Software Engineering 2004

Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Software Engineering

A Volume of the Computing Curricula Series

SE2004

Release of the SE2004 Volume
Reviewer Comments
Overview
SE2004 Steering Committee Members
SE2004 History

Release of SE2004 Volume

The SE2004 Volume is complete and ready for download: Software Engineering 2004 Volume. We wish to extend a special thank you to all the volunteers who have participated in this effort! Appendix B of the SE2004 Volume has a list of volunteers.

Note: The earlier project name CCSE (Computing Curriculum Software Engineering) was replaced with the name SE2004 (Software Engineering 2004).

Reviewer Comments

Three general public reviews of the SE2004 Volume were carried out. Reviewer comments and comment responses from the SE2004 Steering Committee can be viewed or downloaded:

Overview

Computing Curriculum Project

In the Fall of 1998, the Computer Society of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE-CS) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) established the Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula 2001 (CC2001) to undertake a major review of curriculum guidelines for undergraduate programs in computing. The charter of the task force was expressed as follows:

"To review the Joint ACM and IEEE/CS Computing Curricula 1991 and develop a revised and enhanced version for the year 2001 that will match the latest developments of computing technologies in the past decade and endure through the next decade."

The task force made the decision to provide curriculum guidance in a set of volumes, one for each major area of computing: a Computer Science Volume, a Computer Engineering Volume, a Software Engineering Volume, and an Information Systems Volume. The Computer Science Volume was completed in December 2001 and work is underway on the other three volumes.

More information on the overall Computing Curriculum effort may be found on the IEEE Computer Society Education Board web site at http://www.computer.org/education/cc2001.

Software Engineering 2004 Project

In 1998, the ACM and IEEE-CS formed the Software Engineering Education Project (SWEEP) to address software engineering curriculum issues at the undergraduate level. The members of SWEEP developed a draft set of accreditation guidelines for software engineering published in the IEEE-CS Computer April 1999 issue. In the spring of 2001 the SWEEP members began planning work for the Software Engineering 2004 Volume (SE 2004). In the fall of 2001, SWEEP was replaced by the SE2004 Steering Committee. The SE2004 Steering Committee was responsible for organizing and coordinating the development of the SE2004 Volume. It was composed of representatives from the IEEE-CS and the ACM as well as the Australian Computer Society, the British Computer Society, and the Information Processing Society of Japan. Committee members came from a number of different countries including Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Most importantly, the SE2204 project depended on the work of hundreds of volunteers, from around the world, who had an interest in improving the quality of undergraduate software engineering education.

The construction of the SE2004 Volume has centered around three major efforts that have engaged a large number of volunteers, as well as all of the members of the Steering Committee. The first of these efforts was the development of a set of desired curriculum outcomes and a statement of what every SE graduate should know. The second effort involved the determination and specification of the knowledge to be included in an undergraduate software engineering program, the SEEK. The third effort was the construction of a set of curriculum recommendations, describing how a software engineering curriculum, incorporating the SEEK, could be structured in various contexts.

SE2004 Steering Committee Members

Co-Chairs

Rich LeBlanc, ACM, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA
Ann Sobel, IEEE-CS, Miami University, USA
2002: Susan Mengel, Texas Tech University, USA

Knowledge Area Chair

Ann Sobel, Miami University, USA

Pedagogy Focus Group Co-Chairs

Mordechai Ben-Menachem, Ben-Gurion University, Israel
Timothy C. Lethbridge, University of Ottawa, Canada

Co-Editors

Jorge L. Díaz-Herrera, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA
Thomas B. Hilburn, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, USA

Organizational Representatives

Andrew McGettrick, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

ACM SIGSOFT

Joanne M. Atlee, University of Waterloo, Canada
Spring - Summer 2002: Prem Devanbu, University of California at Davis, USA

ACM Two-Year College Committee

Elizabeth Hawthorne, Union County College, USA

Australian Computer Society

John Leaney, University of Technology Sydney, Australia

British Computer Society

David Budgen, Keele University, United Kingdom

Information Processing Society of Japan

Yoshihiro Matsumoto, Musashi Institute of Technology, Japan

IEEE Computer Technical Committee on Software Engineering

Barrie Thompson, University of Sunderland, United Kingdom

SE2004 History

Fall 2001

The Steering Committee is formed.
An Advisory Board is formed.
Volunteers are solicited for the Knowledge Area and Pedagogy Focus groups.
An overall plan for the effort is developed.
A draft table of contents for the SE Volume is developed.

