This subpage encompasses some selected resources related to the SEMAT (Software Engineering Method and Theory) initiative and the Essence standard. I’ve developed this list of resources while immersing myself into Essence. Ivar Jacobson has published a LinkedIn article in which he lists valuable resources for learning about Essence. This article was actually my starting point and thus there is a lot of redundancy. Nevertheless, I might have discovered some additional Essence-related nuggets… It is obvious that the list is work in progress and I will add items along my journey learning about and adopting Essence.
Articles, Books & Standards
- Johnson, P.; Ekstedt, M.; Jacobson, I.: Where’s the Theory for Software Engineering? In: IEEE Software, Volume 29, Issue 5, September-October 2012
- Jacobson, I.; Ng, P.-W.; McMahon, P.E. et al.: The Essence of Software Engineering: The SEMAT Kernel. In: Communications of the ACM, Volume 55, Issue 12, December 2012
- Jacobson, I.; Spence, I.; NG, P.W.: Agile and SEMAT: Perfect Partners. In: Communications of the ACM, Volume 56, Issue 11, November 2013
- Jacobson, I.; Ng, P.W.; Spence, I.; McMahon, P.E.: Major-league SEMAT: Why Should an Executive Care? In: Communications of the ACM, Volume 57, Issue 4, April 2014
- Jacobson, I.; Seidewitz, E.: A New Software Engineering. Communications of the ACM, Volume 57, Issue 12, November 2014
- McMahon, P.E.: A Thinking Framework to Power Software Development Team Performance. In: CrossTalk, The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, January/February 2015
- Johnson, P.; Ekstedt, M.: The Tarpit – A General Theory of Software Engineering. In: Information and Software Technology, Volume 70, Issue C, Feburary 2016
- Jacobson, I.; Spence, I.; Seidewitz, E.: Industrial-Scale Agile from Craft to Engineering. Communications of the ACM, Volume 59, Issue 12, December 2016
- Jacobson, I.; Spence, I.; NG, P.W.: Is There a Single Method for the Internet of Things? Essence can keep software development for the IoT from becoming unwieldy. In: ACM Queue, Volume 15, Issue 3, June 2017
- Object Management Group: Essence – Kernel and Language for Software Engineering Methods. Standard Document, Version 1.2, October 2018
- Jacobson, I.; Stimson, R.: Tear Down the Method Prisons! Set Free the Practices! In: ACM Queue, Volume 16, Issue 5, October 2018
- Jacobson, Ivar; Lawson, H.; Ng, P.-W.; McMahon, P.E.; Goedicke, M.: The Essentials of Modern Software Engineering. Association for Computing Machinery and Morgan & Claypool, 2019
- Sutherland, J.; Jacobson, I.; Kerr, B.: Scrum Essentials Cards: Experiences of Scrum Teams Improving with Essence. In: ACM Queue, Volume 18, Issue 3, June 2020
- to be continued
Essence for Agility Meetup Series
- Meetup with Jeff Sutherland and Ivar Jacobson: Essence for Agility launches with two software and agile giants. Wednesday, January 6, 2021 (Recording)
- Meetup with Jeff Sutherland and Ian Spence: Scrum and Scrum@Scale better with Essence. Tuesday, January 26, 2021 (Recording)
- Meetup with Pekka Abrahamsson, Emanuel S. Grant and Jan-Philipp Steghöfer: Essence in Education. March 10, 2021 (Recording)
- Meetup with Scott Ambler, Ivar Jacobson and Kent Beck: Impediments for Wide Adoption of Agile Methods – What can we as an industry do? April 7, 2021 (Recording)
- Meetup with Grady Booch, Murat Erder and Stefan Malich: Architecture in Agile Methods. May 11, 2021 (Recording)
- Meetup with André Wilke, Burkhard Perkens-Golomb and Johan Granström: Experience from Essence Usage in the Industry. June 8th, 2021 (Recording)
- Meetup with Joakim Sundén, Scott Ambler and Ivar Jacobson: Crazy Challenges working with Methods and Frameworks. July 28, 2021 (Recording)
- Meetup with Ivar Jacobson: The Why, How and What of Essence. October 12, 2021 (Recording)
- Meetup with Mike Cohn and Bernie Clark: Use-Cases or User Stories… or Both? November 16, 2021 (Recording)
- Meetup with Soledad Rodriguez Pinter, Paul McMahon and Ivar Jacobson: Essence and Heart of Agile – Friends or Foes? February 16, 2022 (Recording)
- Meetup with Joakim Sundén and Stefan Malich: The Spotify Model Demystified and Made Applicable. March 24, 2022 (Recording, Slide Deck).
