Although there are many familiar counterexamples, quality is becoming a significant competitive factor. To accomplish work within these constraints requires, among other things, the development of a sound, repeatable software development process. We in industry are developing and deploying these processes throughout our organizations. The results are starting to come in, and are showing enough of a return on investment to validate our efforts. We find that today's students are woefully unprepared to work in an environment with these constraints.
Collaborative skills are generally of a very low level.
While we don't expect new graduates to be fully qualified engineers that can skillfully manipulate all aspects of the software lifecycle, we would strongly prefer that they at least to have had classroom and coursework exposure to these concepts. The proposed SE curriculum goes a long way towards satisfying industry requirements. We believe that students that complete the program will be able to add value to the organization much quicker, because they will have knowledge and experience compatible with that required in industry. That would be too narrow a focus, which could provide short-term gains, but could also inhibit the career growth of the student. We also believe that the students will utilize their technical electives for Computer Science classes, which will allow them to drill down into the subject areas they and their advisors deem appropriate for their anticipated careers.