Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education Volume 7 Number 04 - November 15, 1997 664 subscribers http://www.cs.ttu.edu/fase ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Table of Contents: Letter from the Academic Editor This month's topic: Graduate School Opportunities Upcoming topics Features Industry/University Collaborations: Planetary Challenge Update Calls For Participation ICSE '98: International Workshop on Software Engineering Education ICSE '98: International Workshop on Multimedia Software Engineering (MSE'98) ICSE '98: The Fifth International Workshop on Engineering Hypertext Functionality into Future Information Systems FESMA 98 Post-Conference Reports REFSQ '97 FIE '97 (with web page info for FIE '98) Faculty Positions University College London Carnegie Mellon University The University of Missouri-Rolla Requests for Feedback SE Ethics in a Market Economy? Help! Contact and General Information about FASE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Letter from the Academic Editor Well, it's Saturday night, and another issue of FASE is about to "go to press". I was reflecting earlier today about how the outlook for software engineering education has, at least in my view, considerably improved over the last six months. ABET is seriously looking into accreditation issues, at least one state is looking into licensing software engineers, the IEEE-ACM Initiative Education Task Force has been formed, and there are several interdisciplinary initiatives involving computing or software education, of which software engineering is a part. It's a good time to be in software engineering education! Don Bagert P.S. I just want to remind everyone about the FASE-TALK listserv. To date, there are only 21 subscribers! This is the perfect way to exchange ideas among your colleagues. If you're interested, FASE-TALK subscription information is at the end of this issue. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Introduction by: Don Bagert This month's topic: Graduate School Opportunities Various individuals were asked the following question: "What advice would you give to a prospective graduate student who wishes to specialize in software engineering?" Four responses are below. ################################################################ From: Nancy Mead (nrm@sei.cmu.edu) Ideally, the student should work for a few years, and then get the graduate degree, once they know it's the right thing for them. On the other hand, most folks who go into industry are less likely to go back later for a degree, so there is a risk that they won't get an advanced degree at all once they are out in the commercial world. Nevertheless, in terms of readiness for a graduate degree in software engineering, I think that students are better off with a couple of years of experience under their belts. I would recommend an undergraduate degree in CS, Engineering, Math, etc. I have a bias towards master's degrees in software engineering, or the equivalent. It doesn't matter what the degree is called, but for a career in industry, the content should be software engineering. In terms of which school to go to, this is a very personal decision. The prospective student should look carefully at the curriculum, talk to the faculty, etc., and make sure that it is the right program for them. ################################################################ From: Pete Knoke (ffpjk@aurora.alaska.edu) 13 Nov 97 SE GRADUATE STUDY OPPORTUNITIES Pete Knoke Associate Professor of Computer Science University of Alaska Fairbanks ffpjk@aurora.alaska.edu About 30 years ago the field of software engineering first got a name (1968). About 10 years later, the first US graduate study program in software engineering was born (Texas Christian University, 1978). About 9 years later (1987) the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) was established at Carnegie Mellon University, and later a Master of Software Engineering program was established there (1989). Since 1987, with a significant boost from SEI, the growth in the number of graduate SE programs has been rapid. Today there exist many graduate study programs where a student can take a master's degree or a PhD in SE or a closely related field, as noted in the incomplete and possibly somewhat inaccurate list below [SEI96]. I believe that this rapid growth in the number of SE graduate programs continues. [Editor's Note: It is my understanding that SEI is no longer maintaining this list of graduate software engineeing programs. Would you like to have FASE do an annual survey which would update this list? Please let know - Don] --------------------------- *MS in Software Engineering --------------------------- Andrews University Brazilian University Consortium City University Colorado Technical College DePaul University Drexel University Imperial College of Science and Technology Monmouth University National Technological University National University Southern Methodist University University of Houston, Clear Lake University of Maryland University of Missouri-Kansas City University of Pittsburgh University of Scranton University of St. Thomas University of Stirling ------------------------------- *Master of Software Engineering ------------------------------- Carnegie Mellon University Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Kansas State University Seattle University Texas Christian University University of Karlskrona/Ronneby Wang Institute of Graduate Studies ----------------------------- *MEng in Software Engineering ------------------------------ University of Colorado -------------------------------------------------- *Master of Science in a software-related discipline --------------------------------------------------- Air Force Institute of Technology (Software Systems Management) George Mason University (Software Systems Engineering) Rochester Institute of Technology (Software Development and Management) University of Detroit Mercy (Software Management) ------------------------------------------------------- *Master of in a software-related discipline -------------------------------------------------------- Miami University (Systems Analysis) University of St. Thomas (Software Design and Development) ------------------------------------- *MEng in Software Systems Engineering ------------------------------------- University of Colorado at Colorado Springs ------------------------------------------------------- *MS in Computer Science (or similar), optional SE track ------------------------------------------------------- Air Force Institute of Technology Azusa Pacific University (Applied Computer Science and Technology) Boston University (Systems Engineering) East Tennessee State University Florida Atlantic University Georgia Institute of Technology Grand Valley State University (Computer Information Systems) Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (Informatics) Mississippi State University Portland State University Queen's University in Kingston University of Alabama in Huntsville University