Workshop:
Professional Development
of Software Engineers
Hazzan Orit
Department of Education in Technology and Scinece
Technion – Israel Institute of Technology
Homepage:
http://edu.technion.ac.il/Faculty/OritH/HomePage
The profession of software
engineering from a gender perspective
 Women and minorities are underrepresented in the
community of the IT developers.
 We focus on women in the software industry:

Women comprise about 50% of the world population, half of the
workforce, but only 20%-30% of the IT sector.

The absence of women in the hi-tech industry is almost a
(western) worldwide phenomenon.

Each country has its own minorities, local factors influence their
involvement in the IT economy.
The profession of software
engineering from a gender perspective
 During the workshop we will conduct many
activities.
 Activity 1: (10 minutes)

Describe a typical day in the life of a software
engineer.
In what follows
 Facts
 Why should we care?
 What is the source of the phenomenon?
 What can be done?
Facts
The shrinking pipeline
Keynotes
The workforce
Your personal experience
Women in the software industry Background
37
28
1983-1994: USA, the shrinking pipeline
Tracy Camp (1997). The Incredible
Shrinking Pipeline, Communications of
the ACM 40(10), pp. 103-110.
The phenomenon is identified also in
1993-2002:
18
Vanessa Davies and Tracy Camp (2000).
16
Where Have Women Gone and Will They Be
Returning, The Computer Professionals for
Social Responsibility Newsletter.
Conferences & keynotes
 Typical examples:

XP Universe 2002

OOPSLA 2003
 Sometimes, women are invited to talk
about women in SE

ICSE 2003
 Exceptions

ICSE 2002
Women in the software industry
Resource: Joanne McGrath Cohoon, Keynote 2: Must There Be So Few? Including Women in CS, ICSE 2003.
Personal Reactions
 Based on your personal experience: Write down
statements, said by others, which are related to
your studying of software engineering.
Reactions
 Female CS major, 2000: When people ask me,
“Oh, what's your major?” ... They would never think
I'm a CS major … because I'm a female.
Why should we care?
 Supply
 Diverse viewpoints
 Expand accessibility and fitness of IT products
 Gender equity: Participation in creative and
financially rewarding careers
 SE and CS are new fields
What is the source of the
phenomenon?
Factors that encourage/discourage male/female from
choosing CS and SE.
Female
Encourage
Discourage
Male
Both genders
Why women do not study
CS and SE?
 The image of these professions

a typical workday is made of long hours of
coding, coding and coding, without any
human interaction.

only “nerds” work in these professions.

women tend to prefer jobs that are based on
human interaction.
Why women do not study
CS and SE?
 Early education of girls

girls are educated to accept the traditional,
not to take risks and not to compete.

to succeed in the hi-tech market one has to
be an inventor, to be a risk-taker and to
compete.

family and teachers support.
Why women do not study
CS and SE?
 Young girls' exposure to technology

girls are not encouraged to play with
computers.

compare the variety of the computer games
that are offered to girls and to boys!
Why women do not study
CS and SE?
Discussion
 Outline main features of a computer game that in your
opinion fit and may appeal to young girls.
 Conduct the same task for a game that fits and may
appeal to young boys.
 Are there differences between the two games? If yes –
what are the differences? If not – what is common to these
two games?
Why women do not study
CS and SE?
Activity
 Design a compute game that may be attractive for young
girls?

What are its main characteristics?

What are the main guidelines that you followed?

What are the main design principles that you have employed?

May the designed game be attractive for young boys as well?
Why women do not study
CS and SE?
 Lack of role models – women with whom the young
women can identify

role models may increase the young girls’ attention
to women’s success in the hi-tech industry.

programs of pairing up female high-school students
with mentors in the industry let the young girls
experience what a career in the tech fields means.
What can be done?
Workshop plan
 Personal stories

Tell your story (past and future)
 Role models

Tell the story of a role model
 Case studies

Construct a case study that illustrates one aspect of the topic
 Development environments

Analyze a team meeting

Describe your preferred development environment
 Personal development plans
What can be done?
 CMU initiative
 Associations
What can be done?
 CMU initiative, 1995: An interdisciplinary
program of research and action has been initiated.

The research aspect aimed to understand students'
attitudes towards computer science.

The action component aimed to devise and effect
changes in curriculum, pedagogy and culture that will
encourage the participation of women in the
computing world.
What can be done?
 Results:

The entering enrollment of women in the
undergraduate computer science program at CMU
has been raised from 8% in 1995 to 42% in 2000.

