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

摘要

There are two contradicting ideologies in software engineering (SE) education: one emphasizes popular methods, such as object-oriented analysis and design; the other advocates formal methods, which help to precisely specify and reason with the properties of software systems. Each of them, however, has its own problems. We advocate that the future of SE education lies in integrating these two worlds. SE education should not only be an engineering discipline in name, but also an engineering discipline in substance. SE students should not be artisans who regard their trade as an art and learn only from experience; nor should they be mathematics students who are more comfortable with theory than practice. They should be trained as genuine engineers, who are competent with industrial applications as well as the supporting theory.