of Alaska at Fairbanks University of Central Florida (Computer Engineering) University of Central Florida (Computer Systems) University of Iowa University of Southern California University of Texas at Austin (Electrical Engineering) University of West Florida ----------------------------------------------------------- *Master of Computer Science (or similar), optional SE track ----------------------------------------------------------- Wichita State University ------------------------------------------------------------ *MS in Computer Science (or similar), SE electives available ------------------------------------------------------------ Arizona State University Howard University Purdue University University of Florida University of Maryland University of Tennessee ------------------------------------------------------------ *Master of Computer Science (or similar), SE electives available -------------------------------------------------------------- Arizona State University ----------------------------------------------------------- *PhD in Computer Science (or similar), SE electives available ----------------------------------------------------------- Arizona State University George Mason University George Mason University (Information Technology) Purdue University University of California at Irvine University of Florida University of Maryland ------------------------------- So, today's prospective SE graduate student has the best opportunities ever, and his opportunities get better every year. That's the good news. The bad news is that these graduate study programs tend to be quite diverse, and I know of no single source which describes them all in detail and evaluates them according to some consistent and credible scheme (e.g., like the one US News and World Report uses to evaluate US universities annually). This research and evaluation work the student must now do for himself. For several years SEI published a document called Software Engineering Education Directory (SEED), and this was very helpful, but no new version of this document has appeared recently. The last-published SEED might be available from SEI or from the SEI web pages. The WWW is a good tool for research and evaluation work in the area of SE programs. It isn't clear what the best evaluation criteria for these SE programs might be. I think there is probably a consensus among SE educators about which are the top few SE graduate programs. For example, I believe few would deny that CMU's Master of Software Engineering program is one of the best. But, once past the top few it isn't clear how to rank the rest. A good quality SE education can now be obtained from many programs. I was fortunate to be able to spend the fall of 1996 on sabbatical at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU), where I was able to see the Master of Software Engineering curriculum there at close hand. Upon being invited by ERAU to attempt an evaluation of their MSE curriculum, I did so using a simple evaluation template. The results of this exercise are below. A similar evaluation scheme might prove useful for a prospective student. ------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------ EXTRACTS FROM A MEMO 19 Nov 96 TO: Soheil Khajenoori FROM: Pete Knoke SUBJECT: ERAU MSE Curriculum - Comments Thanks for giving me the opportunity to review the ERAU MSE curriculum as it was presented in your graduate education meeting on 15 Oct 96. Overall, the ERAU MSE curriculum (20 courses) is as good as any I've seen. Since Iraj has got me thinking in terms of checklists from the MSE500 class, I'll try to use a checklist approach in considering the ERAU MSE curriculum below: 1) COMPREHENSIVENESS AND DEPTH IN CORE AREAS: Good. 5 courses cover most of the main core areas thought to be important to a fledgling software engineer. 2) DEPTH IN SELECTED KEY AREAS: Very good. Whatever it may be exactly, the full software engineering "field" is far too big to cover in depth in a single Master's level curriculum in a small school. The ERAU curriculum provides focus in the two important key areas of Real Time (3 courses) and Process (3 courses). 3) RANGE AND QUALITY OF ELECTIVES IN OTHER SE AREAS: Good. I believe the remaining 9 courses represent a good selection which provides opportunities for coverage of other important areas such as simulation, formal methods, and graphics. Moreover, certain titles such as "Current Trends in SE" and "Special Topics in SE" allow coverage of virtually anything else in the dynamic and rapidly evolving field of SE. 4) "ACCREDITATION STATUS": Outstanding. The ERAU MSE curriculum is provided guidance and review from at least three outstanding sources, namely: * SEI, and key SEI personnel * IAB (a carefully selected and nurtured Industry Advisory Board * Watts Humphrey I evaluate the ERAU MSE curriculum as very good overall, and amazingly good considering the small size of the CS Department, its context within Embry-Riddle ("the Harvard of the sky", as a cab driver described it to me recently), and the geographical location and industrial context of Daytona Beach. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- Our FASE editor, Don Bagert, suggested some questions that contributors might want to address, such as the desirability of choosing a program which offers a MS Computer Science degree with an SE Track instead of a "pure" Master of Software Engineering degree. My school, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) has such a program (our other and older Track is called the Technical Track. There is no great significance in the use of Technical in the latter and not in the former). At UAF we do our best to provide breadth, depth and quality in the SE components of our program. However, in the areas of SE breadth and depth we can't match some other schools which are more focused on SE. Because of the intense scrutiny of our SE track students by hard core computer science faculty members (some of whom take a dim view of the emerging field of SE), and because of the nature of our required written comprehensive exams, it isn't possible for any of our SE track students to graduate without very good programming skills and some knowledge of traditional computer science core areas like automata theory. Possibly they know more than a software engineer needs to know about certain computer science areas. Other MS CS/SE programs may have a similar situation. Currently most of our MS CS graduate students are in the SE track. MS graduates of both tracks have no difficulty getting good jobs quickly. However, because the job market for MS graduates in CS and related fields is now so good, it's hard to say whether or not this is evidence of the good quality of these programs/tracks. ---------------------------------------------------------------- REFERENCES [SEI96] An unsigned list of SE programs including bachelor's, masters, and PhD level programs. It was distributed at the 10th annual Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training(CSEET) held at Virginia Beach in April 