How well do colleges prepare students for
software development careers? The short answer is, it varies.
After speaking to several recruiters who specialize in high-tech placements, we found that it's back to the basics -- hiring skilled graduates who have experience with state-of-the-art software development products. In recent years, recruiters have been asked to find candidates who are proficient technicians, but who are also competent in interpersonal skills, leadership, learning agility, team building, and other areas. While those qualities are commendable and desirable, at the end of the day, businesses need people who can step in and be productive very quickly.
Nurturing success: Integrating academics with the real world
While most educational institutions have developed software engineering degree programs for undergraduates and graduates, the quality of those programs varies with the institution's ability to expose students to current technology and tools. And that exposure is often dependent on private and state funding.
So, as colleges and universities are forced to tighten their fiscal belts, the question becomes: How can they be sure their graduates are well prepared for development careers? One answer is that they can partner with software development tool providers. For example, more than 2,300 institutions have joined the IBM Scholars Program to provide faculty and students with access to valuable technology. IBM's developer relations team helped the computer information systems faculty at Southwest Texas University to evaluate their MIS (management information systems) curriculum and update it. The faculty received training on IBM's e-business tooling and developed eight new courses using IBM's DB2 Universal Database and WebSphere Studio. As a result, Southwest Texas graduates have had tremendous success in the job market. Their competitive edge is the combination of an MIS degree and IBM certification as an e-Business solution advisor or solution designer, based on solid hands-on experience. IBM even provides a database in which students can post their resumes for review by IBM business partners.
What is the IBM Rational SEED Program?
The IBM Rational Software Engineering for Educational Development (SEED) Program helps computer science professors develop courses that leverage IBM Rational's tools and best practices. The program currently reaches more than 20,000 computer science and software engineering students at more than 650 colleges and universities world-wide, where IBM Rational distributes software and training materials gratis to faculty and students. In addition to traditional classroom exposure, SEED faculty and students have access to IBM Rational Development Network, or RDN, a Web site that provides targeted software development content and skill-building resources. Through RDN, SEED participants can get free downloads and upgrades for IBM Rational tools, share research results, publish papers, and communicate with participants at other institutions as well as with IBM Rational customers. They can also attend IBM Rational Webinars discussing future trends and technical advances in software development.
SEED program focuses on software development experience
Graduates of schools participating in IBM's Rational Software Engineering for Educational Development (SEED) Program (see sidebar) also enjoy a distinct advantage in a tight job market because of their practical, hands-on experience with IBM Rational's automated tools. Their transition into the workplace is typically seamless -- and occasionally spectacular. Jim Bethancourt, a recent graduate of Texas AM University, learned how to use a variety of Rational tools through the SEED Program and then targeted his search for an internship to companies in the region who used Rational tools. Once he was hired, Jim implemented IBM Rational's XDE Professional Plus and put it to work immediately.
"I told Rational XDE to 'make the models,' for my .NET development project, and it did," reports Bethancourt. His supervisors and co-workers at the internship site were very pleased with the results, including the ease with which he implemented the new tool. "I was happy I had a background that enabled me to make a powerful impact at the company so quickly," says Bethancourt. In addition, he was able to use IBM Rational's online courses and Webinars to learn more about the system's capabilities. "A picture is worth a thousand words, and these models make it much easier to think about the process than just having words, words, and more words," he explains.
Thanks to programs like SEED, increasingly, companies are able to fill positions with very specific and stringent requirements, such as knowledge of CASE (Computer-Aided Software Engineering) tools and UML (Unified Modeling Language). When corporate recruiters asked graduating seniors at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) if they had worked with UML, they were able to cite their experience with IBM Rational Rose® because Dr. Joseph Chao, a faculty member at BGSU, began using the tool in his classes a year ago. When he implemented Rational Rose, students responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to acquire knowledge of UML and visual modeling. Chao plans to implement additional products in the integrated IBM Rational tool set, emphasizing preparation for enterprise development projects. "When my graduates are faced with a challenge that involves integrating several systems or developing a new system that must be compatible with existing ones, I want them to be ready for action," he says.
