Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education (FASE) Volume 10 Number 04 (123rd Issue) - April 15, 2000 917 subscribers Note: If you have problems with the format of this document, try An HTML version of this issue is available at ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Table of Contents Upcoming Topics Response to February Topic News Items Proposal for Computer Engineering Licensing Exam in the USA Working Group on SEE&T - Meeting Report Calls for Participation SETE 2000 Contact and General Information about FASE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ By: Don Bagert (Academic/Misc Editor) Upcoming Topics May 2000: SWECC Survey on Software Engineering Academic Programs Guest Editor: Kenneth Modesitt University of Michigan-Dearborn modesitt@umich.edu July 2000: The Importance of Math and Problem-Solving in SE Guest Editor: Peter B. Henderson Butler University phenders@butler.edu For more information about a particular issue's topic, please contact the corresponding guest editor. Please refer to the article format provided at the end of each issue when making submissions, which are always made directly to the guest editor. If you are interested in being a guest editor, or have any suggestions for future topics, please contact me at Don.Bagert@ttu.edu. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ By: Jochen Ludewig Response to February Topic [Note from Academic Editor Don Bagert: The February 2000 issue of FASE featured the readers' picks of the Top Ten Events of the Century in Software Engineering Education and Training. This was after a panel of experts had made their own choices (included in the December 1999 issue) and an online survey had been posted on the Web. One of the comments made by one of the survey respondents was "The Top Ten shortlisted in Dec99 FASE have a very North American slant. Although N America dominates software engineering in terms of dollar investment, it does not dominate in terms of intellectual concepts." My response was: "I...personally agree with these comments. Unfortunately, I was not able to get more than one non-US person on the panel (out of seven), although several were asked. This was a topic of discussion by the panel, who (I believe) made an extra effort to consider contributions outside of North America because of this. However, I wished I could have gotten a wider diversity of panelists." Below is a response to this exchange by Jochen Ludewig. I found it to be very insightful, and hope you will also find it of interest.] Dear Don, I appreciate your comment on the comment. I am quite sure you are serious about your point. Still, there is something that I feel you are missing: Preparing a top ten list as you and a few other people did is in itself a very North American idea. Therefore, it is quite clear that you will not find too many people outside the U.S. who want to participate in a game that does not make much sense from their point of view. What is achieved when you have got such a list? Some people believe that if a couple of guys do anything (like surfing, or reading Shakespeare, or playing the piano), there ought to be a competition, and, of course, a world championship. Maybe that those people need that. I don't. We should also face the fact that, in order to estimate the real size of a thing, we need some distance. We might be able to identify the very best composers of the eighteenth century (provided we limit the scope to Middle European music). But who was best last year? You'd better ask my grand-grand-grand-children! Best regards, Jochen Ludewig ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ News Items ###################################################################### From: Bob Becnel via Leonard Tripp Proposal for Computer Engineering Licensing Exam in the USA On January 15, 2000, the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers (MSPE) met for its Board of Directors Meeting. At the meeting, a couple of motions and a resolution was passed by the Directors. Motion #1 --------- The MSPE Board of Directors urges that the MO Board formally request NCEES [National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying] to immediately begin development on a Computer Engineering PE examination as outlined in the attached proposal. [see below] Motion #2 --------- The MSPE Board of Directors suggests that the MO Board accepts pre approved certification programs as credit towards six (6) months of work experience for PE candidates as outlined in the attached proposal. Resolution ---------- The MSPE Board of Directors urges NSPE to be actively involved in producing a Computer Engineering PE (Principal and Practice) exam and to work with NCEES in developing a nation-wide precedence for other states to follow as outlined in the attached proposal. These motions were passed based on a report compiled by MSPE board member, Bob