1996. ################################################################ From: Laurie Werth (lwerth@cs.utexas.edu) Laurie pointed out the following excellent document: 1991 SEI Report on Graduate Software Engineering Education, Ford, CMU/SEI-91-TR-2. (She also provided the same list of graduate programs that Peter Knoke did.) ################################################################ From: John M. Atkins (atkins@cs.wvu.edu) The Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at West Virginia University offers a Master of Science in Software Engineering degree. This degree focuses on the adult learner who is currently employed and has had substantial experience in the software industry. However, the program is open to the traditional student who is a recent graduate. Since the master's degree is primarily intended for the adult learner, classes are offered in the evenings and emphasize the more applied aspects of software engineering. Adult learners generally pursue a concurrent Certificate Program in Software Engineering and are formally admitted to the Master's program after twelve credit hours of Certificate course work. All certificate courses do apply to the subsequent master's degree. Recent graduates who wish to enter the master's program must have a bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, computer engineering or electrical engineering, have at least a 3.0 undergraduate grade point average and at least 80th percentile on the Quantitative portion of the GREs. Information on the master's program may be obtained from John Atkins. His address is atkins@cs.wvu.edu. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ By: Don Bagert (Academic/Misc Editor) Upcoming topics In December, FASE will look at Industry training programs. Please send any contributions to Kathy Beckman (Kathy.Beckman@cdsi.com) by December 8. Distance learning will be the topic for the January 1998 issue. Sheneui Sloan of UC-Long Beach (scsloan@uces.csulb.edu) will be the guest editor; please contact her if you want to participate. The topic for February has not been finalized, but the March 1998 topic will be software education across the computing field. This will be a follow-up to a CSEE&T workshop on the same subject. Please contact Don Bagert (bagert@ttu.edu) if interested in this topic. Here are some of the topics planned for future issues: * Personal Software Process (PSP) education and training * Software engineering education and training outside of the U.S. * Object Technology Education and Training * Software Metrics * Web Pages * Team Projects Please send any suggestions for future topics to me at bagert@ttu.edu. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Features ################################################################ Industry/University Collaborations: Planetary Challenge Update From: Kathy Beckman, Corporate/Government Editor (kathy.beckman@cdsi.com) I've had 3 responses so far to my Planetary Challenge announcement. [Editor's Note: See October 1997 issue of FASE.] This is fun! ################################################################ Greetings from Australia! I thought you might like to share some of the work that a colleague and I are doing. Until mid June 1997 we were both academics teaching undergraduate software engineering courses at an Australian University. The opportunity arose for us to join the Australian CSIRO's (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Outreach Program which us to place qualified software process engineers into various divisions within CSIRO to improve on the software engineering practices of the programmers who meet the programming needs of scientists in a diverse range of disciplines. We joined the Tropical Agriculture Division as Software Process Engineer (Sid) and Software Development Manager (myself) working with programmers developing agricultural simulations systems for farming systems research. We have spent the last fifteen months working beside, and educating, the programmers in the group using various means of in situ training, exemplars and simple procedures. The experience has been highly beneficial to both the programmers and ourselves. They have gained skills that knowledge that have moved them on from being simply programmers to novice software engineers with an understanding of aspects of planning, scheduling, defect tracking, requirements traceability, evolutionary development, configuration management, client-driven quality issues, risk and crises management. We have gathered an immense amount of information with which to adapt and extend the, sometimes sterile, topics covered in typical texts used in software engineering courses and upon which to base the practical aspects of courses that we might teach in the future. (We're having too much fun at the moment to think about returning to full-time academe but still enjoy presenting guest lectures and seminars to students!) We've also gathered some interesting information that is proving to be extremely important in the context of our own on- going software engineering research work. Our idea of software engineering heaven? Alternating a year in industry with a year teaching useful SE to undergraduates who will be the software engineers of the future. I don't know if this is the type of information you wanted, Kathy, but at least you got one response from Australia. Val Veraart and Sid Wright ============================================ Val Veraart phone +61 76 881452 CSIRO Tropical Agriculture fax +61 76 881193 Software Development Mgr email Val.Veraart@tag.csiro.au APSIM Development APSRU, PO Box 102 Toowoomba Qld 4350 ============================================ ################################################################ Hello, Our activities are presented by address: http://www.soften.ktu.lt Sincerely Yours R. Seinauskas ---------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. Rimantas Seinauskas phone: +370 7 799917 Kaunas University of Technology fax: +370 7 799925 Studentu 48A-301 Kaunas email:rimantas.seinauskas@sc.ktu.lt Lithuania http://www.soften.ktu.lt/~rsei/index.html ---------------------------------------------------------------- ################################################################ Dear Kathy, Greetings from Macqaurie University, Sydney, Australia. ---------------------------------------------------------------- | Didar Zowghi Lecturer, CSIRO-Macquarie University | | Joint Research Centre for Advanced Systems Engineering(RCASE)| | Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, AUSTRALIA ,-^_|\ | | E-mail: didar@mpce.mq.edu.au / \ | | WWW page: http://www-comp.mpce.mq.edu.au/~didar | Sydney || | Phone: +61 (02) 9850 9569 or (9101) \_,--._* | | Fax: +61 (02) 9850 9102 Mobile: 041 221 7265 | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Calls for Participation ################################################################ From: John Jenkins (J.O.Jenkins@city.ac.uk) Subject to approval by the ICSE organising cttee i will be organising a workshop which will be co-located with