SE and CS Collaboration: Training Students for Engineering Large, Complex Systems

Today's software industry is characterized by fast growth and diversity. To engineer software in such an environment, software engineers are required to work with large teams and handle large complex systems, involving common off-the-shelf components, open source software and outsourced resources. This poses a serious challenge for software engineering institutions. In this paper, we outline a framework for collaboration among computer science and software engineering programmes within a university with the goal of training students for engineering large, complex systems. We chart a three phase layout for the framework in which students of both programmes work together to simulate the industry's practices by designing, building, integrating and testing a large, complex system. We consider the issue of evaluating students in such a framework and give alternatives for certain variables so as to fit the framework in different environments.

1. Introduction

Software engineering education has come a long way and is no longer in its infancy. There are several forums working on the curricula and pedagogical issues related to software engineering education. Among these are the SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education and the Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training. Detailed layout of program and course contents have been developed by many universities.