Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education (FASE) Volume 9 Number 07 (114th Issue) - July 15, 1999 844 subscribers Note: If you have problems with the format of this document, try ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Table of Contents Next Month's Topic: Clients, Students, and Projects Upcoming Topics News Items Naval Postgraduate School Offers First USA PhD in Software Engineering Canadian Accreditation Update IEEE Computer Society Competency Recognition Program DeMarco Denounces SE Licensing and Certification Efforts Calls for Participation CSEE&T 2000: Call for Paper Reviewers Conference Announcements STEP 99 and SEI Software Engineering Symposium Contact and General Information about FASE ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Next Month's Topic: Clients, Students, and Projects Guest Editor: Susan Mengel, mengel@ttu.edu An increasing trend in software engineering courses is to have students work for external clients on projects yielding a number of benefits and problems. The benefits for incorporating clients include higher student motivation, more opportunity to discuss and practice professional/ethical issues, higher likelihood of challenging students with ill-defined problems, and more opportunity to incorporate students from other disciplines to work on specialized aspects of the project. The problems include developing the infrastructure for client/student projects, student-client relations that go wrong, legal implications of software ownership and responsibility, and student ability to accomplish the client's project. Please send contributions on your experience with software engineering courses that incorporate external clients, such as industrial, on-campus, non-profit, etc. For example, you may gear your contribution toward one of the benefits or problems, or some combination thereof to allow others interested in client-based courses to implement them with as few problems as possible. Another approach may be to describe a unique aspect to your course that is not commonly done. Susan A. Mengel Texas Tech University Computer Science 211 EC, Box 43104 Lubbock, TX 79409-3104 E-Mail: mengel@ttu.edu Phone: (806) 742-3527 Fax: (806) 742-3519 WWW: http://www.se.cs.ttu.edu/mengel ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ By: Don Bagert (Academic/Misc Editor) Upcoming Topics Sep 1999: Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (Update) Guest Editors: Robert Dupuis Pierre Bourque Universite du Quebec a Montreal Oct 1999: Distance Learning and Internet Education Guest Editors: To be announced Dec 1999: (Watch for a special millennium-ending topic!) For more information about a particular issue's topic, please contact the corresponding guest editor. Please refer to the article format provided at the end of each issue when making submissions, which are always made directly to the guest editor. Here are some possible topics for future issues: * CASE Tools * The Relationship between SE and Other Disciplines If you are interested in being a guest editor for any of these topics, or have any suggestions for future topics, please contact me at bagert@ttu.edu. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ News Items ###################################################################### From: Luqi Naval Postgraduate School Offers First USA PhD in Software Engineering [Editor's Note: FASE recently learned that the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School had recently begun a Ph.D. in Software Engineering. It appear that this is the first SE doctoral program in the USA. Below is a description of the MSSE and Ph.D. programs there.] SOFTWARE ENGINEERING CURRICULUM The Software Engineering program at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School provides military and government graduate students with an opportunity to learn all aspects of software development and the skills needed to efficiently and reliably plan and create large-scale software systems using the best available tools. These skills are essential for officers and civilians responsible for acquisition, development or maintenance of military software. The program offers both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Software Engineering. The MSSE program comes with a 1-year full-time option and a 2-year part-time distance learning option via VTC. Students not enrolled in the MSSE degree program may also enroll in individual courses and receive NPS credit upon successful course completion. The next group of the MSSE program on campus or via VTC will start this fall (Oct 99). DESCRIPTION OF MASTERS DEGREE PROGRAM IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING CLASS SCHEDULE FOR THE FULL-TIME MSSE PROGRAM Quarter 1 (Oct 1999) CS3460 (3-1) Software Methodology IS3171 (4-1) Economic Evaluation of Information Systems II CS3502 (4-0) Computer Communications and Networks IS4300 (3-2) Software Engineering and Management Quarter 2 CS4500 (3-1) Software Engineering CS4540 (3-0) Software Testing CS4560 (3-0) Software Evolution CS4580 (3-0) Design of Embedded Real-Time Systems Quarter 3 CS4520 (3-0) Advanced Software Engineering CS4570 (3-0) Software Reuse CS0810 (0-8) Thesis Research CS0810 (0-8) Thesis Research Quarter 4 CS4530 (3-1) Software Research and Development in DoD CS4510 (3-0) Computer-Aided Prototyping CS0810 (0-8) Thesis Research CS0810 (0-8) Thesis Research CLASS SCHEDULE FOR THE PART-TIME MSSE DISTANCE LEARNING PROGRAM Quarter 1 (Oct 1999) CS3460 (3-1) Software Methodology IS4300 (3-2) Software Engineering and Management Quarter 2 (Jan 2000) CS4500 (3-1) Software Engineering CS4560 (3-0) Software Evolution Quarter 3 IS3171 (4-1) Economic Evaluation