Becnel, PE. Becnel worked under the guidance of St. Louis Chapter President, Ed Austin, PE and the Registration Sub Committee of the Chapter. Thanks again, for all of your input and suggestions. Sincerely, Bob Becnel, P.E. 6020 Kassel Ct Imperial, MO 63052 (636) 942-3582 home (636) 891-4397 work bob@becnel.com [Editor's Note: The following is an excerpt from the proposal mentioned above. The PE exam is the one given by NCEES after at least four years of apprenticeship. Since there is an overlap with software engineering in many of the example topics, it is a topic of potential interest to FASE readers.] The items below would be examples of Computer Engineering concepts that might be found on a Computer Engineering PE exam. This list is by no means exhaustive of a potential Computer Engineering exam. * Computer and network architecture * Logic design * Algorithm design * Object oriented design (object and dynamic models, problem decomposition) * Object oriented Programming (object instantiation, dynamic and static objects, inheritance, virtuality, dynamic binding) * Issues of Program lifetimes and life cycles (problem statement, requirements analysis, specifications, implementation and test) * Issues of proper program writing and testing * System programming * Operating systems topics (layered architectures, performance, deadlocks and lockouts, file systems, hardware and process interactions) * Telecommunication systems (transmissions, multiplexing and switching) * Protocols for computer networks * Networking topics (topology, layered architecture, standard protocols, network performance) * Computer mother board circuit design ###################################################################### From: Nancy Mead Minutes from the Working Group on Software Engineering Education and Training Renaissance Hotel, Austin, Texas March 5-6, 2000 Agenda Keynote Speaker: Dennis Frailey, Raytheon Systems Company "Maintaining an Effective Software Engineering Staff" Reports from the Curricula, Professional, and I/U Collaboration subgroups, and other reports of interest to the group Reports from other subgroups Attendees: Don Bagert, Texas Tech University, Don.Bagert@ttu.edu Pierre Bourque, University of Quebec at Montreal, Bourque.pierre@uqam.ca David Carter, Motorola, cdc046@email.mot.com Jorge Diaz, Southern Polytechnic State University, jdiaz@spsu.edu Robert Dupuis, University of Quebec at Montreal, dupuis.robert@uqam.ca Heidi Ellis, Rensselaer at Hartford, heidic@rh.edu Tom Hilburn, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, hilburn@db.erau.edu Greg Hislop, Drexel University, hislopg@post.drexel.edu Pete Knoke, University of Alaska Fairbanks, ffpjk@aurora.alaska.edu Mike Lutz, Rochester Institute of Technology, mikelutz@mail.isc.rit.edu Jim McDonald, Monmouth University, Jamesmc@monmouth.edu Nancy Mead, Software Engineering Institute, nrm@sei.cmu.edu Susan Mengel, Texas Tech University, mengel@ttu.edu Fernando Naveda, Rochester Institute of Technology, jfn@cs.rit.edu Dawn Ramsey, Southern Polytechnic State University, dramsey@spsu.edu Michael Ryan, Dublin City University, michael.ryan@compapp.dcu.ie Mark Sebern, Milwaukee School of Engineering, Sebern@msoe.edu Laurie Werth, University of Texas at Austin, Lwerth@cs.utexas.edu Minutes from the Full Working Group Meeting Future meeting dates and locations: The next two meetings will be held in conjunction with FIE and CSEE&T respectively. We will meet Oct. 17-18, 2000, in Kansas City, in conjunction with FIE. This will be a full day on Tuesday and a half day on Wednesday. The FIE conference is Oct. 18-21, starting with half-day tutorials on the afternoon of Oct. 18. We will meet in conjunction with CSEE&T 2001 in Charlotte. The meeting will be Feb. 17-18, 2001, with a full day Saturday and a half day Sunday before the conference. Dennis Frailey gave an excellent presentation titled "Maintaining an Effective Software Engineering Staff." There were three subgroup reports: Curricula, Professional Issues, and Industry/University Collaboration. Subsequently the group split into three subgroups for working sessions. The subgroup composition was as follows: Curricula: Tom Hilburn, Greg Hislop, Pierre Bourque, Robert Dupuis, Tom Horton, Mike Lutz, Jim McDonald, Susan Mengel, Hossein Saiedian, Mark Sebern, Laurie Werth Professional Issues: Jorge Diaz-Herrera, Don Bagert, Pete Knoke, Fernando Naveda, Michael Ryan Industry/University Collaboration: Nancy Mead, David Carter, Heidi Ellis, Dawn Ramsey, Michael Ryan Minutes from the Curricula Subgroup Meeting The Curricula subgroup of the Working Group continued with a project to develop software education curriculum modules. Work completed on the project so far includes a more detailed description of a SWENET proposal, a review and comments on the SWENET proposed schedule, and the schedule of next phase activities for SWEBOK. The group also discussed funding, as well