Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education (FASE) Volume 11 Number 05 (136th Issue) - May 15, 2001 Note: If you have problems with the format of this document, try ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Table of Contents This Issue's Topic Delayed Upcoming Topics Software Engineering as a Profession in the United Kingdom Articles CSEE&T 2001 Summary by Robert Dupuis and Pierre Bourque A Workshop Report: Teaching PSP(SM) and TSPi in Universities by David Carrington News Items FASE-TALK Discussion Regarding Certification Title Engineering Times Article on Software Professional Credentialing Calls for Participation CSEE&T 2002 Contact and General Information about FASE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From: The FASE Staff This Issue's Topic Delayed "Teaching a Software Engineering Project Course", originally announced for publication this month, will instead appear in the June issue. Our apologies for the delay. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Upcoming Topics ###################################################################### Software Engineering as a Profession in the United Kingdom Guest Editors for this Upcoming Topic: Barrie Thompson and Helen Edwards University of Sunderland barrie.thompson@sunderland.ac.uk, helen.edwards@sunderland.ac.uk For more information on this topic, please contact the guest editors. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Articles ###################################################################### CSEE&T 2001 Summary Conference on Software Engineering Education & Training February 19-21 2001 Summary Report prepared by Robert Dupuis and Pierre Bourque Conference Program Chairs Roughly 100 participants attended CSEE&T 2001 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the 14th rendition in a series of annual CSEE&T conferences that began in 1988. CSEE&T 2001 was as usual the perfect occasion for renewing links with friends from all over the world and for creating new ones. This year, we noted the participation of many colleagues new to the conference. The outstanding team led by Conference Chair Dawn Ramsey made everything easy and pleasurable for all participants. A dedicated and talented group of volunteers, including the Steering Committee, Program Committee and reviewers, were instrumental in developing the conference and in making it a success. In the end though, it is the quality of the presenters that made the conference most interesting. The IEEE Computer Society Technical Council on Software Engineering (TCSE) sponsored this year's CSEE&T, in cooperation with TCSE's Committee on Software Engineering Education as well as the ACM. All conferences in the CSEE&T series have enjoyed strong support from the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University. CSEE&T 2001 also enjoyed significant support from Southern Polytechnic State University, the Universite du Quebec a Montreal and the Ecole de Technologie Superieure (Montreal). The IEEE Computer Society is the publisher of the conference proceedings. All CSEE&T's have had a strong software engineering education focus, and most have had a special theme also. For CSEE&T 2001, the special theme was "In search of a software engineering profession". This theme was integrated into the whole technical program, but was especially addressed by three keynote speakers, a workshop, two panels and a number of papers. This year's three remarkable keynotes were: - "Professional Development at Construx Software" by Steve McConnell, Construx Software - "Putting the 'Engineering' into 'Software Engineering'" by Philippe Kruchten, Rational Software - "Software Engineering Accreditation in Japan" Yoshihiro Matsumoto, Musashi Institute of Technology, Japan The remainder of the CSEE&T 2001 program is summarized below: * The 21 presented papers were survivors of a rigorous peer review process out of the 42 submitted and were presented in 7 sessions: - Software Engineering Process and Management (3 sessions) - Software Engineering Evolution and Testing - Software Engineering Practice - Software Engineering Accreditation and Curriculum - Software Engineering Learning Environments * Panels (3 sessions) (Panels Chair: Ann Sobel, Miami University of Ohio) - Programming Skills of Software Engineering Students: What is Required? - Software Engineering: Is it Process? Is it Design ? - SWEBOK as an International Foundation for Software Engineering Program Accreditation * Workshops (5 sessions): (Tutorials/Workshop co-Chairs, Jeanne Murtagh, USAF and J.A. "Drew" Hamilton Jr., Naval Postgraduate School) - Achieving a World-Wide Software Engineering Profession - Teaching PSP(SM) and TSP(SM) in Universities - Software Systems Failures * Tutorials (3 sessions): - Software Engineering Ethics Training in Industry and Academia: Professionalism and the Code of Ethics - Computer Law: Basics for Software Engineering Educators * Exhibitors: Addison-Wesley Computer Science and Metrowerks The analysis of feedback forms showed that the