Dr. James C. Helm chair of systems engineering, School of Science and Computer Engineering at University of Houston?Clear Lake, has been using IBM Rational tools in his classes for more than five years. He started with Rational Rose and then incorporated the IBM Rational Unified Process,® or RUP,® and other tools in IBM Rational Suite® Enterprise. Helm attributes the success of the program to the fact that students are learning the latest techniques and methodologies -- and they have the freedom and flexibility to use Rational tutorials and labs 24 x 7, delivered via IBM Rational Developer Network. In his requirements engineering course, they actually develop a small project with two or three use cases. In the construction course, they can do a UML model and actually build the software. Because they have Rational Rose and RUP experience on their resumes, a lot of his students are hired directly into the aerospace industry as well as Fortune 100 companies in the Houston area that focus on e-business.
According to Helm:
"After the students go through our program with RUP and Rational Suite Enterprise, they gain more than narrow, techy knowledge. They understand the whole management process and how to integrate these tools into an iterative program or project to actually develop a useful product for a company. They know the lifecycle and all the artifacts needed to make a project successful. Most students think that computer science or software engineering is just about writing code, but in reality, it involves learning about process, documentation, configuration management, and group effort. The SEED Program gives students an opportunity to work together, develop their project, produce the documents, and present the material at the end of the course. They learn a lot about working on a project team as well as using the tools."
Overall, he adds, the IBM Rational SEED Program is a great benefit to the software engineering and computer science programs. "I plan to expand it into the system engineering program so those students can learn UML modeling. I'd even like to take it over to the business school so they can integrate UML into some of their business courses. After all, those students will be making important software project decisions some day, and knowing UML will enable them to understand what the technical people are talking about."
Firm rooting for software development careers
As for preparing students for professional development careers, Helm says, "One of our students went to work for General Electric. He wrote me that he used the material he had learned in the testing verification and validation course with some unit test development work he did there. They were very impressed by his development plan, and he earned a lot of credibility very quickly."
That's exactly the kind of story that Deb Raftery, who manages the SEED Program for IBM Rational Software, likes to hear. "When recent graduates gain credibility in the workplace by applying IBM Rational tools and methodology they learned about in the classroom, that strengthens our position in those workplaces as well," she said. "In exchange for giving SEED Program students a rich, hands-on educational experience and a tremendous advantage in a tough job market, we get the benefit of their familiarity and fresh thinking about how to use our products. We also earn the loyalty of companies who hire them; they're grateful to have new staff that is well-trained and already up to speed on the latest technology."
As colleges work to incorporate hands-on training into their object-oriented analysis and design courses, more and more computer science departments are turning to the IBM Rational SEED program for help. Dr. Arturo Concepcion, chair of the computer science department at Cal State, San Bernardino, implemented Rational Rose in five sequential undergraduate courses several years ago. As students progress through the courses, they build a simple class diagram and develop a complex file system that implements all of the components they've constructed. Their hard work pays off when students interview for jobs because they have both project management and UML experience. The program has been so successful at Cal State that Dr. Concepcion presented a paper on "Integrating Object-Oriented Design in the Computer Science Curriculum" at a professional meeting last summer. Funding permitting, he intends to incorporate IBM Rational tools and technology into additional courses later this year.
Corporate recruiters, too, are enthusiastic about the practical experience that programs like SEED provide. "Companies are looking for graduates who have hands-on development experience as well as academic credentials," says one recruiter at a technology-based firm. "Otherwise, it's a little like hiring a translator whose only qualification is having memorized a French grammar book."
About the author
Jane LaRoque is a freelance writer specializing in corporate communications, including instructional, procedural, and recruiting materials. Her twenty-year career includes both project and staff positions in marketing communications and technical writing for companies such as Genuity, Arthur D. Little, Coca-Cola, Fleet Bank, and Cabot Corporation. In an earlier life, she taught English and Humanities at Santa Fe Community College and the University of Florida. She holds B.A., M. Ed., and Ed. S. degrees from the University of Florida.