as several NSF initiatives that might be relevant. In a discussion of requirements for SWENET, the group identified several broad areas that might be discussed, including structure of the online community, structure of the curriculum modules, selection of initial module areas, and definition of module content. A discussion of requirements for the online community included: organization of modules and navigation to help people access them; review and maintenance functionality; inter-user communication facilities; typical artifacts that might be provided with a course module; a definition of SWENET users (key characteristics are that there would be only English language support at this time, and a focus on undergraduate-level material. The definition would segment users into primary, secondary, and non-supported users.). A final meeting of the subgroup concerned discussion of future plans and additional activities the group might want to be involved with. Tom Horton described a pending grant he has for developing SE project materials under the NSF CCLI (Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement) Program (NSF 00-63). Jim McDonald agreed to develop a CCLI proposal that supports introducing industrial "best practices" into software engineering education. The proposal would include involvement of industrial/commercial software developers. The subgroup formulated an informal long-term strategy that would aggregate the results of SWENET, Tom Horton's project, and Jim McDonald's project to support a more comprehensive grant proposal for development and dissemination of SE educational materials, assuming that funding is obtained for all projects. Minutes from the Professionalism Subgroup Meeting The group discussed the professional society and the journal and decided to postpone the initiation of a society, and focus on the journal. The journal idea has been presented to the IEEE-CS education committee, and is being considered. Decisions were also made to create an international steering committee and craft a marketing plan. Report from the Industry/University Collaboration Subgroup The group held telecons in November, January, and February. A project to develop a collaboration handbook has been shelved. The JSS paper has been submitted to CrossTalk (it was accepted to appear in the March 2000 issue) and Training (no word yet on acceptance). The group was asked to consider the topic of "how to provide assistance in the area of software process improvement." The Working Group felt that the issue was outside of its scope. The group also plans to explore the question of which topics industry wants to see in SE curricula. Minutes from the Industry/University Collaboration Subgroup Meeting The group was inspired by a talk on focusing attention on retooling and retraining the workforce, and members believe that with investigation they could develop a model for retraining and could examine assessment methods. Elements of the model would include background of incoming students, motivation, outgoing students, technical obsolescence, process, company culture, university culture, and individuals. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Call for Papers ###################################################################### From: Joe Kasser SETE 2000 Note the distance mode and student tracks. Joe ___ SETE 2000 - CALL FOR PAPERS "Systems Engineering" and "Test & Evaluation" in the Changing Environment of the 21st Century Brisbane, Queensland, 15-17 November 2000 A Conference of The Systems Engineering Society of Australia (SESA) and The Southern Cross Chapter of The International Test and Evaluation Association (ITEA) http://www.seecforum.unisa.edu.au/Sete2000/SETE2000.htm The SETE 2000 Conference theme is "Systems Engineering" and "Test & Evaluation" in the Changing Environment of the 21st Century. Presentations and papers are invited relating to this theme, as well as to the traditional tracks and special interest areas of SESA and ITEA. Distance mode presentations - Conference presentations may be made in person or by means of asynchronous (non real-time) distance mode technology. Student Track - Presentations and papers are also invited from students of the fields of Systems Engineering and Test and Evaluation (T&E). Exhibit area - Registrations of interest are also sought from potential exhibitors. SETE 2000 will include both exhibitions and presentations by vendors. Conference Program The Conference program integrates the Systems Engineering and Test & Evaluation fields in a combination of plenary sessions, panels, technical papers and exhibits. The program is expected to include papers in at least the following areas. Systems Engineering Test & Evaluation * Systems Engineering Applications * T&E Visions of the Future * Soft Systems Methodologies * Critical Technologies (Instrumentation, Modelling, Simulation) * Systems of Systems * Measures