Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill Software Engineering Education What do new Software Engineers need to know?

Stroustrup’s Lament Computer Science is not fulfilling the needs of the industry Many graduates have no training in software development –They are learning this on the job For many “programming” has become a strange combination of unprincipled hacking and invoking other people’s libraries Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Pyramid of SE Skills Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill Programming and Data Structures Technology Portfolio Code Development Advanced

Programming The intro class through the data structures class Should instill confidence in their programming skills Should also develop a sense of belonging –“I chose the right field” Result is the ability to develop small programs –Several hundred lines of code Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

More is required Technologies for development Code development skills The emphasis should be on the code development skills Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Technology Portfolio Languages, Editors, IDEs GUI development frameworks Databases Testing tools Modeling (UML, XML) Make, Version control Parser generation Documentation tools Other useful technologies Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Technology Problems The technologies change rapidly Exposure to one of each is needed The students need to be able to generalize from one example of the technology to any other Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Code Development Skills Small code is good for programming skills Not so much for code development skills Size should be thousands of lines –That is the size of real world projects –We are much more likely to maintain than to write Realistic quality –1 to 3 faults per KLOC Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill

Finally To properly do this requires concentration Packing it into a BA/BS can be challenging The ability to learn new things will keep the person alive in a career after their favorite thing becomes obsolete Copyright © 2015 Curt Hill