I’ve mentioned before that there is a move afoot to “harmonize” the ISO management standards system to make it easier for those organizations who are certified to more than one standard. There’s been a similar move in the area of standardization for software engineering. The ISO/IEC 24744, “Software engineering – Metamodel for development methodologies,” is one of the primary documents for this effort. And it’s just been revised with the issue of the 2nd Edition. This new update replaces both the 1st Edition and Amendment 1.
ISO/IEC 24744 defines SEMDM, Software Engineering Metamodel for Development Methodologies. This was developed by ISO/IEC’s Joint Technical Committee (JTC) 1, Subcommittee 7 (S7). The goal is to provide a ontological infrastructure to be used by the subcommittee and others. This provides users with a set of terms and definitions for developing methodologies for developing software, hardware and other similar products.
Why develop this standard? Without a definitions document, multiple methodologies were being developed, with competing terms and definitions that confused users. Net result? Interoperability issues, of course!
What is the foundation of the standard? It’s an extension of the object-oriented approach. Since software in particular lends itself to the use of models during developing, it is natural to want to set up a general overview of specifying the concepts, rules and relationships used to define those methodologies. In other words, you’ll use a metamodel to construct your specific methodology for constructing your product or service delivery. It’s the top layer of a two to three layer process. Having one metamodel that can encompass all types of instances keeps the standards developers of S7 and others on the same page.
Besides providing you with core concepts, terms and definitions, the standard will give you an introduction to the SEMDM, the metamodel elements, usage rules and guidelines, and extension information. Annex A provides you with a worked example, Annex B shows you mappings to various other metamodel approaches, and Annex C covers graphical notation.
This is a highly technical document and not for the faint-hearted! The new edition is a technical revision and so should be purchased by all those who currently use the original release. You’ll need to get your copy from an authorized distributor, so you’ll turn to Document Center Inc. You can order your copy in paper format or for pdf download at our webstore, www.document-center.com. Or contact our staff regarding our multi-user access subscription service, Standards Online. You can reach them by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com). Remember, we’re your Standards Experts!
the courses in software development change every after 3 to 4 years. Its difficult to fix with the same ISO. some metamodel and elements need to change every after 2 years.