Graduate-level Software Engineering Education: A Practitioner’s Viewpoint

The definition of what software engineering is and what constitutes a software engineer are issues of continuing question and debate. In a sense, we find ourselves at the mercy of having created a title that has not yet been well reconciled with a body of scientific knowledge a la electrical or other fields of engineering. A consensus on its meaning is still ahead of us, the widespread acceptance of software engineering as an appropriate label reflects a pervasive sense of urgency that programming professionals must operate within certain bounds of discipline and control that become inherent in the profession. The breadth of acceptance of software engineering, as an urgent professional discipline need, embraces industry, government, and academia. Each of these segments of the community has made and continues to make significant contributions to the rapid evolution of the programming profession. As a result, we are in a position today to develop recommendations on the content of an academic program which can, in a concerted fashion, accelerate the cultivation of a software engineering profession. This paper will, based on my experiences, recommend a direction for a graduate-level program in software engineering. It does not attempt to define a specific set of courses and sequencing.