Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education (FASE) Volume 12 Number 09 (Issue 152) - September 2002 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Table of Contents Letter from the Managing Editor Professional Issues Column: Selling Engineers on Software Software Engineering Articles ASEE Prism Reports on SE Student Increase at Monash University by Don Bagert IEEE Software September/October 2002 special issue on "Educating Software Professionals" by Tom Hilburn Calls for Participation 16th CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND TRAINING FASE 2003 IEEE Computer Special Issue on Agile Software Development CUSEC 2003 Calls for Participation Reminders CCSE - SEEK Development and Review Reminder ICSE '03 open calls Workshop on SWEBOK and SEEK Faculty Ads Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Contact and General Information about FASE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ By: Susan A. Mengel (Managing Editor) Letter from the Managing Editor Welcome to the September issue of FASE. I want to bring you up-to-date on some of the things happening now. --The International Conference on Software Maintenance will be held 3-6 October in Montreal. http://web.ing.unisannio.it/icsm2002/index.html for more info. --CSIDC 2003 is gearing up again. http://www.computer.org/csidc/registration.htm This competition was started so that students would have to demonstrate design principles in developing their projects. This is a great place to showcase software engineering. Up to 300 teams can participate this time around. I wonder where Alan Clements will find the judges to assess that many projects. --The IEEE-CS/ACM Computing Curriculum effort for the Software Engineering Volume is about to start work on the pedagogy part. This means mapping the SEEK into SE curricula is about to begin. If you are interested in more information about this, please contact Tim Lethbridge at tcl@site.uottawa.ca. He is one of the pedagogy co-chairs along with Mordechai Ben-Menachem and would be very grateful to have you volunteer for this effort. I would also like to solicit your recommendations for special topics in FASE. Please contact me at mengel@ttu.edu to let me know what you would like to read about. Also, if you would like to volunteer to be a special issue editor and you have a topic, please let me know. Enjoy this issue of FASE! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ By: Don Bagert (Professional Issues Editor) Professional Issues Column: Selling Engineers on Software Engineering [This is the first of what I hope will be a series of columns under the general heading of professional issues in software engineering. Thanks to Steve McConnell for the idea of a professional issues column.] Until about five years ago, my discussions with colleagues in more traditional engineering professions concerning the nature of software engineering had been mainly confined to philosophical discussions with my students (past and present) and co-workers. Since then, the discussions have frequently been on the state, national and international level. It has been an interesting and educational experience, to say the least. Here are some of the things that I have learned: * For the most part, those in other engineering professions are open to what you have to say, and their minds can be changed if the myths about software engineering that they have can be dispelled. * The biggest concern that engineers from traditional engineerings have is that many of them feel that all engineers should have a basic background in engineering sciences such as statics and thermodynamics, in continuous mathematics through differential equations, and in physics and chemistry. Most software engineers would disagree with all or part of that assertion, Although there is no consensus in the software engineering community. The best way that I have found to address these concerns is to point out that regardless of the laws concerning the practice of engineering in their jurisdiction, all engineers (and, for that matter, all professionals) are ethically bound to only practice in an area in which they are component. So, a software engineer shouldn't be trying to design any bridges - unless they all have a civil engineering background as well. That among dispels most of the concerns in this area. However, there are still those engineers that will firmly state that if the end product is not physical (e.g. software), it can't be an engineering... * Ironically, many engineers are seen as proficient in software development through the (often minimal) programming background they received in college, and are assigned tasks that software engineers (with sufficient application domain expertise) should be doing instead. The "doghouse" analogy, which has been used by many computing professionals over the years, often works in arguing the case for software engineers. For those of you that haven't heard of this analogy, it goes something like this: a child can build a doghouse (or a birdhouse, or something else simple like that), but that doesn't mean that they should be asked to create a building several orders of magnitude larger and more complex. In the same way, just because an engineer wrote a program of a few hundred lines