THE IMPACT OF UNDERGRADUATE SOFTWARE ENGINEERING EDUCATION ON ADVANCING CASE TOOLS

Abstract

The fundamental rationale for the increase in the use of CASE tools by both large and medium enterprises is the belief that CASE tools facilitate and enhance improved productivity and system quality. The development of CASE environments has evolved over several years. Users are demanding high-level, domain-specific interfaces to applications, easy-to-use systems, systems that offer increases in productivity/cost ratios, flexibility in multiparadigm tools usage, and systems which are modular, portable, and robust. To meet such far ranging needs, software engineering research has become a large-scale endeavor. Thus, CASE development has become the concerted effort of academia, government, and industry. In this paper, the academic research effort on CASE development is discussed. Specifically, the perspective of the paper is on the effect that Undergraduate Software Engineering (USE) education has had and can have on the ability to develop timely and quality software tools. The focus of the paper is dichotomized as follows: (1) the impact of USE education on current techniques for developing CASE tools and a measurement of current CASE technology transfer and (2) the qualitative component(s) of USE education which will help in advancing tools development in the next decade.