http://neverworkintheory.org/ is a web site that blogs, though slowly, of important research and findings about software development. It's one of the most interesting sites I've found recently, possibly for a long time.

I disagree with the term "software engineering" to describe the software development that happens today. I don't think it's accurate, and indeed I think it's too much of a fantasy to be used seriously. For software development to be an engineering discipline, it needs a strong foundation based on actual research. In short, we need to know what works, what doesn't work, and preferably why in both cases.

This website is one example of how that's now changing, and that's good. As a practicing software developer, I want to know, for example, whether code review actually helps improve software quality, the speed of software development, and the total cost of a software project, and also under what the limits of code review are, how it should be done well, and what kind of review doesn't work. Once I know that, I can decide whether and how to do reviews in my development teams.

The software development community is full of anecdotal evidence about these things. It's also full of people who've done something once, and then want to sell books, seminars, and lectures about it. That's not been working too well: it makes software development research be mostly about fads, and that's no way to build a strong foundation.

Now I just need the time to read everything, and the brain to understand big words.