Planning for Software Maintenance Education Within a Computee Science Framework

The question that this panel will explore is the feasibility of specialization within software engineering degree programs, particularly at the undergraduate level. Over the years of software engineering curriculum development, we have seen good success in implementation of both undergraduate and graduate degree programs. We have also seen that some universities and students have shown an interest in specialization within these degree programs.

The paper describes the certification mark promoted by the Italian Association of Computer Science University Professors (GRIN) for undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Computer Science. T...

Advances in database management, distributed com- puting, computational intelligence, and especially pervasive sys- tems, provide fertile ground for radical changes in pedagogy. We propose a pervasive educational platform that builds on these technologies to facilitate customization of courses and degree programs to the needs, interests, and backgrounds of individual students. Computer-based teaching tools are coupled with remote access to course content to present the same infor- mation in different ways, to accommodate differences in learning styles; encourage active, rather than passive learning; allow self- pacing, privacy, and flexibility; and ensure efficient utilization of resources. In this platform, an educational system, e.g., an undergraduate degree program in computer science, is viewed as a collection of three communities; the student community, the degree (or program) community, and the instructor/advisor community. In each community, the members are represented by software agents. Each agent carries sufficient intelligence and knowledge to allow communication and negotiation among agents. The platform aims to achieve a virtual one-to-one student/faculty ratio for the purposes of mentoring, advising, guiding, and educating students.

Unit testing represents a key activity in software development and maintenance. Test suites with high internal quality facilitate maintenance activities, such as code comprehension and regression testing. Several guidelines have been proposed to help developers write good test suites. Unfortunately, such rules are not always followed resulting in the presence of bad test code smells (or simply test smells). Test smells have been defined as poorly designed tests and their presence may negatively affect the maintainability of test suites and production code. Despite the many studies that address code smells in general, until now there has been no empirical evidence regarding test smells (i) distribution in software systems nor (ii) their impact on the maintainability of software systems. This paper fills this gap by presenting two empirical studies. The first study is an exploratory analysis of 18 software systems (two industrial and 16 open source) aimed at analyzing the distribution of test smells in source code. The second study, a controlled experiment involving twenty master students, is aimed at analyzing whether the presence of test smells affects the comprehension of source code during software maintenance. The results show that (i) test smells are widely spread throughout the software systems studied and (ii) most of the test smells have a strong negative impact on the comprehensibility of test suites and production code.

Most studies of gender and computer science have been conducted (out of necessity) in gender-imbalanced environments. The findings often point to significant gender differences, leading the researchers to recommend strategies to meet these differences. One such recommendation is to adopt a female-friendly, contextual approach to curriculum development.1 In contrast, based on our recent and ongoing studies of undergraduate computer science (CS) students at Carnegie Mellon University, we hypothesize that in a more balanced environment, gender differences tend to dissolve. That is, the spectrum of interests, motivation, and personality types of men and of women becomes more alike than different. This leads us to be considerably more pragmatic in our recommendations for effective and positive change. Indeed, we believe that recommendations for curricular changes based on presumed gender differences can be misguided and may help reinforce, even perpetuate, stereotypes. Here, we describe some of the changes in the culture of computing as our undergraduate CS environment has become more balanced in three critical domains: gender, the mix of students and breadth of their interests, and the professional experiences afforded all students. Brief Background for the Evolving Culture In 1995, just 7percent (7 out of 96) of the entering freshmen CS majors at Carnegie Mellon were women. Since 1999, the percentage has increased nearly fivefold (on average, 45 out of 132), challenging trends across the country.2 Two major factors have contributed to the dramatic increase of women in CS at Carnegie Mellon: an outreach program for high school CS teachers that combined technical training with discussions of gender-gap issues and a broadened admissions policy (emphasizing diverse interests—along with high [End Page 110] achievement in mathematics and science—and de-emphasizing prior programming experience). To meet the needs of students with varying backgrounds, multiple entry routes were built into the first-year programming sequence.3 The subsequent creation of the proactive student organization Women@SCS has been catalytic in building an environment in which the new student body can flourish.4 Women@SCS explicitly provides crucial educational and professional experiences generally taken for granted by the majority in the community but typically unavailable for the minority participants.5 Many of these experiences are casual and often happen in social settings. For example, in an undergraduate CS program, male students often have the opportunity to discuss homework with roommates, with friends late at night, or over meals. Course and job information and recommendations are passed down from upperclassmen, from fraternity files, or from friends. Women students, being in the minority, do not have access to—in fact are often excluded from—these implicit and important advantages. As one proceeds into the professional world, similar phenomena occur. These key actions, and implications for other venues, are discussed further at the end of this paper. Our recent study, based on a set of interviews with seniors in the class of 2002, may be viewed to a limited degree as a follow-up to the intensive longitudinal studies of CS students at Carnegie Mellon carried out by Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher between 1995 and 1999.6 Their studies, funded by the Sloan Foundation and discussed in Unlocking the Clubhouse, were undertaken to help understand differences in male and female students' engagement (attachment, persistence, and detachment) with computer science, with a special focus on the gender imbalance in the field.7 A major goal was to devise and effect changes in recruitment, curriculum, pedagogy, and culture to encourage the broadest possible participation in the computing enterprise. Unlocking the Clubhouse paints a bleak picture for women in the undergraduate computer science program in the 1990s, one that still resonates with many CS programs across the nation. Margolis and Fisher note that for the most part, "women who were enthusiastic about computing find their confidence and interest extinguished in the college years."8 Consequently, many of the (few) women students who entered the...

