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ABSTRACT

Picking up any large city Sunday paper one cannot help but be impressed by the large demand for “software engineers.” Upon reflection, several questions are raised: Who are these mythical software engineers? What do they do? Where do they come from? Why are they here? Where are they going? Industry and government alike are crying out for software engineers while universities have yet to establish any real software engineering curricula. The state of affairs is actually even more complex than this in that we don't even really know who these mythical software engineers are. In fact, the term “software engineering” is not commonly agreed upon as to its exact meaning. People in the field are not sure what terminology best describes the nature of their work [1, 2]. During a recent software engineering conference approximately 500 attendees were asked their formal occupation; approximately 20% of those in attendance indicated that they were software engineers. The others used terms such as: Systems Analyst, Programmers, Managers, etc. All of these jobs contain elements (technical and managerial) of software engineering, and tend to point out the multi-faceted aspect of this field.

REFERENCES

• 1: Leon G. Stucki, How software is really engineered?, Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Software engineering, p.84, May 10-12, 1978, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
• 2: Lawrence J. Peters , Leonard L. Tripp, A model of software engineering, Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Software engineering, p.63-70, May 10-12, 1978, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
• 3: P. Freeman , A. I. Wasserman, Software Engineering Education: Needs and Objectives, Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., Secaucus, NJ, 1976
• 4: Peter Freeman , Anthony I. Wasserman, A proposed curriculum for software engineering education, Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on Software engineering, p.56-62, May 10-12, 1978, Atlanta, Georgia, United States
• 5: J. J. Horning, "The Software Project as a Serious Game," Software Engineering Education Needs and Objectives Proceedings, Springer-Verlag, New York, 1976.

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

General Terms:
Theory