Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Endorses IEEE Computer Society's SWEBOK and CSDA Programs 8 December 2008 - Top-ranked engineering college Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology has announced the endorsement of IEEE Computer Society's Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) and Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) programs.
Volunteers are gearing up to refresh the Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge—SWEBOK—intending to add new knowledge areas (KAs) and to revise others.
Developed concurrently, the SWEBOK Guide, the Software Engineering 2004 (SE2004) curriculum guide, and the Certified Software Development Professional (CSDP) certification each provided a characterization of the discipline of software engineering. Despite nearly independent development, the three instruments agreed to a remarkable extent. The primary purpose of the current revision of the SWEBOK Guide is to perfect the correspondence between the three items, notably by adding a KA on professional practices—a subject currently covered by the CSDP—and adding “foundation” KAs on related subjects that software engineers learn about during their undergraduate education—subjects currently covered by SE2004.
To achieve this alignment and to maintain the currency of the SWEBOK Guide, the IEEE Computer Society’s Professional Practices Committee agreed in 2008 to the following changes:
a new KA on Professional Practice—similar to material currently in the CSDP
four new education KAs: Engineering Economy Foundations, Computing Foundations, Mathematical Foundations, and Engineering Foundations—similar to material currently in SE2004
removal of three related disciplines: Computer Science, Mathematics, and Software Ergonomics—obviated by other changes
added material about Human-Computer Interfaces in the Software Design and Software Testing KA
removal of the Software Tools section from Software Engineering Tools and Methods, and distributing it to the other KAs
a renamed Software Engineering Methods KA to focus on methods that affect more than one KA
redistribution of some other material into different KAs.
Practitioners should expect incremental releases of these changes beginning in 2009, and the full SWEBOK Guide refresh will debut in 3Q2010.
The recently announced Certified Software Development Associate (CSDA) certification is already aligned with the revised outline of knowledge. The imminent refresh of CSDP will align with the new outline of knowledge.
