Software Product Design: An Organizing Concept for Software Engineering Education

Abstract

This paper contributes to the continuing debate on the curriculum for undergraduate software engineering degrees. It describes the rationale for and content of the new honours programme in Software Engineering Management at the Dorset Institute. The well documented problems which persist in the software engineering industry are, we believe, largely attributable to the inappropriate education of software engineers. An alternative approach to the education of undergraduate software engineers is outlined; one which is based upon the concept of ‘software as a product’.