in length in college, that doesn't mean this same person should be working on, say, complex real-time embedded system software tens of thousands of lines in length. To its credit, some segments of the engineering community are starting to understand the problem. One solution is to send those engineers to school to get a Master's degree in software engineering. However, in the long term, there will hopefully be a sufficient number of professionals with Bachelor's degree in software engineering or a related discipline (along with the proper application domain expertise) to do the job... * Finally, most engineers recognize the fact that software generally continues to be less reliable than most engineered products. So, any profession that promotes a software development process which for most part mirrors that of other engineering is to be encouraged by the population at large, whether that profession calls itself "software engineering", "computer science", "information systems" "information technology", or goes by some other name. ____ Note that I didn't say anything in the above about licensing, certification and accreditation. That's because I think that the discussion between software and other types of engineers on the above topics should be made on its own merits, independently of the reason for it. Finally, this column was about discussions concerning the profession of software engineering between software and other engineers. A topic for another time is a discussion of the merits of software engineering with the entire computing community... Thanks for listening, Don [The opinions stated in this column reflect those of its author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the FASE staff. Feedback to the author at Don.Bagert@rose-hulman.edu or to the FASE-TALK discussion list is welcome and much appreciated.] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Articles ###################################################################### By: Don Bagert (Professional Issues Editor) ASEE Prism Reports on SE Student Increase at Monash University The September 2002 issue (Volume 12, Number 1) of ASEE Prism (published by the American Society for Engineering Education), contained a short article entitled "Heavier IT Courses for Aussies" on page 15. The article opens with "Since the dot-com meltdown, IT students in Australia have been flocking to focused and more rigorous courses [curricula] in software engineering." The article focused particularly on enrollments at Monash University, described as Australia's largest IT school, with about 7,200 students, up 16% from 1990. The article goes on to state that interest in software engineering at Monash is up 30%, as opposed to 25% for business systems and 6% for computer science. Titian De Colle, Monash's marketing manager, reported that "This is really significant growth at the harder edge of IT. There's been increased demand for more technical and heavier courses, while interest has slipped in the more generalist courses." For more details, please consult the Prism article. For ASEE members, the September 2002 issue can be found at http://www.prism-magazine.org/sept02 ###################################################################### By: Tom Hilburn (Academic Editor) IEEE Software September/October 2002 Special Issue on "Educating Software Professionals" The IEEE Software September/October 2002 issue is a special on "Edcuating Software Professionals". The special issue includes the following: * Two papers that discuss industry needs: -- "Software Engineering Education and the C-130J Software Factory" by Richard Conn -- "A Collaboration Program to Retrain Lockheed Martin Aero Engineers" by Jorge Diaz-Herrera, Mike Murphy, and Dawn Ramsey * Five papers that address SE curriculum issues: -- "Software Engineering Programs: Dispelling the Myths and Misconceptions" by Hossein Saiedian, Donald Bagert, and Nancy Mead -- "Teaching PSP in Universities: Challenges and Lessons Learned" by Jurgen Borstler, David Carrington, Gregory Hislop, Susan Lisack, Keith Olson, and Laurie Williams -- "Simulating a Software Engineering Apprenticeship" by Ken Surendran and Helen Hays -- "Information Engineering: Educating IT Professionals by Addresing Industry's needs" by Dale Callahan and Bob Pedigo -- "Introducing Software Engineering in Introductory Courses" by Grant Cheston and Jean-Paul Tremblay * Three papers that deal with team project courses: -- "Teaching Teamwork" by Tom Hilburn and Watts Humphrey -- "Software Process in the Classroom: The Capstone Project Experience" by David Umphress, Dean Hendrix, and James Cross -- "Teaching Distributed Collaborative Software Development" by Lisa Burnell, John Priest, and John Durrett It also includes a point-counter-point about the importance of theory and practice in SE edcuation by Allan Tucker and Barry Boehm. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Calls for Participation ###################################################################### By: Tom Hilburn (Academic Editor) 16th CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND TRAINING "Software Engineering in Industry and University for the 21st Century" MADRID, SPAIN MARCH 20 - 22, 2003 http://www.aboutmadrid.com/madrid/ cseet03@mini.ls.fi.upm.es Since 1987 the Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training has been the primary international forum where industry and academia come together to exchange ideas on teaching and training individuals to meet the increasing demand for qualified software professionals The CSEE&T 2003 will take place in one of the world's most exciting and friendly cities: Madrid, Spain; a city well known for its world-class museums, its exquisite cuisine, and its majestic avenues. But Madrid is more than just an important European tourist center. It is the nerve center of one of Europe's most thriving economies. For CSEE&T 2003, topics to be addressed include, but are not limited to: - Software Engineering programs versus Computer Science programs with tracks in Software Engineering. - Strategic contents of Software Engineering programs and differences among countries. - Volatile parts of Software Engineering and its impact on Software Engineering education and training. - Strengths and weaknesses of Software Engineering University programs. - Innovative ways of teaching Software Engineering - Industry's view of Software Engineering education programs - The role of industry in Software Engineering education and training - Industry efforts addressing Software Engineering training needs - Government initiatives related to Software Engineering education - Software Engineering as an emerging profession - Definition of the body of knowledge in Software Engineering Research and experience papers as well as proposals for panels, workshops and tutorials addressing these or related issues are welcome. IMPORTANT DATES October 1, 2002 Submission deadline for papers, tutorials, panels, and workshops. All submissions must be e-mailed to cseet03@mini.ls.fi.upm.es and should be in either PDF or MS Word format. November 10, 2002 Notification of Acceptance December 15, 2002 Camera-ready copies CONFERENCE WEBSITE http://www.ls.fi.upm.es/cseet03 ABOUT MADRID While Europeans already know that traveling to Madrid is both convenient and inexpensive, most Americans do not. During April 2002, a round airfare from Newark NJ to Madrid could cost as little as $400.00! That's less of what one would have had to pay for a round trip from Newark to Portland, Oregon during the same time period. Plus you do not have to spend large sums of money for your stay. Wonderful Bed & Breakfasts and inexpensive hotels (called "hostales") can be found all over the city, many of them at walking distance from Madrid's superb Metro (subway) stations. You can check hotel and hostal prices at http://www.interhotel.com/. ###################################################################### From: Mauro Pezze' FASE 2003 Fundamental Approaches to Software Engineering an ETAPS Conference April 5 - 13, 2003 Warsaw, Poland IMPORTANT DATES =============== * 18 October 2002: Submission deadline for FASE 2003 abstracts * 20 October 2003: Submission deadlines for FASE 2003 full papers * 13 December 2002: Notification of acceptance/rejection * 17 January 2003: Camera-ready copy due SUBMISSION INFORMATION ====================== The proceedings will be published in the Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science series. |PROGRAMME COMMITTEE ===================== Luciano Baresi (Italy), Andrea Corradini (Italy), Hartmut Eherig (Germany), Josi Fiadeiro (Portugal), Istvan Forg`s (Hungary), Marie-Claude Gaudel (France), Heinrich Hu_mann (Germany), Mehdi Jazayeri (Austria), Lee Osterweil (USA), Mauro Pezzh (Italy), Gianna Reggio (Italy),Richard Taylor (USA), Andy Sch|rr (Germany), Roel Wieringa (The Netherlands) INVITED SPEAKER ============== Michal Young, University of Oregon (USA) MAIN TOPICS ========== * Component-based software architectures: design methods and strategies, design patterns, quality assurance Integration platforms and middleware systems for large scale heterogeneous software federations * Requirements engineering: techniques for acquiring, modeling, specifying and analyzing software components * Mobile computing and distributed and mobile applications: design issues, dynamic languages and application architectures, quality assurance * Testing, Analysis and Verification: algorithms, techniques, and processes concerned with assuring, developing, or assessing software with respect to requirements or goals * Measurement, Metrics, Experimentation: Integration of metrics gathering and evaluation into processes. Experimental paradigms for software research. Integration of multiple metrics * Integration of formal concepts and current best practices concepts in industrial software development * Experience reports on best practices with component models and specifications, development tools, modeling environments, and software development kits ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AT ======================== http://www.lta.disco.unimib.it/fase2003/ http://www.etaps-conf.org ###################################################################### From: Laurie Williams Call for Participation IEEE Computer Special Issue on Agile Software Development (June 2003) Papers due: January 6, 2003 IEEE Computer seeks articles for a special issue on agile software development to appear in June 2003. Guest editors are Laurie Williams, North Carolina State University, and