What we Teach Software Engineers in the University:

Do we Take Engineering Seriously?

One Academic('s) View of Software Engineering Education

Tom Maibaum

Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine

London, UK

tsem@staff.doc.ic.ac.uk

Abstract

Software Engineering, as a discipline in its own right, is reaching the end of its third decade. As such, we might legitimately be expecting that Software Engineering curricula will reflect some level of maturity, both with respect to the conception of software as an artefact and with respect to the incorporation of effective engineering principles. I will argue that this is simply not the case and further that the trend may well be the opposite of what engineers from traditional disciplines might respect.