conference attendees were generally very satisfied with the conference: - Were your expectations met? Yes: 36 No: 2 - Will you or an associate attend this meeting next time: Yes: 29 No: 2 Undecided: 8 - Will you recommend this conference to a colleague: Yes: 37 No: 1 The keynote speakers were especially appreciated by the evaluation form respondees. Conference attendees also indicate via these forms that a more exciting venue in the future and a less expensive hotel would be appreciated. The conference Steering Committee is notably considering holding a future conference in Europe. Thanks to all and we look forward to seeing you at next year's conference (CSEET 2002) in Cincinnati, Ohio area (USA). (SM) PSP and TSP are service marks of Carnegie Mellon University. ###################################################################### A Workshop Report: Teaching PSP(SM) and TSPi in Universities David Carrington The University of Queensland (Note: Dr. Carrington is currently a Visiting Scientist at the Software Engineering Institute of Carnegie Mellon University) A Workshop Report: Teaching PSP(SM) and TSPi in Universities Workshop Summary A workshop on teaching the Personal Software Process(SM) (PSP) and TSPi in universities was held February 20, 2001 at the Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T) in Charlotte, North Carolina. Thirty-five participants attended the three-hour workshop that discussed methods for teaching PSP and TSPi in a university context. An open forum allowed for the interchange of experiences and strategies among academics with experience teaching PSP and TSPi, and those who were interested in getting started. The workshop was organized by Professor Bob Cannon (University of South Carolina), Dr. David Carrington (The University of Queensland), Professor Jorge Diaz-Herrara (Southern Polytechnic State University), and Professor Tom Hilburn (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University). The workshop aims were to: - promote the discussion of issues that affect teaching PSP and TSPi in universities - share experiences and resources gained from teaching PSP and TSPi - identify strategies that can assist teaching PSP and TSPi in universities The workshop was structured as a series of brief presentations by the authors of accepted position papers, including time for questions and discussion. The morning sessions focused on the teaching of PSP and the afternoon sessions explored TSPi. All submitted position papers are available in PDF format via the conference web site: http://www.spsu.edu/oce/cseet2001/registration.html Workshop Presentations After the initial welcome, the workshop commenced with a presentation from Susan Lisack (Purdue University), who discussed her experiences teaching PSP to freshmen students in a sequence of two programming courses. Her teaching was based on Watts Humphrey's book: Introduction to the Personal Software Process. She stated that students had difficulties accurately recording PSP data and felt distracted from their programming tasks. Having an automated tool to assist with data collection and calculation was seen as important for improving student acceptance. Jurgen Borstler (Umea University, Sweden) gave the second presentation describing two strategies for introducing PSP. The first strategy involved an "extra-light" version for first-year students. The second strategy involved having students develop tools to support the PSP, which was found to be more effective since students adopted a more positive attitude and achieved a greater understanding of process. Jurgen demonstrated an example tool developed by his students to record PSP data on a Palm PDA. He commented on the difficulties that can be caused by students who adopt a "code warrior" perspective. Joel Henry (University of Montana) then described his strategy for integrating PSP into his sophomore-level data structures course. He finds that students at this stage have sufficient programming maturity to cope with the additional tasks required by the PSP. Joel has developed the PSP Studio tool to help students with data collection and calculation. He commented that it is important for the instructor to provide motivation (preferably industry-based). Joel also advises giving significant credit for the PSP component of each assignment so that students treat this work as valuable. Martin Dick (Monash University, Australia) explained how PSP practices are taught as part of two large compulsory second year subjects. Martin, and position paper co-authors Margot Postema and Jan Miller, have also developed a support tool to help students with the PSP. Aspects of TSPi, such as team roles, have been adopted for the second of these two courses where students work in teams of four. A particular challenge, Martin said, is getting students beyond data collection to a stage where they can use the data for self-improvement. Laurie Williams (North Carolina State University) described her adaptation of PSP, known as CSP or the Collaborative Software Process, which requires