Software Engineering as a Domain to Formalize

TL;DR

This paper advocates for developing a formal, object-oriented theory of software engineering, outlining its potential structure and emphasizing the need for community-driven formalization of core concepts and processes.

Contribution

It proposes a framework for a formal, object-oriented theory of software engineering, highlighting key abstractions and relationships to guide future formalization efforts.

Findings

Identifies core software engineering concepts for formalization

Suggests an object-oriented model as a basis for theory

Encourages open-source community development of the theory

Abstract

Software engineering concepts and processes are worthy of formal study; and yet we seldom formalize them. This "research ideas" article explores what a theory of software engineering could and should look like. Software engineering research has developed formal techniques of specification and verification as an application of mathematics to specify and verify systems addressing needs of various application domains. These domains usually do not include the domain of software engineering itself. It is, however, a rich domain with many processes and properties that cry for formalization and potential verification. This article outlines the structure of a possible theory of software engineering in the form of an object-oriented model, isolating abstractions corresponding to fundamental software concepts of project, milestone, code module, test and other staples of our field, and their mutual relationships. While the presentation is only a sketch of the full theory, it provides a set of guidelines for how a comprehensive and practical Theory of Software Engineering should (through an open-source community effort) be developed.