- Meetup with Simon Girvan: Essence Exploration: Teams. April 27, 2022 (Recording)
- Meetup with Rebecca Wirfs-Brock, Steve Freeman and Joseph Pelrine: New dogs, old tricks. June 29, 2022 (Recording).
- Meetup with Gabrielle Benefield, Dave Farley, Jeff Patton, and Ian Spence: Navigating the Agile Development Landscape. October 5, 2022 (Recording)
- Meetup with Simon Girvan: Navigating the Agile Development Landscape with Essence. October 25, 2022 (Recording)
- Meetup with Simon Girvan, Bernie Clark, and Michael Flynn: Navigating the Agile Development Landscape with Essence, October 25, 2022 (Recording)
- Meetup with Dave Snowden and Ivar Jacobson: Seeking vendor independent approaches to Agile and agility. December 5, 2022 (Recording)
- Meetup with Simon Girvan, Ivar Jacobson, David Anderson, and Joey Spooner: Kanban and Essence – Great Partners. February 22, 2023 (Recording)
- Meetup with Scott Ambler and Ivar Jacobson: The Essence Ecosystem – How You Can Use it and an Exciting New Addition. Wednesday, April 19, 2023 (Recording)
Meetup with Keith de Mendonca, Ivar Jacobson, and Brian Tucker: Essence and SAFe – Pieces of the Puzzle? June 20, 2023 (Recording) - to be continued
Videos, Webinars & Podcasts
- ACM SigSoft Webinar with Ivar Jacobson: 50 years of software engineering, so now what? December 20, 2018 (Recording)
- ACM SigSoft Webinar with Ivar Jacobson and Brian Kerr: Essence in Action. January 10, 2019
- ACM SigSoft Webinar with Jeff Sutherland and Ivar Jacobson: A Better Scrum with Essence. April 27, 2020 (Recording)
- Ivar Jacobson International: Understanding Essence. Thursday, November 5, 2020
- Jacobson, Ivar: Tear Down the Method Prisons! Set Free the Practices! Keynote at the National Research Conference on Information- and Computer Science in Norway. November 24, 2020
- Access Agile Festival with Scott Seivwright and Ivar Jacobson: Better Agile Methods. October 9, 2021
- Agile Innovation Leaders Podcast hosted by Uloaku (Ula) Ojiaku: Ivar Jacobson on Essence (OMG Standard) and Doing Things Smarter. October 9, 2021
- Agile Innovation Leaders Podcast hosted by Uloaku (Ula) Ojiaku: Ian Spence on Better Practices Through Essence and Agile Leadership. November 14, 2021
- eXperience Agile week: Presentation by Ivar Jacobson: Some of the Craziest Things working with Methods and Frameworks, Lisbon Portugal, September 27, 2022 (Recording).
- Object Management Group (OMG) Webinar with Ivar Jacobson, Carlos Mario Zapata Jaramillo, Simon Girvan, Burkhard Perkens-Golomb, and Nigel Thurlow: Essence – Redefining Software Engineering. June 7, 2023 (Recording)
- to be continued
Practice Libraries
- Ivar Jacobson International: Essence Practice Library
- Scrum@Scale Practices
- Spotify Model Essentials Practice
- Method Agnostic Agility in non-Development Environments
- The Kanban Method – Kanban Cards
- Ivar Jacobson International: Alpha State Card Games – Agile Coaching Tools
- to be continued
Practice Communities
- Essence Education Forum (EEF)
- LinkedIn group Essence for Agility
- to be continued
Gameboard, Tools & Templates
- Spotify Model Essentials Gameboard (Mural Template)
- Gameboard How well do you implement the Spotify Model? (Public board based on Mural)
- to be continued