students to use pair programming (i.e. pair development). A formal experiment with CSP was performed with advanced undergraduates at the University of Utah in 1999, and further experiments are underway. Laurie showed how CSP could be used as a stepping-stone between the introductory PSP practices and team projects using TSPi. She is currently developing a Web-based training tool and a software process tracking and analysis tool. Following the luncheon break that enabled additional informal discussion, Keith Olson (University of Montana) spoke about his experiences teaching a lightweight version of PSP, the full PSP and some concepts from TSPi within a software engineering course. The full PSP course, which is offered at the sophomore/junior level, had higher acceptance from students than the "PSP-lite" course. Keith's recommendation is to introduce PSP only when students are fluent in a programming language. Keith reported some difficulties using the TSPi tool distributed by Addison-Wesley as part of the support materials for the Introduction to the Team Software Process. Greg Hislop (Drexel University) described a pair of graduate courses where PSP and TSPi are taught. These courses are constrained by the quarter system in place at Drexel, which allows seven programs for PSP and typically only one iteration for TSPi. The students are normally part-time and courses are sometimes taught online. Since these students have experience they understand the need for process, but it is still necessary to convince them that the discipline of PSP is required. TSPi by comparison is more readily accepted. Manuel (Mel) Rosso-Llopart, with position paper co-authors Anthony Lattanze and James Tomayko (Carnegie-Mellon University), talked about how PSP and TSPi are used in the CMU Masters of Software Engineering program. TSPi is used in the studio project, and PSP recently became a prerequisite after the masters program was condensed. Incoming students who do not know the PSP take a distance education version of the course, performing the B series exercises from the Discipline for Software Engineering book. Results show that these students tend to do as well as students enrolled in the full PSP course. In the authors' experience, the key feature of the TSPi is the explicit identification of roles, although they have adapted some of these to suit their particular studio projects. The final presenter was Tom Hilburn (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University). Tom spoke about how Embry-Riddle introduces PSP practices over three courses beginning in the freshman year, followed by TSPi in a second year introduction to software engineering course. Tom noted that students valued the TSPi team roles and goal-setting activities. Although multiple iterations are difficult to fit into a university quarter or semester, there are notable pedagogical benefits. Tom also described his team selection process, which he considers significant for achieving positive results. Workshop Outcomes General observations and conclusions about teaching PSP and TSPi at the university level from the workshop were: - While the ultimate objective in a university is for students to understand how to develop high quality software, PSP and TSPi currently represent two of the few credible and explicit approaches for doing so. - Methods for teaching PSP and TSPi need to be adapted to the local environment to account for student knowledge and backgrounds. - Motivating students about the industrial relevance of PSP and TSPi practices is crucial, particularly for undergraduates who typically lack an appreciation for commercial-scale software development. - Teaching PSP in a single, isolated course is unlikely to have as much impact on students as integrating the material throughout the curriculum (although this generally requires a commitment from multiple members of the teaching staff). - Introducing PSP early may help students to form good software habits, but there is a danger of cognitive overload for students if programming and PSP are taught simultaneously. The workshop was complemented by additional presentations about PSP in other sections of the conference. Details of these additional presentations can be found in the CSEET 2001 proceedings published by IEEE Computer Society Press. (SM) PSP, Personal Software Process and Team Software Process are service marks of Carnegie Mellon University. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ News Items ###################################################################### By: Don Bagert (Professional Issues Editor) FASE-TALK Discussion Regarding IEEE-CS Certification Title Recently, the IEEE Computer Society sent a letter to its Beta exam applicants for their new certification exam for software professionals ("Society to Offer Software Engineering Professional Certification", March 2001 FASE) stating that although the title of the certification had not been finalized, it would not contain the words "engineer" or "engineering" in its title. This triggered a discussion on FASE-TALK, started by Paul E. MacNeil of Mercer University, and continued by others. For the complete discussion on FASE-TALK, see http://www.cs.ttu.edu/fase/fase-talk.htm#CertificationTitle. ********************************************************************** By: Don Bagert (Professional Issues Editor) Engineering Times Article on Software Professional Credentialing The May 2001 issue of the Engineering Times, published by the USA-based National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), has an article on the possible licensing and certification of software engineers, titled "PEs Explore Credentialing of Software Professionals" (page 10). The IEEE Computer Society Certification efforts (see item immediately above) are prominently mentioned in the article. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Calls for Participation ###################################################################### From: Tim Lethbridge Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training CSEE&T 2002 Feb 25 - Feb 27, 2002 Instantiating Software Engineering Education Greater Cincinnati, Ohio, USA Call for Papers, Panels, and Workshops Software Engineering education is beyond philosophical debates over relevance or appropriateness. MS programs in Software Engineering are well established, and undergraduate programs are coming on-line. It is time to turn to the hard work of instantiating programs in Software Engineering as it is manifested in different forms at different schools. This call asks for papers that will address the following issues: * How do we acclimate entering students to the community of practice of Software Engineering? * How do we assess and evaluate students and programs? * What are the knowledge and skill sets we want to introduce to students early and we want to introduce late in their programs? * How do we balance process versus product considerations? * What are the roles of closed ended concise problems and open-ended problems? * How do we strike an appropriate balance between creativity and discipline? * What are the needs for life-long learning of software engineering professionals? * How do the requirements for accreditation, certification and licensure impact proposed programs? Papers and proposals for panels and workshops addressing these issues and related issues are welcome. As always, the conference's focus is on real solutions that have been evaluated in the classroom or by some other means beyond anecdotal commentary. Please send all submissions to tcl@site.uottawa.ca using pdf format. With a subject line "CSEET SUBMISSION" Submission due dates * Workshop Proposals: August 16, 2001 * Release of workshop descriptions to papers and panelists for the workshops: August 30, 2001 * Research Papers, Experience Reports, Workshop panelist Position Papers, Tutorial and Panel Proposals: September 20, 2001 * Notification of Acceptance: November 1, 2001 * Camera-ready copies due: December 13, 2001 Program Chair: Timothy C. Lethbridge tcl@site.uottawa.ca SITE, University of Ottawa, 150 Louis Pasteur, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5 Canada Co-General Chair W. Michael McCracken mike@cc.gatech.edu College of Computing , Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0280, USA Co-General Chair Michael Lutz m.lutz@computer.org Rochester Institute of Technology, 134 Lomb Memorial Dr., Rochester, NY 14623, USA Timothy C. Lethbridge, Associate Professor http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~tcl tcl@site.uottawa.ca SITE: School of Information Technology and Engineering University of Ottawa, Canada, K1N 6N5 Office: 613 562-5800x6685 Fax: 613 562-5187 Home: 613 237-6642 Mobile: 613 859-9944 Co-author of McGraw Hill textbook -- Object Oriented Software Engineering: Practical Software Development using UML and Java. See www.lloseng.com ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Contact and General Information about FASE FASE is published on the 15th of each month by the FASE staff. Send newsletter articles to one of the editors, preferably by category: Articles pertinent to academic education to Tom Hilburn ; corporate and government training to David Carter ; professional issues and all other categories to Don Bagert . If the article is for a FASE topic where there is a guest editor, the submission should instead be to that person. 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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: Tom Hilburn -- Academic Editor Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Department of Computing and Mathematics Daytona Beach FL 32114 USA Phone: 904-226-6889 Fax: 904-226-6678 Email: hilburn@db.erau.edu URL: http://faculty.erau.edu/hilburn/ David Carter -- Corporate/Government Editor 6212 Mil Mar Blvd Alexandria LA 71302 USA Phone: 318-767-2339 Email: dacarter@bayou.com Don Bagert, P.E. -- Professional Issues/Misc Editor and Web/Listmaster Department 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 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