A comparative investigation of software engineering theory and practice in industry and academia

The software development process has undergone considerable advancement over the last forty years. Even though software development has been evolving, the development of software applications has largely remained an art. Through the application of measurable and repeatable processes, efforts have been made to transform software development from an art into a rigorous engineering discipline and profession. One major roadblock in defining software engineering as a profession is that although academic researchers and industry practitioners may have identified a set of processes, methods, and tools that comprise the technology. There is a question as to whether the two agree on the relative importance of these components to the practicing professional.; The purpose of this research was to determine and identify the issues comprising the gap between an academic software engineering education and the skills that the software industry requires from these graduates. First, a framework called the Software Engineering Reference Model (SERM) was created to define and integrate the various components of the software engineering field required in today's software development environment. This model formed the basis for an Internet-based survey to identify the specific components of the software engineering field that might comprise the "industry-academia gap."; The conclusion of the study is that both industry and academia agree on the importance of the SERM components (processes, methods, and tools) to the current software industry, but when each group was asked to identify specific software engineering areas and techniques to teach or use, within each of these components, they disagree. A gap exists in 137 of the 216 techniques (64%) tested in this survey. When the survey results are grouped by software engineering technology area, 23 of the 26 technology areas (89%) indicate a gap. Finally, when the results are summarized by SERM components, all indicate a gap.