Work in Progress: Identifying Software Engineering Practices and Tools Among Students and Practitioners in Non-Computing Engineering Disciplines

Stephanos Matsumoto; Michelle E Jarvie-Eggart

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: June 26, 2024
Conference Session: Software Engineering Division (SWED) Technical Session #3
Tagged Division: Software Engineering Division (SWED)
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--48495
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/48495
Download Count: 45

Paper Authors

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Stephanos Matsumoto Olin College of Engineering orcid.org/0000-0002-4659-054X

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Stephanos (Steve) Matsumoto is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the Olin College of Engineering. His research interests are in computing education, particularly in how to incorporate better software engineering practices when teaching computing in undergraduate STEM courses.

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biography

Michelle E Jarvie-Eggart P.E. Michigan Technological University orcid.org/0000-0002-6795-3899

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Dr. Jarvie-Eggart is a registered professional engineer with over a decade of experience as an environmental engineer. She is an Assistant Professor of Engineering Fundamentals at Michigan Technological University. Her research interests include technology adoption, problem based and service learning, and sustainability.

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Abstract

Despite the increasing importance of working with and developing software in numerous engineering fields, engineering education today largely focuses on programming, rather than software engineering practices and tools (SEPTs), that is, the tools and techniques for designing, implementing, and maintaining software over time. As a result, the productivity or reliability of engineering work involving software can be hampered by problems that could have been avoided with the use of modern best practices in software engineering. Despite a history of research on SEPTs in computing fields (e.g., computer science and software engineering) and computational science fields (e.g., computational physics and bioinformatics), the use of SEPTs in engineering fields is not well understood.

To address this problem, in this paper, we present ongoing work investigating how practitioners and undergraduate students in non-computing engineering disciplines understand and use SEPTs. Specifically, we present the preliminary design of a qualitative study, including a survey instrument to assess familiarity with software engineering terminology and use of SEPTs. Our survey is based on the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) Guide, which outlines a generally accepted, standard body of knowledge expected of practicing early-career software engineers. We design the survey to be accessible even to those unfamiliar with the specific software engineering terminology used in the SWEBOK Guide. In addition to the survey itself, we describe our planned approach to conduct a thematic analysis of participants’ responses, using the taxonomy of the SWEBOK Guide as an analytical framework.

We hope that our study will help illuminate the landscape of how different engineering disciplines understand and develop software. While we intend for our survey to be used in studying engineers in non-computing fields, we anticipate that the results of our study will inform the development of further research to investigate SEPT use in engineering in a discipline-specific or discipline-agnostic manner. In the broader context, we expect that these insights will help us more identify and teach key SEPTs in undergraduate engineering education, and thereby help future engineers write and maintain software more effectively, whatever their discipline.

Citation
Format

Matsumoto, S., & Jarvie-Eggart, M. E. (2024, June), Work in Progress: Identifying Software Engineering Practices and Tools Among Students and Practitioners in Non-Computing Engineering Disciplines Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--48495

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Despite the increasing importance of working with and developing software in numerous engineering fields, engineering education today largely focuses on programming, rather than software engineering practices and tools (SEPTs), that is, the tools and techniques for designing, implementing, and maintaining software over time. As a result, the productivity or reliability of engineering work involving software can be hampered by problems that could have been avoided with the use of modern best practices in software engineering. Despite a history of research on SEPTs in computing fields (e.g., computer science and software engineering) and computational science fields (e.g., computational physics and bioinformatics), the use of SEPTs in engineering fields is not well understood.

To address this problem, in this paper, we present ongoing work investigating how practitioners and undergraduate students in non-computing engineering disciplines understand and use SEPTs. Specifically, we present the preliminary design of a qualitative study, including a survey instrument to assess familiarity with software engineering terminology and use of SEPTs. Our survey is based on the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) Guide, which outlines a generally accepted, standard body of knowledge expected of practicing early-career software engineers. We design the survey to be accessible even to those unfamiliar with the specific software engineering terminology used in the SWEBOK Guide. In addition to the survey itself, we describe our planned approach to conduct a thematic analysis of participants’ responses, using the taxonomy of the SWEBOK Guide as an analytical framework.

We hope that our study will help illuminate the landscape of how different engineering disciplines understand and develop software. While we intend for our survey to be used in studying engineers in non-computing fields, we anticipate that the results of our study will inform the development of further research to investigate SEPT use in engineering in a discipline-specific or discipline-agnostic manner. In the broader context, we expect that these insights will help us more identify and teach key SEPTs in undergraduate engineering education, and thereby help future engineers write and maintain software more effectively, whatever their discipline.
AU  - Stephanos Matsumoto
AU  - Michelle E Jarvie-Eggart P.E.
CY  - Portland, Oregon
DA  - 2024/06/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Work in Progress: Identifying Software Engineering Practices and Tools Among Students and Practitioners in Non-Computing Engineering Disciplines
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/48495
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--48495
ER  -