Software engineering education and training for the next millennium

The quality of the software engineering workplace is a direct function of the quality of software engineering education (Beckman et al., 1997) although other factors may play a role. Thus proper software engineering education can signi®cantly improve the current state of software development and help alleviate many of the traditional problems and crisis associated with industrial software practices (Gibbs, 1994). An education and training that includes not only the basic knowledge and skills of computer science but focuses on the de®nition, development, and maintenance of software, will help our eorts in improving the quality of software produced by the next generation of software engineers. The Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), as its title clearly re ̄ects, is about software engineering education and training and continues a tradition of providing an excellent forum to discuss related topics to promote innovation and collaboration, and to stimulate new instructional approaches to software engineering education and training. The 1999 conference (CSEE&T'99) brought together some of the most active researchers and practitioners to describe the best practices and innovative approaches in software engineering education and training in three intensive days of paper presentations, panel discussions, and workshop sessions. Each day of the conference focused on a dierent theme. The themes were as follows: 1. Professional Issues (e.g., Accreditation, Licensing, Ethics) 2. Training Curricula and Distance Education 3. Undergraduate and Graduate Curricula We had the privilege of presenting three excellent keynote speakers: Leonard Trip (President, IEEE-CS, 1999), Don Gotterbarn (Software Engineering Ethics Research Institute), and Doris Carver (Louisiana State University) who represented the industry as well as the academia. The papers, panels, and workshops forming the the technical program explore software engineering education and training in a wide variety of contexts. Panel discussions were an integral part of the 1999 conference. Three excellent panels were organized. This special issue of the Journal of Systems and Software includes extended version of some of the articles presented at the conference as well as several invited submissions. While most everyone attending the conference agreed that proper software engineering education is a key in addressing many issues related to industrial software development, not everyone necessarily agreed on what the most proper approach should be. Some suggested a special track (or sub-area) on software engineering within a computer science program while others promoted an independent curriculum speci®cally designed to educate and train software engineers. Of course the proponents of each approach have their own reasons why their approach is most eective. One common point: industrial-relevant case studies and projects matter and should be an integral component of various options. A summary of the included articles from the conference follows. Klaas Sikkel and his colleagues present a real-world case study for undergraduate students. Realworld case studies are dierent from textbook case studies and it is important to complement the academic skills and knowledge with some feeling of what real projects are about. The case in this course is the replacement of a Hospital Information System, a project that was recently carried out in a large regional hospital. An introductory program serves to prepare the students for the expected team skills and the background of the case study. The authors claim that the success of the course is based on three factors that mutually reinforce each other: training in management and communication skills, integration and application of knowledge gained at previous courses, and learning by experience the difference between a real-world problem and a textbook problem. The Journal of Systems and Software 49 (1999) 113±115 www.elsevier.com/locate/jss