Current practice in software engineering: a survey

The results of a survey carried out between November 1995 and March 1996 are given. The aim of the survey was to see exactly how widely software engineering techniques were being adopted in the UK today. The rationale behind the survey was simple: to see which of a selected set of software engineering techniques were being used. The techniques included in the survey were: methods and methodologies, standards, CASE tools and software engineering process quality manuals. Several other general questions were also asked. The results were surprising, and showed a considerable lack of use of software engineering practices, despite evidence of a strong urge to conform with international standards.