Focusing software education on engineering

ABSTRACT

The software crisis is still with us. In fact, it is worse than it has ever been, and we see evidence of the crisis regularly. All manner of applications from desktop systems to large-scale information systems are delivered late, exceed their projected budgets, and fail in various ways leading to inconvenience, loss of service, and loss of revenue. A recent study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that software errors cost the U.S. Economy about $59.5 billion annually [4] National Institute of Standards and Technology, The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Infrast].

REFERENCES

• 1: Knight, John C., Should Software Engineers Be Licensed? Safety-Critical Systems Club Newsletter, Volume 14, Number 1, September 2004.
• 2: "Yu, Weider, A Software Fault Prevention Approach in Coding and Root Cause Analysis, Bell Labs Technical Journal, Volume 3, Number 2, April-June 1998, pp. 3--21.
• 3: American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Professional Code of Ethics http://www.asme.org/asme/policies/pdf/p15_7.pdf
• 4: National Institute of Standards and Technology, The Economic Impacts of Inadequate Infrastructure for Software Testing, Planning report 02-03, May 2002, http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/n02-10.htm

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.4 Software/Program Verification
          Subjects: Reliability
      D.2.9 Management
          Subjects: Software quality assurance (SQA)

General Terms:
Design, Reliability