Professional Software
Engineering: Fact or Fiction
-Steve McConnell and
Leonard Tripp
Reprinted: IEEE Software, November/December 1999
Software Engineering: The Development Process, Vol 1,
Chapter 2
Presented By: Andrew Diemer
Software Engineering II – EEL 6883
Aim of article

Authors address two items:
 What has been done in software engineering
 What still needs to be done in software engineering
Aim Answered
Most common software development
cycle

 Code and fix is the most common
 General idea of what they want to build
 Use combinations of informal design, debugging, testing
methodologies, etc. that suits their needs
 Programmers write code, run it. If it does not work fix it
until it does
 It is a bad approach because it takes longer, it’s a lower
quality of software and it costs more
Aim Answered (Cont.)
 Benefits are that it is requires little or no managerial or
technical training
 So the gap between the average practice and best practice
of software engineering is wide.
Aim Answered (Cont.)

Higher Standards
 Focuses on recent developments that support a true
profession of software engineering
 Gary Ford and Norman wrote a report and found key
elements that particular professions had in common
Elements

The elements are:
 Initial professional education
– Undergraduate degree from a university.
 Accreditation
– ABET (Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology)
 Skills Development
– Specific training
 Certificates
– Exams
Elements (Cont.)
 Licensing
– similar to certificates but a little different
 Professional development
– continuing professional education while having a professional
career
 Professional societies
– IEEE (Institute of Electrical Electronic Engineers)
– ACM (Association for Computing Machinery)
 Code of Ethics
– what is right or good with respect to what society thinks
Initial Professional Education

Pick a university or community college

Have a particular track
Until the date of this publication, Computer
Science was the dominating form of education

Currently Software Engineering has become more
dominate

Accreditation
These are overseeing bodies (group of bodies) that
ensure sufficient education is given

This gives the person and company assurance that
the individual can perform their discipline effectively

In 1996, Rochester Institute of Technology initiated
it’s first software engineering undergraduate program
in the US

United Kingdom and six more in Australia of
undergraduate programs

Accreditation (Cont.)
UCF Engineering – ABET is the recognized
accreditor for the university

ABET consist of programs in applied science,
engineering, technology and computing

ABET is a federation of 28 professional societies
that represent their particular field


Active for over 70+ years
Accreditation (Cont.)

Consists of 2700 programs at over 550 colleges
ABET provides workshops and other means for
leadership

ABET is recognized by the Council for Higher
Education


ABET started in 1932
Skill Development
Education is not enough to show full development
capabilities

Germinal professionals need to practice before
taking primary responsibility for their work


Physicals have three years of residency
Certified Public Accountants must work one full
year for a board approved organization before they
can receive their license

Skill Development (Cont.)
Professional Engineers must work for four years
before taking their PE


Body of Knowledge affects university’s curricula
Certificates

Goes with skill development

Different fields take particular exams

For the medical profession – board exams

Accountants take the CPA exam

Engineers take the FE and the PE
Certificates (Cont.)
This verifies with the public that “hey I am fully
qualified” in my particular field

Australia, British Computer Society offer
certifications in I.T.


Companies themselves offer certificates
 Microsoft
– MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer)
 Cisco
– CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate)
Licensing

Strong bond between you and the client
Speed is the leader in license promoting of
professional engineers

The specialty of Speed is in the area of software
engineering

Professional Development
Continuing of education really enhances a persons
understanding of their particular skill after they begin
their practice

Swift change in technology demands the strongest
requirements

Example would be drug improvements for the
medical field


Learning the standards of practice
Professional Development (Cont.)
For over 20 years IEEE have been developing
standards of practice


ISO – International Standards Organization
Professional Societies
Being apart of a professional society almost
expects that you put your professional standards
before your own interests


They define a particular knowledge

Professional societies functions include:
 certification criteria
 manage the functions of those certified programs
 standards of accreditation
 code of ethics along with the disciplining of those violate
those codes
Code of Ethics

What is good or right according to society

These ensure that the professionals act responsibly

It states two things
 What they do
 What they should do

Violators
 lose license of practice
 removed from their particular society
Code of Ethics (Cont.)

IEEE is involved in this process
IEEE has adopted a software engineering code of
ethics

Thoughts

I agree with this article
I wish at the beginning they would have
elaborated more on what has been done

I like the way they presented what needs to
happen now


It was a simple and straight forward paper
Cited
"ABET." January 28, 2007. ABET. 28 Jan
2007 <http://www.abet.org/>.