After years of discussion, the consensus among academic computer scientists seems to be that undergraduate computer science programs need more mathematical content. This mathematical content is not to be found in areas such as calculus and differential equation but in areas such as discrete mathematics and mathematical logic. The objective of this article is to re‐examine the central role of mathematics in computer science by reviewing the undergraduate computer science curriculum from Curricula ‘68 to the current Computing Curricula 1991. The trend toward a greater concentration in such courses as discrete mathematics will be explored. Furthermore, we collected and put together comments and concerns of three prominent computer scientists about the importance of mathematics in computing science and lack of mathematical content in computer science programs. We then look at one area of computer science amenable to mathematical treatment. This area, software specification, is one of the important phases of the software development. The use of formal methods based on discrete mathematics has been increasingly emphasized recently for software specifications in an effort to produce precise and concise descriptions. We will provide an example to demonstrate the importance of a mathematical approach to arrive at precise specifications and argue against claims that mathematical notations introduce unnecessary complication by pointing out the advantages of and misconceptions about the use of formal notations. The article is concluded by once again emphasizing the integration and applications of mathematics in all areas of computing discipline, especially for software development.

Community, safety, and service: Attitudes of social responsibility among student veterans in undergraduate engineering degree programs

This paper describes the development of an undergraduate degree programme in software engineering over the ten year period from 1988 to 1998. Particular emphasis is given to the fundamental principles that have been established to guide the creation and evolution of this programme during this period, and to ensure that it has been distinctively a course in software engineering rather than in any other branch of computing. To this end, the fundamental engineering characteristics of the programme are compared with those of undergraduate courses in other branches of engineering. Desirable future developments in this programme are then discussed, and finally the different principles identified in the paper are evaluated.

Discrete Mathematics is an inevitable part of any undergraduate computer science degree programme. However, today's computer science student typically finds this to be at best a necessary evil with which they struggle to engage. Twenty years ago, we started to address this issue seriously in our university, and we have instituted a number of innovations throughout the years which have had a positive effect on engagement and, thus, attainment. In this paper, we describe and motivate the innovations which we introduced, and provide a detailed analysis of how and why engagement and attainment levels varied over two decades as a direct result of these innovations.