of Effectiveness (MOEs) * Selling Systems Engineering * The Planning and Management of T&E * Measurement * T&E Investment Planning * Modeling and Tools * Virtual T&E * Systems Engineering Management * The Design of Experiments * Processes and Methods * Error Budgeting * Software Engineering * T&E for Systems of Systems * Requirements Engineering and * T&E - Management The Value Added * Education and Training * T&E - The Legal Issues Important Dates: Preliminary Submission: 15 July 2000 Acceptance Notification: 15 August 2000 Final submission 15 September 2000 Categories of submissions There are two categories of submissions to serve the needs of industry and academia: * Papers * Presentations Papers This category is primarily designed for Academia to meet the Australian Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) requirements for published papers. Full papers will be reviewed anonymously by at least two peer reviewers. For each paper submitted, prospective authors are requested to submit by email two files: a separate Identification Page and the paper, both in Microsoft Word, using Times New Roman 11 point font, in double column format. An example paper, which may be used as a template, will shortly be provided on the Conference Website. The Identification Page is to contain the following: * Paper title * Author name(s) * Business affiliation(s) * Address(es) * Phone number and fax * e-mail address(es) * A short biography for each author. * Primary contact to be used for all communications. The preliminary paper is to have a title page with abstract (but no author information), 5-8 numbered pages in length, including figures, tables and other illustrations. Upon acceptance, paper format requirements will be sent to the primary contact. Technical session paper presentations will be 20-30 minutes in length, plus a 10-15 minute question and answer period. Papers accepted for presentation at SETE 2000 will be published in the Conference Proceedings in both book and CD-ROM form. Presentations This category is primarily designed for industry practitioners. Submissions are to be made in the form of PowerPoint 97 presentations. The presentations will be reviewed by at least two peer reviewers. For each submission, prospective authors are requested to submit by email two files: a separate Identification Page and the presentation. The Identification Page is to include the information specified above. Presentations accepted for presentation at SETE 2000 will be published in the Conference Proceedings in CD-ROM form. Call for Distant Mode Papers and Presentations Call for papers and presentations to be presented in distant mode. This is a call for papers and presentations to be presented by personnel who otherwise would be unable to attend the Conference. The intent is to prototype the process for mixing asynchronous presentations with synchronous discussions into the traditional Conference sessions. Personnel submitting distance mode papers and presentations must agree to * Prepare their presentations in PowerPoint and recording the audio to accompany each slide. Instructions and an add-in tool to PowerPoint 97 can be found on the Conference Website. * Telephone the Conference at a prearranged time and take part in the traditional post presentation discussion in the session room. The cost for a ten-minute telephone call is expected to be less than $10 from most places in the world. These papers and presentations are to meet the same review requirements as the papers and presentations to be presented live at the Conference. The accepted paper will be published in the Conference proceedings. The audio enhanced presentation will be published in the Conference CD-ROM. Examples of asynchronous presentations can be seen at http://www.umuc.edu/~jkasser/distance/distance.htm Call for Student Track Papers This is a call for papers and presentations in the student track. The intent of this track is to encourage students to publish. Students enrolled in Master's level and above programs are encouraged to upgrade a recent assignment, paper or presentation with the advice of their instructors and submit them for the student track. Student track papers and presentations can be submitted for live or distance mode participation in the Conference. Student track papers and presentations must be accompanied by an endorsement by the instructor certifying that the paper or presentation is an example of the work produced by students in the specific program in the specific institution. All student track paper and presentation submissions will pass through a two step review process. * Step 1 - The regular peer review process. * Step 2 - An academic review process. If the submission fails in Step 1, Step 2 will determine if corrections can be made to upgrade the submission to Conference standards, and recommend same. Preliminary student track submissions are required