of Information Systems II CS4520 (3-0) Advanced Software Engineering Quarter 4 CS4510 (3-0) Computer-Aided Prototyping CS4580 (3-0) Design of Embedded Real-Time Systems Quarter 5 CS3502 (4-0) Computer Communications and Networks CS4540 (3-0) Software Testing Quarter 6 CS4570 (3-0) Software Reuse CS4530 (3-1) Software Research and Development in DoD Quarter 7 CS0810 (0-8) Thesis Research CS0810 (0-8) Thesis Research Quarter 8 CS0810 (0-8) Thesis Research CS0810 (0-8) Thesis Research REQUIREMENTS FOR ENTRY Any military or civilian personnel sponsored by the US Government, holding an accredited Bachelors degree in computer science, computer engineering, or related field, with above-average grades in mathematics, resulting in an APC of at least 3.25, and two years of software development or maintenance experience is eligible to apply. Application information for the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Software Engineering can be found at: http://www.cs.nps.navy.mil/~se/degrees.html DESCRIPTION OF Ph.D. DEGREE PROGRAM IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING The Ph.D. program in Software Engineering is designed for DoD software practitioners who want to acquire the skill and knowledge to perform state-of-the art research on issues related to the development and evolution of large complex software systems, and to intelligently manage the research of other software practitioners. It offers the software professionals a unique program of study and advances software engineering principles and technology vital to DoD researchers and program managers. Students typically take three years to complete the doctoral program. The first milestone in the Ph.D. program is the Written Qualifying Examination. This provides early feedback to students and faculty so that a course of study that leads to the successful completion of all the requirements can be determined. PhD students are expected to complete the following steps: 1. Pass the Written Qualifying Examination, 2. Form a Dissertation Committee, 3. Fulfill Minor Requirements, 4. Pass the Oral Qualifying Examination, 5. Pass the Final Dissertation Examination, 6. Complete the Dissertation. Students are expected to complete steps 1 and 2 by the fourth quarter of doctoral study, complete step 3 and 4 by the sixth quarter, and complete steps 5 and 6 by the twelfth quarter. Additional information is available on the Software Engineering web page http://www.cs.nps.navy.mil/~se/phd.html. DISTANCE LEARNING EQUIPMENT SPECIFICATIONS Students participate in the Distance Learning Program via our PictureTel 4000 Video Teleconferencing Systems using Integrated Services Digital Network, Basic Rate Interface (ISDN BRI) lines. This setup allows two-way, interactive audio and video between distant sites and an NPS classroom. The students site must have a standards-based (H.320-compatible system) connection to a dial-up network (FTS2000). Commercial networks may be used when FTS2000 is not available. NPS uses AT&T Accunet for commercial calls. NPS is currently establishing a program to lease VTC equipment to sites to provide the highest degree of compatibility and fidelity that the technology offers. ADMISSION PROCEDURES The point of contact for requests for Naval Postgraduate School catalogs and admission to all degree programs is: Director of Admissions Code 01B3, Naval Postgraduate School, 589 Dyer Rd., RM 103C Monterey, CA 93943-5100 Telephone (831) 656-3093, DSN 878-3093 FAX (831) 656-2891 FOR MORE INFORMATION Visit our web-site at http://cs.nps.navy.mil/~se or email your inquiries to se@cs.nps.navy.mil. Application information for the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Software Engineering can be found at: http://www.cs.navy.mil/~se/degrees.html ###################################################################### By: Don Bagert (Academic/Misc Editor) Canadian Accreditation Update The July 1999 issue of "Engineering Times" has an article on page 3 entitled "Canadian Court Says Accreditation Must Continue". The article states that a "Canadian court has ruled that a dispute over the term 'software engineering' at [Memorial University at Newfoundland] is not a sufficient reason to withhold engineering accreditation at that school." This came after the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Newfoundland (APEGN) stopped the accreditation process of four (other) engineering programs due to this dispute. (For further background information, see "Update on Lawsuit About Use of the Term 'Software Engineering'" in the March 1999 issue of FASE.) ###################################################################### From: Leonard L. Tripp IEEE Computer Society Competency Recognition Program Status Report Leonard L. Tripp President, IEEE Computer Society On 18 June 1999, the Board of Governors of the IEEE Computer Society approved a competency recognition program to promote software engineering as a profession. The program will serve to identify professionals, ensure recognition of expertise, assist in professional development, establish professional practice standards within software engineering and establish software engineering as a recognized engineering discipline. Background The IEEE Computer Society formed its committee for software engineering standards development in 1976. Its scope today is the standardization of processes, products, resources, notations, methods, nomenclatures, and techniques for the engineering of software and systems dependent on software. For many years the mission of the committee was to develop and maintain a family of software engineering standards that are relevant, coherent, comprehensive and effective in use. These