Undergraduate computer science degree programs often provide an opportunity for students to experience real software projects as a part of their programs of study. These experiences frequently reside in a course in which students form software development teams, are assigned to a project offered by a corporate sponsor and devote one or two semesters to the task of making progress on the project. In an ideal model, faculty mentor student teams who, in turn, behave as sub-contractors or consultants to the sponsor. Students work for a grade, not directly for the sponsor as a true sub-contractor would. In the ideal model, students demonstrate what they have learned about software engineering process, as well as their ability to implement programmed solutions. Student teams provide progress reports, both oral and written, and directly experience many of the challenges and successes of true software engineering professionals. This paper reports on one such program after 10 years of operation. The technologies and software development processes of interest to sponsors are summarized and presented as an informal survey. Student response is discussed in terms of software systems they produced and how they went about producing them. The maturation of these students as software engineering professionals is also discussed

This study investigates the skill sets necessary for entry level systems analysts. Towards this end, the study combines two sources of data, namely, a content analysis of 200 systems analysts’ online job advertisements and a survey of 20 senior Information Systems (IS) professionals. Based on Chi-square tests, the results reveal that most employers prefer entry level systems analysts with an undergraduate Computer Science degree. Furthermore, most of the employers prefer entry level systems analysts to have some years of experience as well as industry certifications. The results also reveal that there is a higher preference for entry level systems analysts who have non-technical and people skills (e.g., problem solving and oral communication). The empirical results from this study will inform IS educators as they develop future systems analysts. Additionally, the results will be useful to the aspiring systems analysts who need to make sure that they have the necessary job skills before graduating and entering the labor market.

Since the term “software engineering” was coined some 20+ years ago, [4] a number of definitions for both the practice and the practitioner, a “software engineer,” have been proposed. The definition from a recent report on undergraduate software engineering curricula [3] states:Software engineering entails the understanding and application of engineering principles, design skills, good management practice, computer science and mathematical formalism. …The Software Engineer must be able to estimate the cost and duration of the software development process, and to determine correctness and reliability and express them with a degree of precision meaningful to other engineers and informed clients. …In recent years, several advanced degree programs in “software engineering” have been instituted in the US and abroad. One example of this can be found at the SEI itself. Two of the goals of the SEI Education Program are to: (1) develop software engineering curriculum modules that identify, organize, and document the body of knowledge that could be taught in software engineering degree programs, and (2) design, develop, support, and maintain model curricula for undergraduate and graduate software engineering programs.The question remains, however, how much of this can be taught in a classroom setting or even in a design lab, and how much must be learned on the job or via some sort of apprentice program? What does Ada have to do with software engineering ? Can Ada exist without it? Can software engineering be done without Ada?There are those who believe the term “software engineering” is just plain wrong: [1]… I deeply resent the misuse of the word “engineering” in the compound term “software engineering.” Such misuse constitutes, in my opinion, a cheap, deceptive attempt to take advantage of the professional reputation and image developed by real engineers over a century or so … it constitutes theft of professional reputation.In 1986, I coordinated a similar panel for the ACM Computer Science Conference (CSC) [2]. The introduction from that session still holds true for this one, and is paraphrased and tuned below:Most universities prepare students for continued growth and development during a lifetime of employment, whether in an industrial or government setting. Since traditionally, such an education has implied better job opportunities, the university student believes that by studying computer science and/or software engineering, she2 will be assured of a good job at a reasonable salary performing interesting and challenging tasks.On the other hand, some universities prepare students for graduate education and research, placing a heavy emphasis on theory. From this perspective, the university student believes that upon completion of a computer science or software engineering degree, she will be able to choose where to pursue her research, at the university, industry, or government site of her choosing.Three years have passed; and I have found other group of articulate people to join us and present new and exciting viewpoints on the topic of software engineering, university education, and, of course Ada. Richard Fairley, who participated in that CSC panel, continues to represent the academic point of view; Marcia Finfer represents the industrial point of view; Garth Glynn also provides the industrial point of view with the interesting addition of evaluating graduate-level software engineering degree curricula; David Markus brings the perspective of the human resource issues; Lyn Plinta provides the view of the recent graduate dealing with veterans of the hacking era; and David Umphress represents the DoD interests.These panelists, bringing together a wealth of experience as educators, practitioners, and policy makers, provide insights from both the demand-side of software engineering and the supply-side, as they take a multi-faceted, multi-national look at industrial, academic, and government expectations of software engineering as it is taught and practiced today.