ICSE 98 in Kyoto next April. The workshop will be one day in duration and will focus on graduate level education (both taught Masters programmes and doctoral research programmes). The attendance will be limited to 40 and will be by invitation (invitations will be issued to the first 40 people submitting position papers as per the call for participation. Dr John Jenkins School of Informatics,City University,London. Fax +44 171 477 8588 [Editor's Note: This would be the Fifth International Workshop on Software Engineering Education held in conjunction with ICSE. Dr. Jenkins was in charge of the 1995 workshop, held in Seattle.] ################################################################ Forwarded By: Laurie Werth (lwerth@cs.utexas.edu) CALL FOR PAPERS International Workshop on Multimedia Software Engineering (MSE'98) (in conjunction with International Conference on Software Engineering) URL: http://kel.eecs.uic.edu/MSE98/ April 20-21, 1998 Kyoto International Conference Hotel, Kyoto, Japan Despite the growing importance of multimedia applications we still know relatively little about how to specify, design and maintain this class of complex applications in a systematic manner. The purpose of this workshop is to bring together active researchers in the area of software engineering and multimedia systems to exchange and evaluate the issues, experience, and trends in this area. MSE'98 will be conducted as a combination of paper presentations, invited talks, and panel discussion. Submission of high quality papers describing mature results or on-going work are invited. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: - multimedia software architecture - representation of media types - modelling and metamodelling techniques - architecture specification languages - software development using multimedia techniques - multimedia authoring - multimedia file systems and databases - multimedia over mobile systems - user-interface design - requirements and design specification techniques - distributed software development environment - metrics, analysis, testing and debugging techniques - visual programming - software process models for multimedia applications PAPER SUBMISSIONS Papers are solicited from potential participants of this workshop. Papers must be written in English, with the length of no more than 20 pages, and printed using at least 11-point type and double spacing. Authors are requested to submit their paper electronically (postscript or pdf format only) and followed by a hard copy to the respective Program Co- Chairs. The paper should have a cover page which includes a 200-word abstract, a list of keywords, and author's phone number and e-mail address. For authors in Americas, Europe, and Africa Professor Sourav Bhattacharya Department of Computer Science and Engineering Arizona State University Tyler Mall - GWC 206 Tempe, AZ 85287-5406 sourav@asu.edu For authors in Asia and Australia Professor Masahito Hirakawa, Faculty of Eng. Infor. Systems Hiroshima University Higashi-Hiroshima 739, Japan hirakawa@huis.hiroshima-u.ac.jp Important dates: Papers due December 30, 1997 Paper acceptance notification February 15, 1998 Camera ready paper due March 1, 1998 Organization: Honorary General Co-Chairs Tadao Ichikawa, Hiroshima University Kiyoh Nakamura, Fujitsu Limited, Inc. Conference Co-Chairs: Jeffrey J.P. Tsai, University of Illinois, Chicago Farokh B. Bastani, University of Texas, Dallas Program Co-Chairs: Sourav Bhattacharya, Arizona State University Masahito Hirakawa, Hiroshima University PC members, Mikio Aoyama - Niigata Institute of Technology, Japan Doris Bernardini, Defense Information Systems Agency, USA S.K. Chang - University of Pittsburg, USA Doug DeGroot, Texas Instruments, USA Anthony Finkelstein, University College London, UK Arif Ghafoor - Purdue Univeristy, USA Taghi Khoshgoftaar, Florida Atlantic University, USA Chung-Shyan Liu, Chung Yuan C. University, Taiwan Satoshi Matsuoka - Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Max Muhlhauser, University of Linz, Austria Jun Ohya - ATR, Japan Rikio Onai - NTT/Real World Computing, Japan Atul Prakash - University of Michigan, USA Philip Sheu, Univ. of California, Irvine, USA Arun K. Sood, George Mason Univ., USA Jaideep Srivastava, Univ. of Minnesota, USA Scott Stevens, Carnegie Mellon University, USA V.S. Subrahmanian, Univ. of Maryland, USA Wei Sun, Florida International University, USA Hiroyuki Tarumi - Kyoto Univ., Japan Satish K. Tripathi, Univ. of California at Riverside, USA I-Ling Yen, Univ. of Texas at Dallas, USA John Yen, Texas A&M University, USA Publicity Co-Chairs: Yaodong Bi, Scranton University, USA Benjamin Jang, National Chengchi University, Taiwan ################################################################ Forwarded By: Laurie Werth (lwerth@cs.utexas.edu) The Fifth International Workshop on Engineering Hypertext Functionality into Future Information Systems (together with the International Conference on Software Engineering, ICSE'98) Kyoto, Japan, April 20th. Workshop URL: http://www.ics.uci.edu/pub/kanderso/htf5/cfp.html The V workshop on incorporating Hypertext Functionality into software systems (HTF5) is the central international forum for both researchers and practitioners to exchange ideas and work results at the intersection of hypertext and software engineering. To expand on the success of the previous three workshop meetings, held in conjunction with Hypertext conferences in 1994, 1996, and 1997, two HTF workshops are planned for April 1998: HTF5 in conjunction with the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE'98) in Kyoto, Japan, and HTF4 associated with WWW7 in Brisbane, Australia. Workshop attendance at HTF is by invitation only, based on a submitted paper. Most existing and future information systems need to know about hypertext, whether in order to execute on the Internet or Intranet, to operate in a distributed environment, or to allow its users point-and-click navigation. We are, therefore, required to augment with hypertext functionality the myriad of today's personal, scientific, and business systems, which were not designed with hypertext in mind. Furthermore, developers may not have sufficient working knowledge of hypertext and hypermedia to augment currently available systems. For users to benefit from hypertext functionality (for example, by using or linking to WWW applications), it must be incorporated into information systems that are in everyday use. Designers and developers must accomplish this with minimal effort as well as unobtrusively, i.e., applications should still be able to perform their regular, originally intended functionality. Thus we are not building standalone hypertext systems; rather we incorporate hypertext capabilities into other types of systems. For many of these systems, hypertext must be integrated so seamlessly that users are unaware of its presence. HTF5 focuses on the value added to a system by hypertext and hypermedia support capabilities as well as the actual process of embedding hypertext functions into non-hypertext information systems. The main theme for this workshop is engineering hypertext functionality, i.e., various aspects of constructing hypertext capabilities. