  When developing and maintaining software-intensive products or services, we
often depend on various "assets", denoting the inherent value to selected
artefacts when carrying out development and maintenance activities. When
exploring various areas in Software Engineering, such as Technical Debt and our
work with industry partners, we soon realised that many terms and concepts are
frequently intermixed and used inconsistently. Despite the central role of
assets to software engineering, management, and evolution, little thoughts are
yet invested into what assets eventually are. A clear terminology of "assets"
and related concepts, such as "value" or "value degradation", just to name two,
are crucial for setting up effective software engineering practices. As a
starting point for our own work, we had to define the terminology and concepts,
and extend the reasoning around the concepts. In this position paper, we
critically reflect upon the resulting notion of Assets in Software Engineering.
We explore various types of assets, their main characteristics, such as
providing inherent value. We discuss various types of value degradation and the
possible implications of this on the planning, realisation, and evolution of
software-intensive products and services over time. With our work, we aspire to
contribute to a more standardised definition of Asset Management in Software
Engineering and foster research endeavours and their practical dissemination in
a common, more unified direction.