Spring 2002

A set of guiding principles is formulated.
Draft chapters for the curriculum and knowledge areas are underway.
A structure for the SEEK is designed (a hierarchical structure consisting of areas, units, and topics).
CSEE&T 2002 Workshop (Special thanks to J. Barrie Thompson and Helen M. Edwards who allowed us to present in their workshop) - Initial SEEK knowledge areas are determined (Foundations, Requirements, Design, Construction, Maintenance, Process, Quality, Management).

http://www.cs.ttu.edu/fase/v12n03.txt

The Knowledge Area Groups are organized and they begin work on defining the SEEK.
ICSE 2002 Workshop (Special thanks to J. Barrie Thompson and Helen M. Edwards who allowed us to present in his workshop) - Discussion of the knowledge areas, the core, and undergraduate software engineering curricula in different countries. Issues raised that the Steering Committee is working on, such as the review process procedure and international curricula inclusion.

http://www.cet.sunderland.ac.uk/ssee/

Summer 2002

A workshop is held in Chicago, IL, of the Steering Committee members, the Chairs/Representatives of the SEEK Area Groups, and the Advisory Board. This workshop results in further refinement of the SEEK, Bloom Levels assigned to topics, and an initial definition of the software engineering undergraduate core.
A comprehensive review of the SEEK draft is conducted by SEEK volunteers and a group of experts in the field. Detailed review comments are received from leading software engineering educators, practitioners, and researchers (including Barry Boehm, Kai H. Chang, Jason Jen-Yen Chen, Tony Cowling, Vladan Devedzic, Laura Dillion, Dennis J. Frailey, Peter Henderson, Watts Humphrey, Hareton Leung, Haim Kilov, Yoshihiro Matsumoto, Bertrand Meyer, Luisa Mich, James W. Moore, Hausi Muller, Peter G. Neuman, David Notkin, David Parnas, Dietmar Pfahl, Mary Shaw, Ian Sommerville, Peraphon Sophatsathit, Steve Tockey, Massood Towhidnejad , Leonard Tripp - Thank you very much!).
The Steering Committee meets in mid-August to discuss reviewer comments and uses them to revise the SEEK draft. The draft is released in August for public review.

Fall 2002

The public review of the first draft of the SEEK was closed in early October. We had received approximately forty reviews. Each reviewer comment, with a written response from the Steering Committee (including action and justification) was posted in January of 2003.
Tim Lethbridge and David Budgen participated in a workshop at the STEP meeting in October.
The pedagogy focus group established a process and work plan in October. The following committees were formed and began work:

Software engineering pedagogy guidelines and principles
Introductory modules and courses
Intermediate and advanced modules
International adaptation
Software engineering skills, problems, and exercises
Curricula adaptation to alternative teaching environments

Steering Committee members presented the current status of the SE2004 effort and the SEEK at the IEEE Frontiers in Education conference in Boston, MA and at the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering in Charleston, SC.
A comprehensive review of the SEEK was conducted by the Steering Committee given the reviewer's comments. The SEEK was subsequently modified and the second version was posted during the first week of December.

Winter 2003

The second public review of the second draft of the SEEK was closed in early March. Each reviewer comment, with a written response from the Steering Committee, will be added to the existing reviewer record. The final version of the SEEK will be posted before the end of April.
Members of the Steering Committee and the Working Group on Software Engineering Education & Training worked on a preliminary draft of the curriculum models' chapter of the Volume.
A Workshop held at the 2003 CSEE&T conference in Madrid, Spain also contributed to the evolution of the curriculum models.
A post-conference meeting of the attending Steering Committee members resulted in a cross-reference of SEEK units/topics.

Spring 2003

A subset of Steering Committee members met to finalize the suggested improvements to the SEEK, to review the current curriculum models' chapter, and to architect an internal draft of the SE2004 Volume in April.
A Workshop was held at the 2003 ICSE conference in May to evaluate the applicability of the proposed curriculum models.
Selected Steering Committee members worked on a repackaging of the Volume's material during the month of June.

Summer 2003

The first draft of the SE2004 Volume was posted on 6-27-03.
A Panel was held at the 2003 ITiCSE conference in July to announce the availability of the first draft.
Selected Steering Committee members reworked newer chapters and reposted the Volume in July.
A Panel was held at the 2003 FSE conference in September.
Evaluations of the first draft were closed on September 30, 2003.

Fall 2003

A Special Session on SE2004 was presented at the 2003 Foundations of Software Engineering Conference (FSE).
A paper on the development of the SE2004 Volume was presented at the 2003 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE).
Selected Steering Committee members reworked newer volume chapters in October.
A current draft of the Volume was included on the IEEE-CS' The Discipline of Software Engineering CD.
A status report of the Volume appeared in IEEE Computer.
An external review of the Volume appeared in ACM SIGNOTES.
The SE2004 Volume was presented to the ACM Education Board in December.

Winter 2004

Steering Committee members revised the Volume based on external reviewer comments.
The second draft of the SE2004 Volume was posted in early February.
A workshop centered on the use of the Volume will be held at CSEE&T.
A Special Session on the status of the Volume will be presented at ACM SIGCSE.

Spring 2004

A Steering Committee meeting was held to review external reviewer comments.
Multiple Steering Committee meetings transformed the draft into its final form.
First Release presented to the ACM Education Board.
First Release presented to the IEEE-CS Education Advisory Board.

Summer 2004

Tutorial on the use of the Volume will be held at ACM ITiCSE.
Final version of SE2004 Volume completed and released for public use.

Last edited: 08/25/04 03:25 PM