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to, the following: * Design and construction of hypertext functionality * Incorporation of hypertext features into non-hypertext systems * Evaluating usability and utility of the resulting augmented system * Using multimedia information in software systems * Software architectures that support/enable hypertext functionality * Design patterns for hypertext functionality * Interplay between hypertext and object-oriented software * Evolution and maintenance of software systems that include hypertext functionality * Metrics and measurements for hypertext functionality Participation Participation in HTF5 is ideally limited to no more than 20 researchers and practitioners, representing a cross-section of interest from the hypertext, software engineering and MIS communities. Participation is by invitation, based on submission of a position paper to the program chairs. Selection for participation will be based primarily on the quality and relevance of submitted position statements, as recommended by the program committee. Submission, Acceptance, and Publication A position statement (extended abstract) must be sent to one or both program chairs listed below. Position papers must be no more than three pages in length, excluding figures and references, and should be submitted in ASCII, HTML, or postscript/pdf format. Electronic submission of papers is required, preferably as HTML or by electronic mail. All submissions must be accompanied with an email message to alert both program chairs. It is intended for all position papers to be made available on the WWW in advance as well as distributed in binders at the workshop. HTML versions of accepted papers are therefore required. The program co-chairs are pleased to announce that an agreement is being established with Addison Wesley publishing company to provide selected workshop papers in book form. We are excited about providing this opportunity to turn workshop papers into book contributions. The program co-chairs will create and edit the compendium to include selected workshop papers. Authors will then be asked to deliver a publication-ready version of their workshop paper within the timeframe listed below. Compendiums of HTF workshop papers will be published annually; the 1998 HTF compendium will include papers from both HTF4 (Brisbane, Australia) and HTF5 (Kyoto, Japan) Important Dates Submissions due: January 20, 1998 Authors Notified: February 20, 1998 Final workshop version due: March 20, 1998 Workshop date: April 20, 1998 Final publication copy due: June 20, 1998 Organizing Committee Program Chairs Gustavo Rossi, LIFIA, Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina gustavo@sol.info.unlp.edu.ar Hadar Ziv, Quest Software, Inc., Newport Beach, CA, USA zivh@quests.com Program Committee Kenneth M. Anderson University of California, Irvine, California Helen Ashman University of Nottingham, UK V. Balasubramanian E-Papyrus, Inc., Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University, New Jersey Michael Bieber New Jersey Institute of Technology, New Jersey Alejandra Garrido Universidad Nacional de la Plata, Argentina David Hicks Knowledge Systems, Export, Pennsylvania John Noll Network Appliance, Inc., Santa Clara, California Harri Oinas-Kukkonen University of Oulu, Finland Debra J. Richardson University of California, Irvine, California Walt Scacchi Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California Daniel Schwabe Departamento de Informatica, PUC-RIO, Brazil ################################################################ From: Bruno Peeters Forwarded By: Laurie Werth (lwerth@cs.utexas.edu) BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT THROUGH SOFTWARE MEASUREMENT FESMA 1998 The Number One European Software Measurement Conference (A continuation of ESCOM: European Software Control and Measurement Conference) Call for papers and participation Background This conference might have been called: The Ninth European Software Control and Metrics Conference. However this would do injustice to the ambitious set-up of FESMA 1998, the first of a brand new series of software measurement conferences. Our aim is not only to maintain the level of program and organisational quality that were achieved at previous ESCOM conferences, but to become the number one conference in Europe on topics dealing with metrics for functional sizing, estimating, application of estimating methods, benchmarking, project control, etc. FESMA conferences aim to bring together academics, software experts and practitioners from all over the world to discuss and share their experiences of software development and the delivery of best practice. FESMA This non profit making organisation was founded in Amsterdam in 1996 to co-ordinate and support the activities of the various Software Metrics Associations in Europe. Their main objective is to promote the use of software metrics in the broadest sense to enable best practice in the development and delivery of software products. At the moment software metrics associations from 8 European countries are participating in FESMA. The number will grow as the application of software metrics becomes common practice in more European countries. FESMA maintains close contacts and co-operation with similar organisations in other parts of the world, such as the USA and Australia. It also participates with these organisations in the various ISO standardisation processes. Theme for the FESMA 1998 conference For years IT experts have been developing methods, techniques and tools, that aim to improve the quality of the software development process and of the software that results from that process. But they have still not succeeded in convincing either the user or IT management of the added value that these elements can bring to achieving their business objectives. The FESMA 1998 conference will focus on the application of software metrics in project control, estimating and risk management, emphasising its added value for the benefit of the business processes and aiding the software quality improvement process. Practical experiences will be presented in the measurement and control of projects that aim to solve the Year 2000 and Euro currency problems. Your contribution If you feel that you would like to participate in the conference by presenting on a subject dealing with one of the topics, that are to be addressed, we would welcome an extract of your paper or presentation. Please send an abstract or outline of your paper or presentation of about 20 to 40 lines in length to the KVIV. (email or electronic format if possible). A tools fair will be held during the conference to give attendees the opportunity to see the newest tools available. If you would like to display at the tools fair please contact the conference director. The following timescale will be used for selection of submitted