Different Perspectives on software engineering (CH6 CH7)

Different Perspectives on software engineering (CH6 & CH7)

Slide 1

Different Perspectives on
Software Engineering

 Jim Tomayko     Orit Hazzan 

Slide 2

What Is This Lesson About?

Frameworks:

• Historical perspective

• Process vs. product perspectives

• International perspective (Gender)

Slide 3

Software Engineering

The term software was has first used in the 1968 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) software conference in Garmisch, Germany.

Following the recognition of the software crisis: Recognition that software development is a long and complex process.

Slide 4

Software Engineering

Until today:

• The Evolutionary Development Model

• The Iterative Development Model

• The Spiral Software Development Model

• Rational Unified Process

• Extreme Programming

What is common to all these methods ?

Slide 5

Software Engineering

All traverse the activities of:
specifying, designing, coding, testing.
Some do this several times.

• These activities have become the paradigm of software development.

• Paradigm is the way of doing things

Kuhn, T. S. (1962). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press.

Slide 6

Software Engineering

The four activities:
specifying, designing, coding, and testing; plus the concepts of abstraction and information hiding served as the basis for iterative methods

When the majority of developers accepted this, it became a paradigm

Slide 7

International Perspective
on Software Engineering

Main messages of the lesson:

• Local events may have global influence on the hi-tech sector (Sept 11, SARS)

• Countries may use the software industry as a leverage for their economy

• Gender and minorities in the software world (the focus of the lesson)

Slide 8

International Perspective
of Software Engineering

• Women and minorities are underrepresented in the community of the IT developers

• We focus on women in the software industry:

• Women comprise about 50% of the world population, half of the workforce, only 20% of the IT sector

• The absence of women in the hi-tech industry is almost a (western) worldwide phenomenon

• Each country has its own minorities; local factors influence their involvement in the IT economy

Slide 9

Women in the Software Industry ”Background

• 1983 “1994: USA, the shrinking pipeline

Tracy Camp (1997). The Incredible Shrinking Pipeline, Communications of the ACM 40(10), pp. 103 “110

• The phenomenon is also identified during 1993 “2002:

Vanessa Davies and Tracy Camp (2000). Where Have Women Gone and Will They Be Returning, The Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Newsletter .

Slide 10

Women in the
Software Industry

Actions in order to increase the % of women who study computer science

• CMU, 1995: An interdisciplinary program of research and action has been initiated

• The research aspect aimed to understand students attitudes towards computer science

• The goal of the action component was to devise and effect changes in curriculum, pedagogy and culture that will encourage the participation of women in the computing world

Slide 11

Women in the
Software Industry

Results:

• The entering enrollment of women in the undergraduate computer science program at Carnegie Mellon University has been raised from 8% in 1995 to 42% in 2000

• The full story is described in Margolis, J. and Fisher, A. (2002). Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing, MIT Press, 2002

Slide 12

Women in the
Software Industry

Class discussion:

• How would you explain the fact that the percentage of women who study computer science and software engineering is relatively low? What factors may influence their choice of a profession?

• How would you approach the problems?

Slide 13

Women in the
Software Industry

Why women do not study CS and SE?

• The image of these professions :

  • Only nerds work in the area

  • A typical workday is made of long hours of coding, coding and coding, without any human interaction.

  • This course shows that this image is incorrect.

• Women tend to prefer jobs that are based on human interaction.

Slide 14

Women in the
Software Industry

Why women do not study CS and SE? (cont)

• Early education of girls :

  • Girls are educated to accept the traditional, not to take risks and not to compete .

• To succeed in the hi-tech market one has to be an inventor , to be a risk-taker and to compete.

• Young girls exposure to technology.

• Girls are not encouraged to play with computers.

• Compare the variety of the computer games that are offered to girls versus to boys!

Slide 15

Women in the
Software Industry

Food for thought/Discussion:

• Outline main features of a computer game that in your opinion fit and may appeal to young girls.

• Conduct the same task for a game that fits and may appeal to young boys.

• Are there differences between the two games? If yes ”what are the differences? If not ”what is common to these two games?

Slide 16

Women in the
Software Industry

Why women do not study CS and SE? (cont)

• Lack of role models ”women with whom the young women can identify.

• Role models may increase the young girls attention to women s success in the hi-tech area.

• Programs of pairing up female high-school students with mentors in the industry aim to let the young girls experience what a career in the tech fields means.