www.computer.org/education/bodies-of-knowledge/software-engineering • 2001 v1, 2004 v2, 2005 ISO/IEC Technical Report, 2014 v3, 2024 v4 • Objective – Guiding learners, researchers and practitioners to identify and have common understanding on “generally- accepted-knowledge” in software engineering – Defining boundary of software engineering and related disciplines – Providing foundations for certifications and educational curriculum • Adoption – IEEE-CS software professional certification programs based on SWEBOK (Associate Software Developer, Professional Software Developer, Professional Software Engineering Master) – ISO/IEC 24773-4: Certification of software and systems engineering professionals - Part 4: Software engineering – Software Engineering Competency Model (SWECOM) Activities (and practices) Body of Knowledge Islands of Knowledge
- 19. Mainframe 70’s – Early 80’s Late 80’s - Early 90’s Late 90’s - Early 00’s Late 00’s - Early 10’s PC, Client & server Internet Ubiquitous computing Late 10’s - Early 20’s IoT, Big data, AI Structured programming Waterfall Formalization Design Program generation Maturity Management Object-oriented Req. eng. Modeling Verification Reuse Model-driven Product-line Global & open Value-based Systems eng. Agile Iterative & incremental DevOps Empirical Data-driven Continuous SE and IoT SE and AI SWEBOK V1 SWEBOK V2 SWEBOK V3 SWEBOK V4
- 20. SWEBOK Evolution from V3 to V4 • Modern engineering, practice update, BOK grows and recently developed areas Requirements Design Construction Testing Maintenance Configuration Management Engineering Management Process Models and Methods Quality Professional Practice Economics Computing Foundations Mathematical Foundations Engineering Foundations Requirements Architecture Design Construction Testing Operations Maintenance Configuration Management Engineering Management Process Models and Methods Quality Security Professional Practice Economics Computing Foundations Mathematical Foundations Engineering Foundations V3 V4 Agile, DevOps AI for SE, SE for AI Software engineering AI AI for SE SE for A
- 21. SWEBOK Guide v4 Webinar Series • https://jp.ieee.org/files/Flyer_SWEBOK%204th%20Edition%20Content%20an d%20Usage-v2.pdf • The editors who have edited knowledge areas will briefly explain each corresponding knowledge area's essence and major updates directly. • No.1, 26th September, 1:00 AM - 3:00 AM UTC – Introduction, Software Requirements (Chapter 1) , Software Architecture (2), Software Design (3), Software Construction (4) • No.2, 23rd October, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM UTC – Software Testing (5), Software Engineering Operations (6), Software Maintenance (7), Software Configuration Management (8), Software Engineering Management (9) • No.3, 27th November 1:00 AM - 3:00 AM UTC – Software Engineering Models and Methods (11), Software Quality (12), Software Security (13), Software Engineering Professional Practice (14), IEEE and ISO/IEC Standards Supporting SWEBOK (Appendix B) • No.4, 9th December, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM UTC – Software Engineering Process (10), Software Engineering Economics (15), Computing Foundations (16), Mathematical Foundations (17), Engineering Foundations (18)
- 22. 22 2 https://committee.iso.org/sites/jtc1sc7/home/projects/overview.html Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK Guide) https://www.computer.org/education/bodies-of-knowledge/software-engineering • 2001 v1, 2004 v2, 2005 ISO/IEC Technical Report, 2014 v3, 2024 v4 • Objective – Guiding learners, researchers and practitioners to identify and have common understanding on “generally- accepted-knowledge” in software engineering – Defining boundary of software engineering and related disciplines – Providing foundations for certifications and educational curriculum • Adoption – IEEE-CS software professional certification programs based on SWEBOK (Associate Software Developer, Professional Software Developer, Professional Software Engineering Master) – ISO/IEC 24773-4: Certification of software and systems engineering professionals - Part 4: Software engineering – Software Engineering Competency Model (SWECOM) Activities (and practices) Body of Knowledge Islands of Knowledge Body of Knowledge Skills Competencies Jobs / Roles Certifications Learning courses 4 ISO/IEC 24773 Software and systems engineering ─ Certification of software and systems engineering professionals ISO/IEC 24773 Software and systems engineering ─ Certification of software and systems engineering professionals • A standard series that defines requirements for certification schemes in software and systems engineering, developed by ISO/IEC/JTC1 SC7/WG20 • Part 1 (2021): General requirements • Part 2 (2024): Guidance regarding description of knowledge, skills, and competencies contained in schemes • Part 3 (2022): Systems engineering (referring to the INCOSE SE Handbook) • Part 4 (2023): Software engineering (referring to the SWEBOK Guide) Towards inter-exchange and mutual recognition of certifications and certified engineers globally via ISO/IEC 24773 • Certification bodies: offering conforming certification to be globally accepted and recognized • Industry organizations: compare various certifications for professionals in systems and/or software engineering • Individual professionals: obtain certification to be globally accepted and recognized • Employers: choose or recognize such certifications • Training vendors: provide professional training in globally recognizable way • Universities: higher education and curriculum development aligned with BOKs and certification schemes • (Governments and regulatory bodies) 10 Reference BOK BOK x BOK y Certification A Certification B Knowledge area