to contain both the preliminary presentation and the preliminary paper Accepted student track papers and presentations will * Be published in the Conference proceedings and CD-ROM. * Compete for the Systems Engineering and Evaluation Centre (SEEC) Award for the best Student Paper at the Conference. Submit papers and presentations to the Technical Chair: Associate Professor Joseph Kasser Systems Engineering and Evaluation Centre University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes SA 5095, AUSTRALIA Tel: +61 8 8302-3941 Conference E-mail: CT2000@unisa.edu.au Other E-mail Joseph.Kasser@unisa.edu.au SESA is a Technical Society of The Institution of Engineers Australia (IEAust), affiliated with the International Council of Systems Engineering (INCOSE). SESA's Website is at http://www.sesa.org.au/ ITEA Southern Cross Chapter's Website is at http://itea.netspot.com.au/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Contact and General Information about FASE The Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education (FASE) is published on the 15th of each month by the FASE editorial board. Send newsletter articles to one of the editors, preferably by category: Articles pertinent to corporate and government training to David Carter ; Academic education, and all other categories to Don Bagert . If the article for a FASE topic where there is a guest editor, the submission should instead be to that person. Items must be submitted by the 8th of the month in order to be considered for inclusion in that month's issue. Also, please see the submission guidelines immediately below. FASE submission format guidelines: All submissions must be in ASCII format, and contain no more than 70 characters per line (71 including the new line character). This 70-character/line format must be viewable in a text editor such as Microsoft Notepad WITHOUT using a "word wrap" facility. All characters (outside of the newline) should in the ASCII code range from 32 to 126 (i.e. "printable" in DOS text mode). [NEW SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE INFORMATION - February 15, 2000] Everyone that is receiving this is on the FASE mailing list. If you wish to leave this list, send a message to and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: unsubscribe fase To rejoin (or have someone else join) the FASE mailing list, write to and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: subscribe fase For instance, if your name is Jane Smith, write: subscribe fase Jane Smith But what if you have something that you want to share with everyone else, before the next issue? For more real-time discussion, there is the FASE-TALK discussion list. It is our hope that it will be to FASE readers what the SIGCSE.members listserv is to that group. (For those of you that don't know, SIGCSE is the ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education.) To subscribe to the FASE-TALK list, write to and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: subscribe fase-talk For instance, if your name is Jane Smith, write: subscribe fase-talk Jane Smith and then either "fase" or "fase-talk", depending on which list you desire. Please try to limit FASE-TALK to discussion items related to software engineering education and training; CFPs and other such items can still be submitted to the editor for inclusion into FASE. Anyone that belongs to the FASE-TALK mailing list can post to it. FASE-TALK is also used by the editors for "breaking stories" i.e. news that we feel that you would want to hear about before the next issue of FASE comes out. (We do this sparingly, though.) As always, there is no cost for subscribing to either FASE or FASE-TALK! (Subscriptions can also be maintained through the Web via http://lyris.acs.ttu.edu. From there, click on "TTU Faculty Mailing Lists", and then either "fase" or "fase-talk", depending on which list you desire.) Back issues (dating from the very first issue) can be found on the web (with each Table of Contents) at in chronological order, in reverse order, or through ftp at . The FASE Staff: Don Bagert, P.E. -- Academic/Misc Editor, ListMaster, and Archivist Dept. of Computer Science 8th and Boston Texas Tech University Lubbock TX 79409-3104 USA Phone: 806-742-1189 Fax: 806-742-3519 Email: Don.Bagert@ttu.edu URL: http://www.cs.ttu.edu/faculty/bagert.html David Carter -- Corporate/Government Editor College of Technology Motorola University 1700 Golf Road 10th floor, Schaumburg IL 60196 Phone: 847-576-4849 Fax: 847-538-3692 Email: D.Carter@motorola.com Laurie Werth -- Advisory Committee Taylor Hall 2.124 University of Texas at Austin Austin TX 78712 USA Phone: 512-471-9535 Fax: 512-471-8885 Email: lwerth@cs.utexas.edu Nancy Mead -- Advisory Committee Software Engineering Institute 5000 Forbes Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15213 USA Phone: 412-268-5756 Fax: 412-268-5758 Email: nrm@sei.cmu.edu