The full story is described in: Margolis, J. and
Fisher, A. (2002). Unlocking the Clubhouse:
Women in Computing, MIT Press.
What can be done?
 Associations:

ACM/Women

women@scs

WICS: Stanford CS Department

WICSE: Women in Computer Science and Electrical
Engineering, University of California, Berkeley
What can be done?
 CMU initiative
 Associations
 This workshop takes a different approach:

Personal responsibility

Awareness to:
 Software
development processes
 Development
environments
Mapping the profession of
software engineering
 This workshop examines:

Characteristics of software engineering

Possible professional careers and opportunities within
the field

The appeal of a software engineering careers for
women

Identification of ways of influence in the field of
software engineering
Software Engineering
 What
is software engineering?
 What
do software engineers do?
 What
skills are required from software
engineers?
Software Engineering
 The term software engineering has first been used
in the 1968 North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO) software conference in Garmisch, West
Germany.
 Following the recognition of the software crisis:

Recognition that software development is a long and
complex process.
What is Software Engineering?
 SEI software engineering definition from 1990 SEI Report on Undergraduate
Software Engineering Education (CMU/SEI-90-TR-003)
 Engineering is the systematic application of scientific
knowledge in creating and building cost-effective solutions
to practical problems in the service of humankind.
 Software engineering is that form of engineering that
applies the principles of computer science and
mathematics to achieving cost-effective solutions to
software problems.
What is Software Engineering?
 What
do software engineers do?
 What
skills are required from
software engineers?
What is Software Engineering?
 Software engineers work with people:
Customers and teammates.
 Software engineers are chiefly accountable
to the public.
 Software engineers need broad
understanding of all the factors that affect
the product they are building.
What is Software Engineering?
 Software engineers should know how to apply
scientific knowledge for the construction of
reliable and useful software systems.
 In addition: Software engineers should be
aware and sensitive of their teammates, their
communication style, and customers'
requirements.
What may attracts women to SE?
 Recognition of ways of influence in the field
of software engineering.
 Software development is also about
communication (person to person)
Process-Product
Extreme
Duality (in what follows)
Programming (in a later stage of the workshop)
Product oriented vs. Process
oriented perspectives at Software
Engineering
Floyd, C. (1987). Outline of a Paradigm Change in Software
Engineering. In: G. Bjerknes, P. Ehn, M. Kyng (Eds.), Computers
and democracy - a Scandinavian challenge. Aldershot, UK:
Avebury, 191-212.
Product oriented vs. Process oriented
perspectives at Software Engineering
 Product-Oriented view:

Computer programs are formal mathematical
object.

The correctness of computer programs is
based on mathematical proofs.
Product oriented vs. Process oriented
perspectives at Software Engineering
 Process-Oriented view:

Computer programs are tolls or working environments
created for people.

Computer programs are designed through learning
process and based on communication in order to fit
then to users’ needs.
Product oriented vs. Process oriented
perspectives: Quality
 Product-Oriented view:

Quality is associated with the product’s features.

Criteria that determine the software quality address
its efficiency, reliability, etc.
Product oriented vs. Process oriented
perspectives: Quality
 Process-Oriented view:

Quality is associated with the processes by which
the software is used.

Criteria that determine the software quality
address the way it is used.
Product oriented vs. Process oriented
perspectives: Methods
 Product-Oriented view:

Correct and consistent application of methods leads to
unique results.

Methods are constant, well defined and are independent of
the contents, the developers and the users.

Development methods help software developers to be
independent.
Product oriented vs. Process oriented
perspectives: Methods
Process-Oriented view:

Methods support communication among people.

Methods are useless unless they are used by people.

Methods are developed based on accumulative experience,
and they should be adjust to specific needs and situations.
Identification ways of influence in the field
of software engineering
First stage – Personal stories
Preparation for the next meeting:
 Tell your personal story in software engineering (past and
future).
 Past:




How did you end up in software engineering?
What did you find attractive in software engineering?
What problems did you face?
How did you solve them?
 Future:

How do you envision your future in software engineering? (cont’d)
Identification ways of influence in the field
of software engineering
First stage – Personal stories (cont’d)
Preparation for the next meeting:
 Reflect on significant events in your story:

What did you do well?

What could you have done better?

What directions would you have considered had you had known
then what you know today?
 Identify ways in which you can contribute to your country?
society? community?
 Suggest specific actions you can take to achieve your goals.