Subject Matter Expert

With regard to programming a SubjectMatterExpert, SME, is someone whose domain expertise is plumbed by the team, usually in the design stage of the project, to provide scope and language references specific to the subject matter that the project seeks to address. SubjectMatterExperts can be problematic, in that while they may, and in most cases do have extensive language available to discuss their field of expertise with other experts, they may lack the ability to convey the requisite concepts to the programming team, creating frustration and possibly delays, in delivery of the project.

New ways of dealing with this (August 2005) are emerging in the form of Intentional Software, JetBrains's Meta Programming System (http://www.jetbrains.com/mps/), and Microsoft's Software Factories and perhaps others.

Making it easier to create DomainSpecificLanguages can certainly help express implementations of whatever the SubjectMatterExpert says, but I don't quite see how it helps the SME to communicate with the non-SME programmer if communication is an issue in the first place.

This article "Getting the Experts Involved" http://blog.intentionalsoftware.com/intentional_software/2005/08/getting_the_exp.html by Magnus Christerson will perhaps shed some light on the emerging technology in this field of SubjectMatterExpert involvement facilitation.

Overview of that article:

Previous approaches, not always practical:

• have the experts do their own programming (end user programming)
• educate the programmer to become a subject matter

Newer "Intentional" approach: separate domain expression and software expression, give SMEs a a "super use case editor", an intentional editor (http://www.intentsoft.com/technology/glossary.html#ie) using SME terminology and notation, recording SME intentions in deep semantic way ("domain code", http://www.intentsoft.com/technology/glossary.html#domainCode), processed with "generative programming techniques" (http://www.intentsoft.com/technology/glossary.html#gp) to produce applications.

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How does a SubjectMatterExpert differ from a DomainExpert?

They are equivalent terms, but differentiated slightly by their usage. A quick web search reveals that SubjectMatterExpert is found in web documents approximately three times more commonly than DomainExpert. Some software developement teams are absorbing the broader LinguaFranca used by general industry, possibly as a means of involving the customer more directly by speaking their language.

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Becoming an Expert

There is discussion on PragmaticThinkingAndLearning about the stages of becoming an expert as described in the DreyfusModel.

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See also SubjectMatterExperts [EditHint: find a better set of names to avoid the similarities.]

Response: SubjectMatterExperts -> DismissalOfSubjectExperts (main discussion) DomainExpert and part to here.

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CategoryLearningMethods