? Deva Henry ? Art Pyster ? Kahina Lasfer ? Rich Turner ? Nicole Hutchison ?

1
The Development and Current Status of a New
Reference Curriculum for a Masters Degree in
Software Engineering

• ? Deva Henry ? Art Pyster ? Kahina Lasfer ? Rich
  Turner ? Nicole Hutchison ?
• September 22nd 23rd, 2008
• APCOSE 2008, Yokohama, Japan

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GSwERC
Graduate Software Engineering Reference Curriculum
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Software
Software
4
Software
Software
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Software Engineering Education

• Undergraduate Reference Curriculum
• SE 2004 published by ACM (Association for
  Computing Machinery) and IEEE
• Created by over 30 colleges universities
• Graduate Reference Curriculum
• Masters degree offered in over 50 US
  universities many more globally
• SEI 1991 published by SEI (Software Engineering
  Institute) at CMU (Carnegie Mellon University)

6
Confluence

• Desire to integrate Software and Systems
  Engineering education educators (Stevens)
• Absence of a contemporary graduate reference
  curriculum for Software Engineering
• Available funding (US Department of Defense)

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iSSEc Project Overarching Goals

• Develop integrated approach to teach SE and SwE
• To reflect needs of global industry
• Make it adoptable by universities around the
  world, and endorsable by professional bodies
• Community effort involving academia, industry,
  sponsors and professional societies

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GSwERC Qualitative Goals

• Improve existing graduate programs in software
  engineering, from various viewpoints
• Enable formation of new graduate programs
• Support increased enrollment by increasing the
  value of these programs to potential students and
  employers

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GSwERC Development Objectives

• Rapid delivery influence early adopters by 1
  year
• Early buy-in from the broad SE/SwE community
• Significant involvement from acknowledged SwE
  education leaders
• Opportunity to influence Defense, Government and
  Contractor workforce
• Eventual migration of GSwERC oversight to
  permanent bodies such as major professional
  societies

10
GSwERC Development Approach

• Iterative evolutionary approach
• Make full use of previous curriculum development
  efforts and SWEBOK
• Release intermediate versions for review and
  comment
• GSwERC 0.25 February 2008
• GSwERC 0.5 October 2008

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Survey of Existing Programs

• To understand current graduate programs in
  software engineering
• Range of schools were included (traditional,
  web-based, govt./industry associated, focused)
• SWEBOK as reference to compare course content
• Comprehensive survey instrument and process
• A total of 28 programs were surveyed
• Major Results
• Interesting characteristics and broad diversity
• Brought out the need for GSwERC

12
Author Team

• An Early Start Team was gathered in August 2007
• Members
• Professors from leading universities
• Professionals from industry
• Volunteers representatives for professional
  bodies
• Some members helped author SEI 1991, SE2004,
  SWEBOK
• Some members have helped create graduate SwE
  programs in Universities
• Curriculum Author Team 34 members 3 students

13
GSwERC 0.25 Content Generation

• Task Teams for 4 major sections
• Curriculum Guidance, Entrance Expectations
  Student Outcomes (Prof. Art Pyster, Stevens
  Institute of Technology)
• Curriculum Architecture (Prof. Jim McDonald,
  Monmouth University)
• Core Body of Knowledge (Prof. Tom Hilburn,
  Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)
• Comparison of 4 actual programs with GSwERC
• Regular workshops, team meetings / telecons, lots
  of email

14
GSwERC 0.25 Release and Review

• Released in February 2008
• List of potential reviewers built based on
  recommendations and contacts
• Flexible format for response
• 40 out of 150 reviewers responded
• Review comments
• Mostly agreed on the need for GSwERC
• Largely supported the content
• A number of minor suggestions

15
GSwERC 0.5

• Being developed by a Curriculum Author Team (CAT)
  - with additions and changes from EST
• Content
• Incorporates comments received for GSwERC 0.25
• Additional insights by CAT
• Comparison of more existing programs
• 4 major task teams (as for GSwERC 0.25)
• Workshop recently concluded (July 2008)
• Pre release meeting scheduled (October 2008)
• Much wider release than GSwERC 0.25

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Industry Survey

• Systematic collection of industrial and
  government needs
• To verify and validate GSwERC objectives,
  expectations and outcomes
• GSwERC will be adjusted based on survey results

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Endorsements and Publicity

• Endorsed by INCOSE and NDIA (National Defense
  Industrial Association)
• IEEE and ACM have representatives
• Papers and presentations in major SE SwE
  conferences and publications
• Early adoption workshops planned in 2009
• Reviewers and participants are invited

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Challenges and Limitations

• Survey of existing programs largely based on US
  programs
• Limited international participation in content
  generation
• Increased diversity within CAT
• Intertwining of software and systems engineering
  is not straightforward

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GSwERC Timeline
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You Are Invited
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Graduate Software Engineering Reference
Curriculum http//asysti.org/issechome.aspx

• Deva Henry (dhenry_at_stevens.edu)
• Art Pyster (art.pyster_at_stevens.edu)
• Kahina Lasfer (klasfer_at_stevens.edu)
• Rich Turner (richard.turner_at_stevens.edu)
• Nicole Hutchison (nicole.hutchison_at_anser.org)