standards are for use by practitioners, organizations, and educators to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their software engineering processes, to improve communications between acquirers and suppliers, and to improve the quality of delivered software and systems containing software. In the early 1990s, the committee along users started to question the thrust of the committee. Several workshops were held to determine the needs of the using community. As the result of that activity, the committee changed its mission to be the following: Our mission is to: * identify and understand user needs in the field of software engineering, * develop an integrated family of standards that respond effectively to user needs, * support implementation of these standards, and * facilitate meaningful evaluation of resulting implementations using the IEEE processes to achieve consensus, and compatibility with other IEEE standards. Software Engineering as a Profession An ad hoc committee was formed in 1993 by IEEE Computer Society with subsequent participation from ACM with the following charter: "To establish the appropriate sets(s) of criteria and norms for professional practice of software engineering upon which industrial decisions, professional certification, and educational curricula can be based." Three results were produced by the task forces sponsored by the ad hoc committee. They were: pilot survey to for defining the body of knowledge for software engineering, software engineering code of ethics and professional practice, and model accreditation criteria for software engineering. The pilot survey for defining the body of knowledge and practices at different levels of knowledge/skill needed at different points in the career of a software engineer was completed in 1997. It was made available at http://www.computer.org/tab/seprof/survey.htm for review and comment. The "software engineering code of ethics and professional practice" was completed in September 1998 by the task force under the leadership of Don Gotterbarn. It was submitted to ACM and IEEE Computer Society for acceptance, and was approved by each. For further details, see URL http://www.computer.org/tab/swecc/. The "model accreditation criteria for software engineering was completed in November 1998 by a task force led by Gerald Engel and Rich LeBlanc. It was endorsed by the education boards of the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society. For further details, see URL http://www.computer.org/tab/swecc/. At the end of 1998 the ad hoc committee was replaced by a permanent joint committee of the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society. For further details, see URL http://www.computer.org/tab/swecc/. Activities and Status In 1997 at the software engineering standards committee's annual planning meeting, an initiative was formed to explore options on how to achieve items 3 and 4 of the mission statement. A pilot was initiated in late 1997. It involved providing standards based training to the elements of the State of California. By end of 1998, the training program offered more than 15 courses closely linked to the IEEE Software Engineering Standards. A related effort has prepared a standards based content description for the training program. In February 1998, it became clear there was a need for a competency recognition program for people involved with software in the current workforce worldwide. One particular market segment was government employees. A competency recognition program would provide a career path benchmark. The Computer Society has contracted with the Chauncey Group International, a subsidiary of the Educational Testing Service, to conduct a job analysis survey of Software Engineering Practitioners, Software Architects, Software Project Managers and Software Technical Support personnel. Differences between licensing and competency recognition: (1) licensing is limited to a specific geographical area, competency recognition can be offered worldwide (2) licensing targets graduate from an accredited school with 4 years experience, competency recognition sets its own criteria, in this case, 8-10 years experience. (3) licensing is geared to determine minimal competency, competency recognition in this case will be geared to proficiency (4) licensing is limited to basic engineer role, competency recognition can define its own roles, in this case, the plan is to have competency recognition for project manager, architect, support personnel, practitioner. The decision was made early in 1999 by society leadership to proceed with the steps (i.e., job analysis, test specification, item writing) to produce the underlying examination for the competency recognition program. The exact audience will be clarified during the process. Related Activities The IEEE Computer Society is committed to the professionalization of software engineering. In conjunction with ACM the society is sponsoring a project (SWEBOK Guide) to identify the body of knowledge for software engineering and a project (SWEEP) to define educational criteria development are underway. For further details, see URL http://www.computer.org/tab/swecc/. The society is also committed to producing a professional examination for software engineering when the need has been established by licensing authorities. ###################################################################### DeMarco Denounces SE Licensing and Certification Efforts Tom DeMarco, a well-known figure in software engineering, wrote a letter to the editor which appeared in the Forum section of the July 1999 Communications of the ACM (page 11). This letter was in response to an April 1999 Viewpoint article "Taking the Lead in Licensing Software Engineers" by FASE Co-Editor Don Bagert. DeMarco is highly critical of licensing and certification efforts, calling them "dimwitted ideas". He goes on to argue that "The software industry over the past 35 years has transformed the world, bringing a change that is as important and as beneficial as the Renaissance. It has done so without the help of regulators, certifiers, and licensers...The issue here is not certification but decertification [italicized]...I find it morally and ethically repugnant anyone should prohibit anyone else from seeking to sell his or her services to those who would willingly buy them." Bagert, in a response to DeMarco's comments in the same issue (pp. 11-12), states "DeMarco is attacking me for an article that I did not write...near the end of [the original article] I stated, 'Note that virtually nothing has been said about the benefits and drawbacks of licensing itself (there are many each)...' [The actual point was] since licensing seems inevitable, let's make sure it is something that the computing community can live with." Bagert goes on to note that "DeMarco has some very interesting views, including the fact that [his] statements reflect his opposition to licensing in any profession..." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Calls for Participation ###################################################################### From: Peter J. Knoke ------------------------------------- CSEE&T2000: Call for Paper Reviewers ------------------------------------- The 13th annual Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEET2000) will be held in Austin, Texas Mar 6-8 2000. We look forward to receiving a good set of papers and panels for peer review. If you are willing to assist us in this review task, please email your name to me at the address below. Thanks. Pete Knoke CSEET2000 Program Chair ffpjk@aurora.alaska.edu -------------------------- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Conference Announcements ###################################################################### From: Elliot Chikofsky http://iwcase.org/step99/ The International Software Engineering Community is meeting at Pittsburgh the week of 30 August 1999... Announcing the JOINT MEETING of -- STEP 99 - The SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY AND ENGINEERING PRACTICE Conference "Software Engineering in a Net-Centric World" sponsored by IWCASE and the IEEE Computer Society / TCSE Technical Council on Software Engineering and -- SEI's SOFTWARE ENGINEERING SYMPOSIUM sponsored by the Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University 30 August - 2 September 1999 STEP conference registration includes admission to the joint plenary sessions, all parallel STEP Workshops (Mon-Thurs) and SEI track sessions (Tues-Wed), exhibits, and joint lunches/receptions. STEP 99 conference special features: -- 1999 Stevens Lecture on Software Development Methods (see http://iwcase.org/stevens/ ) -- Keynote by Dr. Shari Lawrence Pfleeger -- Dr. Howard Rubin on IT Metrics for Business Value -- Workshops (working meetings/discussions within the conference) on: - Data Reverse Engineering - Software Engineering Body of Knowledge - Net-Centric Computing - Project Failures - Software Clustering - Computer Security - IT Metrics for Business Value - Component-Based Systems - Testing & Quality - E-Commerce - The Future of Software Engineering -- Paper sessions on: - Object-Oriented Programming - Requirements Engineering - Commercial-Off-The-Shelf & Components - Testing - Reliability & Inspections & Quality - IT Management & Processes -- plus the SEI Symposium track sessions - papers and presentations See http://iwcase.org/step99/ for complete details. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 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 ; Academic education, and all other categories to Don Bagert . If the article for a FASE topic where there is a guest editor, the submission should instead be to that person. Items must be submitted by the 8th of the month in order to be considered for inclusion in that month's issue. Also, please see the submission guidelines immediately below. FASE submission format guidelines: All submissions must be in ASCII format, and contain no more than 70 characters per line (71 including the new line character). This 70-character/line format must be viewable in a text editor such as Microsoft Notepad WITHOUT using a "word wrap" facility. All characters (outside of the newline) should in the ASCII code range from 32 to 126 (i.e. "printable" in DOS text mode). [NEW SUBSCRIBE/UNSCRIBE INFORMATION - September 15, 1998] Everyone that is receiving this is on the FASE mailing list. If you wish to leave this list, write 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 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 and training; CFPs and other such items can still be submitted to the editor for inclusion into FASE. Anyone that belongs to the FASE-TALK mailing list can post to it. FASE-TALK is also used by the editors for "breaking stories" i.e. news that we feel that you would want to hear about before the next issue of FASE comes out. (We do this sparingly, though.) As always, there is no cost for subscribing to either FASE or FASE-TALK! Back issues (dating from the very first issue) can be found on the web (with each Table of Contents) at or through ftp at . The FASE Staff: Don Bagert, P.E. -- Academic/Misc Editor, ListMaster, and Archivist Dept. of Computer Science 8th and Boston Texas Tech University Lubbock TX 79409-3104 USA Phone: 806-742-1189 Fax: 806-742-3519 Email: 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