SE2004: Recommendations for undergraduate software engineering curricula

Jorge Diaz-Herrera
Thomas Hilburn
Richard Jr. LeBlanc
Timothy Lethbridge

Abstract

Universities throughout the world have established undergraduate programs in software engineering, which complement existing programs in computer science and computer engineering. To provide guidance in designing an effective curriculum, the IEEE Computer Society and the ACM have developed the Software Engineering 2004 (SE2004) set of recommendations. The SE2004 document guides universities and colleges regarding the knowledge they should teach in undergraduate software engineering programs. It also provides sample courses and curriculum patterns. SE2004 begins with an overview of software engineering, explaining how it is both a computing and an engineering discipline. It then outlines the principles that drove the document's development and describes expected student outcomes. Next, SE2004 details the knowledge that universities and colleges should teach, known as SEEK (software engineering education knowledge), in a software engineering program. These recommendations are followed by general pedagogical guidelines, sample courses, and sample curriculum patterns