Universities across the United States (U.S.) are perplexed as to why fewer women than men study engineering and why even fewer complete the curriculum and earn an undergraduate degree in engineering. The percentage of undergraduate engineering degrees awarded annually to women in the U.S. since 2000 has remained relatively constant at around 20%. However, some engineering disciplines have had much greater success in graduating women, with some programs awarding 50% or more of their bachelor’s degrees to women. The purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of why women preferred certain engineering disciplines over others. Up to 17 years of undergraduate engineering department data from the University of Florida (UF) and national averages from the National Science Foundation (NSF) were reviewed to evaluate graduation rates for women in engineering. The total number of graduates at the undergraduate level were compared to the number of undergraduates who identified themselves as women. Linear regression of the data was used to identify trends. In the last 17 years, there has been little change in the overall percentage of women engineering undergraduates, but there is a great disparity between the engineering disciplines. Women earn larger proportions of undergraduate degrees in engineering disciplines where they perceive a societal benefit. How can engineering departments improve their enrollment and retention of women? One way is by providing early-on specific real life examples of how engineers solve society’s most challenging problems.

The annual ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest produces a competitive paradigm that is at odds with the pedagogical goals of modern computer science and software engineering degree programs. This paradigm stresses the fast completion of a programming task and evaluates the results solely with black-box testing specified by the judges. In contrast, the pedagogical goals of contemporary college degree programs in computing emphasize the quality of processes inherent in software development and implementation. In 2007, the College of Charleston student chapter of the ACM hosted its annual high school programming competition by turning the conventional programming paradigm on its head to focus on quality-of-process rather than time-to-complete. The judging criteria included both technical and artistic merit. The implementation of the competition emphasized success by giving students working skeleton solution programs. This paper presents the motivation for the new paradigm, the details of its implementation for the 2007 competition, and the details of the new techniques for judging technical and artistic merit.

Software maintenance is an expensive activity that consumes a major portion of the cost of the total project. Various activities carried out during maintenance include the addition of new features, deletion of obsolete code, correction of errors, etc. Software maintainability means the ease with which these operations can be carried out. If the maintainability can be measured in early phases of the software development, it helps in better planning and optimum resource utilization. Measurement of design properties such as coupling, cohesion, etc. in early phases of development often leads us to derive the corresponding maintainability with the help of prediction models. In this paper, we performed a systematic review of the existing studies related to software maintainability from January 1991 to October 2015. In total, 96 primary studies were identified out of which 47 studies were from journals, 36 from conference proceedings and 13 from others. All studies were compiled in structured form and analyzed through numerous perspectives such as the use of design metrics, prediction model, tools, data sources, prediction accuracy, etc. According to the review results, we found that the use of machine learning algorithms in predicting maintainability has increased since 2005. The use of evolutionary algorithms has also begun in related sub-fields since 2010. We have observed that design metrics is still the most favored option to capture the characteristics of any given software before deploying it further in prediction model for determining the corresponding software maintainability. A significant increase in the use of public dataset for making the prediction models has also been observed and in this regard two public datasets User Interface Management System (UIMS) and Quality Evaluation System (QUES) proposed by Li and Henry is quite popular among researchers. Although machine learning algorithms are still the most popular methods, however, we suggest that researchers working on software maintainability area should experiment on the use of open source datasets with hybrid algorithms. In this regard, more empirical studies are also required to be conducted on a large number of datasets so that a generalized theory could be made. The current paper will be beneficial for practitioners, researchers and developers as they can use these models and metrics for creating benchmark and standards. Findings of this extensive review would also be useful for novices in the field of software maintainability as it not only provides explicit definitions, but also lays a foundation for further research by providing a quick link to all important studies in the said field. Finally, this study also compiles current trends, emerging sub-fields and identifies various opportunities of future research in the field of software maintainability.