Towards harmonized professional standards for software engineers: Constraints, conflicts and concessions

The harmonization of professional standards usually means an attempt to unify the standards among different nations or states. It is necessary step towards the maturity of a profession because of two factors: that professional standards are developed independently in different nations; and that the standards thus developed are not uniform among nations. Since harmonization is not only step before a mature software engineering profession, a new look at various constraints and conflicts against harmonized professional standards in software engineering is proposed.published_or_final_versio

Research directions in model-based metamorphic testing and verification

Model-based software testing generally refers to test case selection and result evaluation based on a behavioral model of the target software. It may not, however, be possible to evaluate test results in some situations. For embedded software in a real-time environment, for instance, the results may only appear in a fraction of a second and cannot be observed by the tester. In this paper, we discuss the research opportunities for such situations despite the challenges.published_or_final_versio

One system, two ideologies: integrating the two worlds of software engineering education

In software engineering education, there are two contradicting ideologies. One ideology emphasizes on the popular methods such as object-oriented analysis and design. The other ideology advocates formal methods. Although both have advantages, there are also inherent drawbacks. In view of this, it is advocated that the future of software engineering education lies in integrating these two ideologies.published_or_final_versio

Software engineering professionalism: Is the end of constraints and conflicts in sight?

Although some trends towards software engineering professionalism are seen, the end of the long and winding road is not yet in sight. The strongest resistance comes from ones own inertia, such as the lack of an independent body of knowledge, the confusions in accountability and responsibility, and the obstacles in certification and licensing. Internal conflicts do not help make ones profession more mature. This paper intends to make people join hands in the movement towards a genuine software engineering profession.published_or_final_versio

Message from the Steering Committee Chair

published_or_final_versionThe 10th International Conference on Quality Software (QSIC 2010), Zhangjiajie, China, 14-15 July 2010. In Conference Proceedings, 2010, p. xi

Computing Curriculum-Software Engineering: Its Impacts on Professional Software Engineering Education

The computing curriculum-software engineering (CCSE) volume and its impacts on professional software engineering education are discussed. The CCSE is an excellent cucciculum document that defines the body of knowledge for undergraduate software engineering students. It is perfectly legitimate for CCSE to recommend software engineers to adhere to the guideline in the Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice, that 'software engineers must commit themselves to making software engineering a beneficial and respected profession'. The CCSE Final Report proves to be an excellent and comprehensive curriculum document specifying a body of knowledge for software engineerrs.published_or_final_versionThe 28th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference Proceedings, Hong Kong, China, 28-30 September 2004, v. 1, p. 176-17

Formal or informal, practical or impractical: towards integrating formal methods with informal practices in software engineering education

Two conflicting schools of thought have been dominating software engineering education. One school stresses on the popular software development methodologies, but horror stories on poorly designed systems are not uncommon. The other school advocates formal methods, but most practitioners regard them as impractical. We recommend that we should bridge the gap between the formal and informal by bringing theory to existing practice. The formalism should be used as a working tool behind popular software development methodologies. Students should not be trained as craftsmen who consider software development as an art and learn only from past mistakes. Nor should they be trained as mathematicians who are more comfortable with theory than applications. Software engineers must be educated as real 'engineers' who are competent with industrial practices as well as the mathematical foundation directly supporting them.postprin

Message from the program co-chairs

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Equality to equals and unequals: a revisit of the equivalence and nonequivalence criteria in object-oriented software testing

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A Review of System Development Systems

The requirements for a system development system are defined and used as guidelines to review six such systems: SAMM, SREM, SADT, ADS / SODA, PSL/PSA and Systematics. It is found that current system development systems emphasise only validation and user verification. They can perform relatively little on automatic file optimisation, process optimisation and maintenance.postprin