Alistair Cockburn, Humans and Technology. Agile development, a development model that has been gaining popularity and use rapidly in recent years, aims to deliver business value early. Agile methods enable the incorporation of late-changing product requirements, by accentuating, as core properties of the development process, the frequent delivery of running, tested systems, and the use of rich, informal communication channels. Proponents of the agile approach say that these practices lead to more satisfied customers and a superior success rate of delivering high quality software on-time. Agile approaches are gaining popularity in industry despite - or perhaps because of - their mixing accepted and controversial software engineering practices. It may happen that eventually, individual project characteristics will determine the prudence of using an agile, plan-driven, or hybrid approach. For this special issue, we invite wide-ranging articles on agile software development appropriate to Computer's readers. Desired topics include, but are not limited to: empirical examinations of agile software development practices and methodologies; experience reports; comparisons between emerging agile practices and established best practices; examinations of agile methodologies relative to established standards such as the CMM, CMMI, and ISO; issues of scalability; issues around teamwork and collaboration. Submission deadline is January 6, 2003. Papers, submitted in electronic (pdf) form, should conform to the IEEE Computer paper submission standards at http://computer.org/computer/author.htm and be sent to williams@csc.ncsu.edu. Please contact Laurie Williams (williams@csc.ncsu.edu) with questions. ###################################################################### From: Frederic Rioux CUSEC 2003: CANADIAN UNDERGRADUATE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING CONFERENCE "Adapting the Process" MONTREAL, CANADA JANUARY 16 to 18, 2003 The backbone to Software Engineering is the software process. Without a well-defined sequence of activities, no software engineering is possible. Unfortunately, there is no magical recipe suitable for every situation. For instance, safety-critical software is not engineered the same way as web-applications or computer games. Instead, every domain has adapted methodologies with varying flexibility and complexity to achieve its goals with respect to its constraints. After a very successful first conference last year that attracted more than 150 students from four different universities, CUSEC will be back for a second time in Montreal for three days in January 2003. With our attendance capacity doubling, an added tech expo and software engineering competition, this student-organized conference promoting Software Engineering will definitively be an event where the future software engineers will gather. For this year's conference, topics to be addressed include, but are not limited to: * Lightweight Methods/Processes * Managing Evolving Systems * Best Practices * Open Source Development * Domain Specific Practices * Requirements Engineering * Testing * Usability * Incorporating users into the process * Patterns Papers, presentations, as well as proposals for tutorials addressing these issues are welcome. Submission Instructions: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please send an extended abstracts (500 words) to papers@cusec.ca by November 1st 2002. In the case of abstracts for papers that are accepted, once the paper is finished and submitted, it will be published in our proceedings and distributed to all our attendees. You are also invited to submit any other material that you will use during your presentation. A suggested format for the abstract would be: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------------------------------------ Keywords: Abstract Biography ------------------------------------------------------------ Important dates: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Abstract Submission: November 1st, 2002 Notification of Acceptance: December 2nd, 2002 Final Paper Submission: January 6th, 2003 Additional information sources: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You are invited to sign-up to our occasional newsletter by sending an email to newsletter@cusec.ca or by visiting CUSEC 2003 official website at http://www.cusec.ca. For any other questions, please contact presentations@cusec.ca. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Calls for Participation Reminders ###################################################################### By: Tom Hilburn (Academic Editor) CCSE - SEEK Development and Review Reminder In the August issue of FASe we reported on the public review of the SEEK (Software Engineering Education Knolwedge) document, which will be used in development of the curriculum recommendations of CCSE (Computing Curriculum - Software Engineering). To participate in the reviwew Yyou can go to http://sites.computer.org/ccse/ TO CONDUCT AN ONLINE REVIEW OF THE SEEK DRAFT. Reviews must be submitted by SEPTEMBER 30TH. ###################################################################### From: Margaret Burnett ICSE '03 open calls Software Engineering Education & Training Papers (due Oct. 4, 2002) Experience Reports (due Oct. 4, 2002) Intl. Workshop on Program Comprehension Papers (co-located event) Intl. SPIN Workshop on Model Checking of Software Papers (co-located event) Tutorial Proposals (due Oct. 4, 2002) Workshop and Co-located Event Proposals (due Oct. 4, 2002) Panel Proposals (due Oct. 4, 2002) Doctoral Symposium Applications (due Jan. 10, 2003) Research Demonstrations and Posters (due Jan. 10, 2003) Information on all of the above can be found at: http://www.icse-conferences.org/2003/ ###################################################################### From: Tim Lethbridge CALL FOR PARTICIPATION WORKSHOP ON GUIDE TO THE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (SWEBOK) AND THE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING EDUCATION BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (SEEK) OCTOBER 6, 2002 Ecole de technologie superieure Montreal, Quebec, Canada Workshop held during the SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING PRACTICE (STEP) 2002 http://iwcase.org/step2002/ STEP 2002 will be held in conjunction with: IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance, ICSM'2002 http://web.ing.unisannio.it/icsm2002/index.html Workshop Co-chairs Pierre Bourque (SWEBOK) Ecole de technologie superieure Telephone: (1) 514-396-8623 pbourque@ele.etsmtl.ca Timothy Lethbridge (CCSE) University of Ottawa Tel: (613) 562-5800 x6685 tcl@site.uottawa.ca For further information on this workshop, please contact Pierre Bourque at pbourque@ele.etsmtl.ca ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Faculty Ads ###################################################################### From: Don Bagert Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology The Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology invites applications for one or more anticipated tenure-track faculty positions to begin August 2003. Strong candidates in any area of computer science or software engineering will be considered (we are particularly interested in expertise in the areas of software engineering and computer architecture). The department continues to expand and improve the software engineering component of its bachelor's degree in computer science, with the possibility of offering bachelor's and master's degrees in software engineering in the near future. Rose-Hulman is a highly selective, coeducational, primarily undergraduate college of engineering and science, with a vision to be the best institution of its kind in the world. Faculty members are expected to be outstanding teachers. Ongoing professional development is expected of all faculty so that their teaching continues to be outstanding. A Ph.D. in computer science or a closely related field is normally expected. Rank is open and salary is very competitive. Detailed information is available on our website http://www.cs.rose-hulman.edu/dept/employment.html and from Cary Laxer (CM 100), Professor and Head, Computer Science and Software Engineering Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 5500 Wabash Avenue Terre Haute, IN 47803 Phone: (812) 877-8429 E-mail: laxer@rose-hulman.edu Rose-Hulman is an AA-EO employer. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Contact and General Information about FASE ###################################################################### FASE is published on the 15th of each month by the FASE staff. Article and Faculty Ad Submission Guidelines 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, faculty ads, 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, according to the schedule provided. 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 trailing blanks and 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). All articles contain the viewpoints of their respective authors, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the FASE staff. _____ Subscribe/Unsubscribe Information Everyone that is receiving this by email 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 Please try to limit FASE-TALK to discussion items related to software engineering education, training and professional issues; 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. 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, or in reverse order. _____ The FASE Staff: Susan A. Mengel -- Managing Editor Department of Computer Science Texas Tech University 8th and Boston Lubbock TX 79409-3104 Phone: 806-742-1189 Fax: 806-742-3519 Email: mengel@ttu.edu URL: http://www.cs.ttu.edu/people/faculty/mengel.html Tom Hilburn -- Academic Editor Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Department of Computing and Mathematics Daytona Beach FL 32114 USA Phone: 386-226-6889 Fax: 386-226-6678 Email: hilburn@erau.edu URL: http://faculty.erau.edu/hilburn/ David Carter -- Corporate/Government Editor 807 Hwy 1204 #B-2 Pineville LA 71360 USA Phone: 318-641-0824 Email: dacarter@bayou.com Don Bagert, P.E. -- Professional Issues Editor Director of Software Engineering Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering CM 97 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology 5500 Wabash Avenue Terre Haute IN 47803-3999 USA Phone: 812-877-8327 Email: Don.Bagert@rose-hulman.edu Fax: 812-872-6060 URL: http://www.cs.rose-hulman.edu/people/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