Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!tivoli!alan
From: alan@tivoli.UUCP (Alan R. Weiss)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Looking for advice on gaining SE knowledge/education
Message-ID: <303@tivoli.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 91 01:27:51 GMT
References: <54079@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Reply-To: alan@tivoli.UUCP (Alan R. Weiss)
Organization: Tivoli Systems Inc., Austin, TX
Lines: 64

[ Yes, I'm back on Usenet (and soon Internet).  Address at the end. ]


In article <54079@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU> tirone@acsu.buffalo.edu (stephen t tirone) writes:
>
>Pardon me if this is the wrong place to ask this, but...

Right newsgroup.  Go ahead ...

>
>	Q: What graduate programs (what schools) have programs in
>software engineering/CS/CIS that would leave one with a solid
>grounding in engineering (<-- verb) software?  Boulder, Irvine, and
>CMU come to my mind.  Any others (state schools?)?  My undergraduate
>work was in optical engineering, but my interests have led me to
>software engineering.  I am particularly interested in
>languages/environments that increase productivity/decrease
>bugs/increase maintainability, etc. And particularly, why do the
>benefits occur? (And a bunch of other questions...)  

It is admirable that you want to go into Software Engineering,
but of course this is what all of us already do, right?  :-)
Seriously, CMU has a good program, to be sure.
UC-Irvine has access to Barry Boehm, and he's one of the best
(although I know of NO commercial development program that has
successfully used the Spiral Model).

However, the BEST education is serious self-study coupled with
Real World Experience (tm).  Go to work for a start-up, or
for a Big Corporation, and learn the various constraints we
operate under.  Find out that "software engineering" is largely
an academic discipline (unfortunately) punctuated by occasional
brilliant successes, but mostly dismal failures.  Learn from your
mistakes, and learn from other people's screw-ups (remember
Ashton-Tate?).  Get extensive programing experience, so you can
feel the heat of development (and so that your evangelism later
is tempered with empathy and hard-headed, practical solutions).
Learn how to "sell" software engineering and Quality through
empirical and quantitative proof, not just moral suasion.

In short, I recommend going to work, and getting your Masters
at night.  Its your life, of course; just my opinions.

>	Anyway, if anyone can give me pointers as to who is doing
>valuable work in this area, or perhaps what a decent education/career
>track would be to educate/train myself in my area of interest (its
>somewhat of a career change), I would greatly appreciate it.
>
>Steve Tirone
>tirone@acsu.buffalo.edu

Good luck.  I'll be happy to point to good sources if you want.
After all, its my profession.


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