The agile movement has provided a new way of looking at the day-to-day activities of software development—how teams are built and work is organized. This has led to the empowerment of development teams and the prominence of agile practices (such as Scrum and test-driven development) as the modern developer’s practices of choice. SEMAT is a new way of looking at the domain of software engineering (here the term is used interchangeably with software development), providing an understanding of the progress and health of development efforts and how practices can be combined into an effective way of working. SEMAT adds to the power of agility by providing a common reference model all teams can when continuously inspecting, adapting, and improving their ways of working. The two initiatives when used together, truly empower teams to innovate, experiment, and improve the results they deliver. This article focuses on how SEMAT can help existing and future agile teams. It is designed for those already familiar with agility.
