Guidelines for preparing standard software engineering curriculum: Bangladesh and global perspective

Abstract

In recent years, tremendous technical changes have happened in software development, accompanied by increased complexity of the systems that are being developed. Businesses are now regularly deploying systems that employ and integrate a wide range of computing technologies and paradigms. Thus, it is inevitable for the academics to be prepared to educate their students to meet this unique challenge. However, the development of software engineering (SE) programs is a difficult & daunting task. In Bangladesh, curricula of undergraduate and graduate SE programs are not very old and maturing at a slower pace as compared to other curricula. There are problems for the development of such programs like: a) the SE profession in Bangladesh is immature; b) confusion about the difference between computer science (CS) and SE; c) lack of understanding and appreciation among CS faculty about the need for SE education; d) little available material on SE curriculum guideline; e) absence of local accreditation mechanism for SE programs, etc. In this paper, the authors studied the current status of SE curriculum in Bangladesh and abroad, and proposed guidelines for developing such curriculum adaptable by local academia and industry. The paper includes a curriculum design guideline, descriptions of probable knowledge components that can be used to design SE curricula, and a sample curriculum.