Computing Curriculum - Software Engineering --- Public Draft 1 --- (July 17, 2003) This is a draft document distributed for purposes of review by the public (those interested in the education of software engineers). At this point, the document is not complete or authoritative; it is subject to revision; and it does not necessarily represent the contents of the final document! The Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula IEEE Computer Society Association for Computing Machinery This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0003263 CCSE Draft 1 – 7/17/03 Preface This document was developed through an effort originally commissioned by the ACM Education Board and the IEEE-Computer Society Educational Activities Board to create curriculum recommendations in several computing disciplines: computer science, computer engineering, software engineering and information systems. Other professional societies have joined in a number of the individual projects. Such has notably been the case for the CCSE (Computing Curricula – Software Engineering) project, which has included participation by representatives from the Australian Computer Society, the British Computer Society, and the Information Processing Society of Japan. Development Process The CCSE project has been driven by a Steering Committee appointed by the sponsoring societies. The development process began with the appointment of the Steering Committee co- chairs and a number of the other participants in the fall of 2001. More committee members, including representatives from the other societies were added in the first half of 2002. The following are the members of the CCSE Steering Committee: Co-Chairs Rich LeBlanc, ACM, Georgia Institute of Technology, U.S. Ann Sobel, IEEE-CS, Miami University, U.S. Knowledge Area Chair Ann Sobel, Miami University, U.S. 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, U.S. Thomas B. Hilburn, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, U.S. Organizational Representatives ACM: Andrew McGettrick, University of Strathclyde, U.K. ACM SIGSOFT: Joanne M. Atlee, University of Waterloo, Canada ACM Two-Year College Committee: Elizabeth Hawthorne, Union County College, U.S. Australian Computer Society: John Leaney, University of Technology Sydney, Australia British Computer Society: David Budgen, Keele University, U.K. Information Processing Society of Japan: Yoshihiro Matsumoto, Musashi Institute of Technology, Japan IEEE Computer Technical Committee on Software Engineering: Barrie Thompson, University of Sunderland, U.K. The construction of this volume has centered around two 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 development of a set of desired curriculum outcomes and a statement of what every SE graduate should know. These ideas are captured in our statement of required Software Engineering Education Knowledge (SEEK), presented in Chapter 5 of this document. The second effort was the construction of a set of curriculum recommendations, describing how a software engineering curriculum incorporating the material from the SEEK can be structured in various contexts. These are presented in Chapter 6 of this document. CCSE Public Draft 1 – 7/17/03 2 Work began on SEEK in Spring 2002 with the involvement of nine groups of volunteers, leading to an NSF-supported workshop in June 2002 where representatives of the volunteer groups met with some Steering Committee members, resulting in the first “internal” draft of the SEEK. This draft was reviewed by all of the Steering Committee and a group of outside software engineering “experts”; revised by the Steering Committee based on comments from this reviews; and then published for public comment in August 2002. Comments from these public reviews were used to create a second draft by December 2002. Six “pedagogy focus groups” were created in November 2002 to begin the process of developing the curriculum recommendations. Each of these groups consisted of committee of volunteers plus one or two Steering Committee members. Input by these groups and further work by some members of the Steering Committee resulted in an initial curriculum draft in March 2003. This draft was discussed at a workshop at the Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training held that month in Madrid, Spain and with members of the Working Group on Software Engineering Education and Training at their meeting just before the conference. Feedback from these discussions was used to revise the draft in preparation for publishing it for public review in May 2003, along with a draft of the rest of this volume. The first public review of the draft was at the Summit on Software Engineering Education held at the International Conference of Software Engineering in Portland, Oregon, early in May 2003. Acknowledgements The development of this document was support by the National Science Foundation, the Association of Computing Machinery, and the IEEE Computer Society. Since its inception, many individuals have contributed to the CCSE project, some in more than one capacity. This work could not have been completed without the dedication and expertise of these volunteers. Appendix C lists the names of those that have participated in the various development and review stages of this document. Special thanks go to Susan Mengel of Texas Tech University who served as an original co-chair of the Steering Committee and performed the initial organization tasks for the CCSE project. CCSE Public Draft 1 – 7/17/03 3 Table of Contents Preface............................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements........................................................................................................................3 Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................6 1.1 Purpose of this volume..................................................................................................6 1.2 Where we fit in the CC picture......................................................................................6 1.3 Structure of the volume.................................................................................................7 Chapter 2: Guiding Principles..................................................................................................8 2.1 CCSE Principles............................................................................................................8 2.2 Student Outcomes .......................................................................................................10 Chapter 3: The Software Engineering Discipline ..................................................................11 3.1 The Discipline of Software Engineering.....................................................................11 3.2 An Engineering Discipline..........................................................................................12 3.3 Professional Practice...................................................................................................15 3.4 Prior Software Engineering Education and Computing Curriculum Efforts ..............16 3.5 SWEBOK and other BOK Efforts ..............................................................................17 3.6 Accreditation Development ........................................................................................18 Chapter 4: Overview of Software Engineering Education Knowledge .................................19 4.1 Process of Determining the SEEK ..............................................................................19 4.2 Knowledge Areas, Units, and Topics..........................................................................20 4.3 Core Material..............................................................................................................20 4.4 Unit of Time................................................................................................................21 4.5 Relationship of the SEEK to the Curriculum..............................................................21 4.6 Selection of Knowledge Areas....................................................................................22 4.7 SE Education Knowledge Areas .................................................................................22 4.8 Computing Essentials..................................................................................................23 4.9 Mathematical and Engineering Fundamentals ............................................................24 4.10 Professional Practice................................................................................................25 4.11 Software Modeling and Analysis.............................................................................26 4.12 Software Design.......................................................................................................28 4.13 Software Verification and Validation......................................................................29 4.14 Software Evolution..................................................................................................30 4.15 Software Process......................................................................................................31