papers: December 15, 1997 Deadline for abstracts January 15, 1998 Speakers are notified by FESMA March 1, 1998 Deadline for submitting papers April 1, 1998 Deadline for copies of presentation slides Important: abstracts can be send to fesma@ti.kviv.be preferably by e-mail using Microsoft Word 6.0-format and via MIME-attachment. Please use the following procedure to label your document: positions 1-3 "FES" 4-6 your initials 7 "A" for abstract 8 "1", "2",... if more than one abstract is sent extension ".DOC" The programme committee will consist of academics and software practitioners along with selected members of the various International Software Metrics Associations. ================================================================ Conference details ANTWERP, MAY 6-8, 1998 For 1998 we have chosen Belgium, probably the most European of countries. The conference will be hosted by the Belgisch Genootschap voor Software Metrics. Antwerp - often called the Sinjorenstad - is a very attractive city with a rich history. Already in the 16th century kings and dukes fought heavy battles for the possession of Antwerp and not without good reason. The location has been chosen for its easy access by rail, air and road from almost every part of Europe. The venue will be the conference centre of the Antwerp zoo. This is a recently renovated 19th century building complex. It is located in the city centre, adjacent to the central railway station and the airport bus stop. Discounted rates for accommodation are arranged with some good hotels in the neighbourhood. The conference will start at 9:30 on Wednesday May 6th and finish on Friday May 8 after lunch. The conference will be opened and closed with well known keynote speakers from the software industry and academia. There will be a welcome cocktail on Tuesday evening and an organised social event on the Thursday evening. As with past conferences tutorials/workshops will be run on Tuesday May 5th, if there is sufficient interest. We will also offer the opportunity to participate in an IFPUG counting practices exam. Contacts Program Chair: Harry Coombes, Conway House, Sambrook, Shropshire, England TF10 8AP Phone: +44956937002 Conference director: Martin Hooft van Huysduynen, Oosterzijweg 43, 1851 PC Heiloo, The Netherlands, Phone: +31725320144, Fax: +31725320114, Email: martinhooft_nl@compuserve.com Conference Administration: Technologisch Instituut KVIV, Att. Mrs. Rita Peys, Desguinlei 214, B-2018 Antwerpen 1 , Belgium Phone: +3232160996, Fax: +3232160689, Email: Rita.Peys@ti.kviv.be ================================================================ Reply form BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT THROUGH SOFTWARE MEASUREMENT FESMA 1998 ANTWERP, BELGIUM: 6-8 May 1998 Registration of interest Name : First Name : Company/Institute: Address: Country: Phone: Fax: Email: () I am interested in attending FESMA 1998 Please send me (in February 98) a program and registration form ( ) I am interested in presenting a paper at FESMA 1998 I shall submit an extract before December 15, 1997 ( ) I am interested in exhibiting at the tools fair Please send me exhibitor information (December 1997) ( ) I am interested in participation in a workshop on Tuesday May 5 on the following subject (please mark your choice or fill in another subject) ( ) Project management ( ) Function Point Counting fundamentals ( ) Software sizing ( ) Estimating ( ) Benchmarking ( ) Set-up of metrics/measurement programs ( ) Year 2000 project control ( ) Year 2000 testing control ( ) Other: Please send this form back to the conference administration: Technologisch Instituut KVIV, Att. Mrs. Rita Peys Desguinlei 214 B-2018 Antwerpen 1 Belgium Phone: +32 3 2160996 Fax: +32 3 2160689 Email: fesma@ti.kviv.be ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Post-Conference Reports ################################################################ From: Eric Dubois, University of Namur (Belgium) (edu@info.fundp.ac.be) ---------------------- R E F S Q ' 9 7 - Requirements Engineering: Foundations of Software Quality Proceedings and workshop summary REFSQ`97, was held in conjunction with CAiSE`97 in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) - June 1997 The proceedings of the workshop are published by the University of Namur Press and can be ordered by sending an email to Eric Dubois edu@info.fundp.ac.be (they cost 25 Ecus - 30 USD - 1000 BF (Belgium Francs) The table of content is the following: Introduction and Workshop Structure Session Summaries Fitness for Use : The System Quality that Matters Most Colin Potts Bridging the RIFT Between Users and Developers Dany Brash and Benkt Wangler Applying Semantic Quality Criteria to Multi-Perspective Problem Analysis Methods Andreas L. Opdahl The Case for Reuse-Centred Approaches to Requirements Engineering Wing Lam and Sara Jones Tuning the Quality of Informal Software Requirements with KARAT Bidjan Tschaitschian, Claudia Wenzel and Isabel John Linguistic Instruments for the Integration of Scenarios in Requirements Engineering Camille Ben Achour Towards Software Quality : The Multiview Case Jaelson F.B. Castro and Marco A. Toranzo Visual Software Requirements Language Based on Communication Model Atsushi Ohnishi Requirements Classification as a First Step to Grasp Quality Requirements Elke Hochmüller Goal Formalisation and Classification for Requirements Engineering Nicolas Prat Viability Criterion to Analyse the Pragmatic Quality of Requirements Remigijus Gustas Why Agent-Oriented Requirements Engineering Eric Yu Modelling Contextual Information about Scenarios Klaus Pohl and Peter Haumer >From Requirements to Design with Use Cases - Experiences from Industrial Pilot Projects Bjaern Regnell and Ake Davidson A Software Tool for Scenario Generation and Use Neil Maiden, Shailey Minocha, Keith Manning, Michele Ryan ################################################################ From: Don Bagert, FASE Aacademic Editor FIE '97 Report (with web page info for FIE '98) The 1997 Frontiers in Education Conference was held on 5-8 November in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. FIE is co-sponsored by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Educational Research Methods (ERM) Division, and IEEE Education Society, and the IEEE Computer Society. In recent years, with the addition of IEEE-CS as a co- sponsor, the percentage of computing-related presentations have risen dramatically. Moreover, starting with some sessions organized by Laurie Werth of the University of Texas at Austin a few years ago, the amount of software engineering content at the conference has been steadily rising. Watts Humphrey gave an invited presentation on his Personal Software Process (PSP); there was also an entire paper session devoted to the subject. Also included was another software engineering session, plus a session on capstone courses in computer science and engineering, which (as would be expected) had a decidedly software engineering flavor to it. The Terman Award Lecture was given by Edward A. Lee of the EECS department at the University of California, Berkeley. His talk discussed how electrical engineering education needs to change to reflect its current relationship to the computing field. FIE '98 will be held in Tempe, Arizona on November 4-7. More information can be found at http://www.eas.asu.edu/~asufc/conference/fiehmpg.html Web pages for past and future FIE conferences can be found at http://fairway.ecn.purdue.edu/~fie Future conferences will be held in San Juan, Puerto Rico (1999), Kansas City (2000), and Reno, Nevada (2001). ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Faculty Positions ################################################################ From: Anthony Finkelstein (acwf@cs.ucl.ac.uk) Forwarded By: Nancy Mead (nrm@sei.cmu.edu) LECTURESHIPS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE The Department of Computer Science is expanding its activities in the areas of (a) Software Systems Engineering, (b) Data Communications and Distributed Systems and (c) Vision, Virtual Reality and Imaging. We wish to recruit a lecturer in each of these three areas. Successful applicants will have research experience, a higher degree in a relevant area, and are likely to have a strong Computer Science or Software Systems background. The lectureships are tenable from early in 1998. Salary will be on the Lecturer A or B scales in the range UKP18,179 - UKP25,825 (including London Allowance) according to age and experience. For an application form and further details please call 0171 419 3676 or email vacancy@cs.ucl.ac.uk Closing Date: 12th December 1997 ________________________________________________________________ Anthony Finkelstein (Prof.) | TEL: 44 171 380 7293 (Direct Dial) University College London | FAX: 44 171 387 1397 Department of Computer Science | EMAIL: acwf@cs.ucl.ac.uk Gower Street, | http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/A.Finkelstein London WC1E 6BT | OFFICE: G20, Pearson Building ________________________________________________________________ ################################################################ From: Phyllis Lewis (plewis@cs.cmu.edu) The School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University seeks an outstanding, energetic candidate to teach professionally-oriented students in an intense environment in the Master of Software Engineering (MSE) program. Joint appointments with the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) are available to appropriately qualified candidates. This position is a 12-month, permanent, full-time position in the lecturer track, where the responsibilities are primarily instructional. The start date is flexible; January 1 or August 1, 1998. The goal of the MSE program is to develop future leaders of industrial software engineering practice - the future chief engineers, head designers, principal technical officers of their companies. Graduates of the MSE program will not only understand and be able to apply the best of current practice, but will also be able to act as agents of change to improve that practice as the field evolves. The MSE program focuses on the engineering of superior software systems through the application of principles from computer science and related fields. The emphasis is on practical results balanced by scientific underpinnings. The MSE program is centered on a Software Development Studio, supported by a core curriculum and a set of elective tracks. Applicants are expected to: - have an outstanding teaching record and good teaching skills - have extensive industrial software development experience - be capable of teaching two or more MSE core courses - advise students in the Software Development Studio - participate as appropriate in curriculum development and university service To apply, send a resume, a two-page statement of teaching and professional software development experience, and three letters of reference to: Dr. James E. Tomayko, Director Master of Software Engineering Program School of Computer Science Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 For more information about the MSE program, visit the School of Computer Science web site: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/scs/scs.html ################################################################ From: Ralph Wilkerson (ralphw@cs.umr.edu) The University of Missouri-Rolla Department of Computer Science The Department of Computer Science invites applications for two tenure track positions at the level of assistant professor. Employment will begin August 15, 1998. Qualifications for the position include an earned doctorate in Computer Science before August 15, 1998. The faculty member is expected to teach undergraduate and graduate courses as well as engage in research. Applicants are sought in software engineering, with additional interests in real time embedded systems, formal methods, graphics and multimedia, intelligent systems. Excellent English communication skills are necessary. Research in the Department is active in the areas of parallel and distributed computing, software engineering, database, scientific computing, and intelligent systems. The University of Missouri-Rolla is the primary science and engineering campus of the University of Missouri system and as such provides opportunities for interdisciplinary research with faculty members in other departments. The UMR Intelligent Systems Center also provides interdisciplinary research opportunities and faculty members may become research investigators in that center. The Department grants the B.S., M.S., and the Ph.D. degrees and currently has about 50 graduate students. The committee will begin review of applications on February 1, 1998. Applications will be accepted until February 15, 1998. Applicants should send a vita and a statement of research and teaching interests, and arrange to have three letters of reference sent to: Chair, Faculty Search Committee Department of Computer Science University of Missouri-Rolla Rolla, MO 65401 Phone: 573-341-4492 E-mail: csdept@cs.umr.edu URL: http://www.cs.umr.edu Electronic applications will not be processed. In accordance with U.S. immigration requirements, qualified applicants must be eligible to legally work in the U.S. UM-Rolla is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and especially encourages applications from both minorities and women. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Requests for Feedback ################################################################ From: Pete Knoke (ffpjk@aurora.alaska.edu) 23 Aug 97 To: FASE Readers From: Pete Knoke (CS Prof, University of Alaska Fairbanks) Subject: SE Ethics in a Market Economy? Help! Every spring for the last 9 years at UAF I've taught a Software Engineering Ethics & Law module as part of a real projects course. The course is required for undergraduate seniors, and it is also taken by the occasional graduate student in our MS CS Software Engineering track. The module consumes about 10 hours of available lecture and exam time, and a number of hours of homework time. This module is always difficult for me, but I try hard to make it meaningful for the students. I think it is successful in consciousness raising. Moses or Mother Teresa I am not, however. For ethics my usual approach is to consider artificial ethical scenarios and have students relate them to the ACM Code For a good example of this approach, see Coulter[COU90]. For law I use a good summary paper on computer-related law by David Kay [KAY92]. I think Dr. Kay has a PhD in Computer Science and is also a member of the California Bar. The summary deals mostly with relevant intellectual property law, but also summarizes some relevant aspects of contract and liability law (negligence doctrine, etc.) and computer crime. For spring 1997 I did the usual plus more. I briefly reviewed some other related ethics codes (e.g.,IEEE, NSPE), and spent considerable time with an unofficial Draft SE Code of Ethics (supplied to me by Don Gotterbarn[GOT97]). I also used "The Case of the Killer Robot" [EPS97] as a required text** and an additional source of artificial scenarios for testing of the Draft SE Code ***. In addition I tried to take real cases and people from the past and the present, and apply the Draft SE Code and the ACM code to them. Finally, I populated both exams and homework assignments with ethics-related questions. So, what was the net result of this effort? Students cooperated by listening, reading, and expressing their true views (seemingly holding back nothing, including disgust in some cases). Many liked the "Killer Robot" book, but didn't think much of the idea of using its scenarios in the Draft SE Code review effort. Almost none liked either the ACM or the Draft SE Code per se, and one wrote a very literate multi-page essay in general opposition to all such codes. Bottom line module evaluation: ethics and law consciousness raising a success, "sales" of specific ethics codes a flop (OK, blame the salesman if you like). What made the spring 1997 module unusually tough for me as an instructor was the current events context at the time. The students were fully aware of this context, and they are not stupid. Examples of that context: * News about cigarettes and whether or not they were addictive/harmful to health, with associated statements from cigarette company executives and lawyers. * Ethical issues surrounding the White House and the Clinton Presidency, together with apparent disinterest of the public in such issues (numerous specifics are deliberately omitted here). * Significant hype about Java and its platform independence, its suitability for all applications, etc. The new "silver bullet"? * Claims about Microsoft and its supposed anti-trust violations, together with almost personal attacks on Bill Gates by (supposed) computer "professionals". One student claimed that the idea of "ethics in a market economy" was an oxymoron. I thought there was some merit to that claim. In a market economy, ethics tends to be ignored in favor of law. "Ethics" might be that area of public concerns not yet addressed by law. But then, what about those things that may be legal but not ethical, and the converse? In my opinion,a good source for guidance and case studies relevant to the general subject of "ethics in a market economy" is the Wall Street Journal (typically, the page one articles). I think that Gotterbarn, Miller and Rogerson have made a very good effort with [GOT97], and I hope that many people consider it seriously and provide them with feedback. Meanwhile I've been considering something shorter and simpler. What do you think of something like the following? TRIAL BALLOON SE CODE OF ETHICS ------------------------------- * try to follow the golden rule * if you wouldn't be willing to have what you're considering doing posted on the internet, or the Lehrer news hour, or possibly CNN, consider not doing it * don't violate any existing marketplace laws (fraud, slander, false advertising, conflict of interest, etc) * don't violate any existing computer or software-related laws (intellectual property, contract, liability, etc) * follow other ethical guidelines appropriate for the domain in which you're working (For example, if you're developing software for a safety critical application then being high on pot while working on it is unacceptable. However, if you're developing software for an exotic new games a little LSD might not hurt). Comments, opinions, suggestions appreciated. Pete Knoke ffpjk@aurora.alaska.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------- REFERENCES [COU90] "The XXII self-assessment: the ethics of computing", Neal S. Coulter,Communications of the ACM, Vol 33 No 11 (Nov 1990), pp 110-132. [EPS97] "The Case of the Killer Robot", Richard G Epstein, Wiley, 1997. [GOT97] "Draft Software Engineering Code of Ethics" [version 2.1, May 1997] Don Gotterbarn, Keith Miller and Simon Rogerson, Software Engineering Notes, Vol 22 # 4, July 1997, pg 3 [KAY92] "A Course on Computer Law", David Kay, Proceedings of CSE Conference (1992?). Email:kay@ics.uci.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------- NOTES ** Suggested by Ron Gatterdam of UAF *** Suggested by Don Gotterbarn of East Tennessee State University ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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 Kathy Beckman, Kathy.Beckman@cdsi.com; Academic education, and all other categories to Don Bagert, bagert@ttu.edu. Items must be submitted by the 8th of the month in order to be considered for inclusion in that month's issue. Everyone that is receiving this is on the FASE mailing list. If you wish to leave this list, write to listserv@cpm211- 1.cs.ttu.edu and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: signoff fase To rejoin (or have someone else join) the FASE mailing list, write to listserv@cpm211-1.cs.ttu.edu and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: subscribe fase But what if you have something that you want 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 listserv@cpm211-1.cs.ttu.edu and, in the text of your message (not the subject line), write: subscribe fase-talk 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. As always, there is no cost for subscribing to either FASE or FASE-TALK! Send requests for information problem reports, returned mail, or other correspondence about this newsletter to fase-request@cpm211-1.cs.ttu.edu. If it is a LOC (letter of comment) that can be included as such in a future issue of FASE, please put "letter of comment" (without the quotes) as the subject. Back issues (from 1997) can be found on the FASE web page (http://www.cs.ttu.edu/fase). The FASE Staff: Don Bagert -- Academic/Misc Editor and ListMaster Dept. of Computer Science 8th and Boston Texas Tech University Lubbock TX 79409-3104 USA Phone: 806-742-1189 Fax: 806-742-3519 Email: bagert@ttu.edu Kathy Beckman -- Corporate/Government Editor Computer Data Systems One Curie Ct. Rockville MD 20850 USA Phone: 301-921-7027 Fax: 301-921-1004 Email: Kathy.Beckman@cdsi.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