FOCUS: An adaptation of a SWEBOK-based curriculum for industry requirements

Abstract

Siemens Corporate Development Center India (CT DC IN) develops software applications for the industry, energy, health-care, and infrastructure & cities sectors of Siemens. These applications are typically critical in nature and require software practitioners who have considerable competency in the area of software engineering. To enhance the competency of engineers, CT DC IN has introduced an internal curriculum titled "FOundation CUrriculum for Software engineers" (FOCUS) which is an adapted version of IEEE's SWEBOK curriculum. The FOCUS program has been used to train more than 500 engineers in the last three years. In this experience report, we describe the motivation for FOCUS, how it was structured to address the specific needs of CT DC IN, and how the FOCUS program was rolled out within the organization. We also provide results obtained from a survey of the FOCUS participants, their managers, and FOCUS trainers that was conducted to throw light on the effectiveness of the program. We believe the insights from the survey results provide useful pointers to other organizations and academic institutions that are planning to adopt a SWEBOK-based curriculum.

Improving developer participation rates in surveys

“…Seven papers at the 2012 International Conference on Software Engineering reported on surveys, of which 5 included data on response rates. Of those, response rates ranged from 6% [6] to 64% [7]. Clearly, response rates could stand to be improved.…”

Are computer science and engineering graduates ready for the software industry?

“…One such large scale initiative was undertaken by Siemens to train over 500 company engineers over three years. Samarthyam et al [6] describe this program, whose curriculum was based on IEEE's Software Engineering Body of Knowledge [15].…”

“…ICSE-SEET'18, May 27-June 3, 2018, Gothenburg, Sweden Eray Tuzun, Hakan Erdogmus, Izzet Gokhan Ozbilgin. 6…”

“…The gap can potentially be tackled in several ways: by updating the curriculum via transfer of experience from industry to academia [5]; via training as part of post-employment onboarding of new hires [6]; and by partially relying on certification programs, such as those provided by IEEE [7]. However, Havelsan Academy decided to take a different approach: creation of a summer school to replace postemployment training with pre-employment training and assessment.…”

Estudio sobre el Cumplimiento de las Asignaturas Ingeniería de Requisitos y Gerencia Informática con Respecto a la Guía Base de Conocimientos en Ingeniería de Software (Swebok©)

“…Swebok a través del tiempo se ha caracterizado por su versatilidad, ya que ésta guía ha sido usada como base para múltiples trabajos e investigaciones encaminados a la mejora de la enseñanza, como en el caso Siemens Corporate Development Center India donde se adaptó a la industria de requerimientos con resultados positivos en la formación de ingenieros (Samarthyam et al, 2012), también se realizó una integración de la seguridad al ciclo de vida de la Ingeniería del Software (Talib et al, 2010), así como también, esta guía ha sido base fundamental para la mejora del currículo de programas de Ingeniería del Software, Ingeniería de sistemas, Ingeniería informática y afines en diversas instituciones de educación superior (Alarifi et al, 2016;Kakeshita, 2015;Offutt, 2015;Quezadaa et al, 2015;Ramakrishnan, 2007). Es importante mencionar que en un entorno académico no solamente deben medirse los contenidos temáticos de un currículo sino además la parte psicológica, habilidades, competencias, ética profesional y conducta de los involucrados.…”