An Integrated Collection of Software Engineering Standards

N o v e m b e r / D e c e m b e r 1 9 9 9 I E E E S o f t w a r e 5 1 ver the years, there has been broad interest in creating software engineering standards. One authoritative survey discovered approximately 315 standards, guides, handbooks, and other prescriptive documents maintained by 46 different organizations (see the “Sources of Software Engineering Standards” sidebar).1 Nevertheless, uptake of the available standards has been somewhat disappointing. Hopeful users report difficulty in finding the standards that suit their particular situation among the numerous ones available. They also report that detailed differences between standards make it difficult to apply them in unison. For example, in an area of overlap between two standards, each might emphasize a different approach or use different terminology. We need an approach to managing a standards collection that emphasizes integrating the various standards. Since 1991, those of us working on the IEEE Computer Society’s Software Engineering Standards Committee have undertaken efforts to manage the standards collection to promote consistency. Although the colJames W. Moore, The Mitre Corporation An Integrated Collection of Software Engineering Standards