CFCSEIC News Briefs Week Ending May 15, 1998

CFCSEIC News Briefs Week Ending May 15, 1998

[CFCSEIC]

CONTENTS:
TEXAS MAY BE FIRST STATE TO LICENSE SOFTWARE ENGINEERS
DOMAIN ENGINEERING IN THE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT
TOOL SUITE MOVES MAINFRAME CODE TO DESKTOP

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TEXAS MAY BE FIRST STATE TO LICENSE SOFTWARE ENGINEERS

Topic:   Software Engineering

According to an article in the May issue of Software Engineering Notes, 
the Texas Board of Professional Engineers recently voted to recognize 
software engineering as a separate engineering discipline that has a 
sufficient knowledge base to allow licensing for professional engineers 
(PEs) in this area.  Pending a period of public comment and a final vote, 
this change could go into effect in June 1998.  Several of the key issues 
involved in the licensing of software engineers pertain to the 
formalization of a body of knowledge, the development of curriculum 
models, the accreditation of software engineering degree programs, a 
standard of experience, and licensing examinations.  The Texas Board 
would prefer that software engineers be educated through an Accreditation 
Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET)-accredited engineering 
program, but there are no such programs available in software engineering 
at this time.  The IEEE has developed software engineering accreditation 
criteria, which it has forwarded to ABET for review.  These criteria will 
be voted on in July.  There are currently no special exams for software 
engineers, but the Texas Board is planning on developing their own 
Principles and Practice of Engineering (P&P) exam until a National 
Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES) exam is 
available.  It is the author's belief that if Texas gives final approval 
to the licensing of software engineers, other states that also regulate 
engineering will soon follow suit.

Source:  Donald J. Bagert, "Texas Poised to License Professional 
Engineers in Software Engineering", Software Engineering Notes, May 1998, 
v23, n3, p8  http://www.acm.org

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DOMAIN ENGINEERING IN THE SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT

Topic:   Software Engineering/Reuse

The April 1998 edition of ARC (Army Reuse Center) News, published by the 
U.S. Army Information Systems Software Center, includes the first article 
in a three-part series on Domain Engineering (DE).  According to the 
author of this article, domain engineering is a discipline that supports 
the identification and implementation of reuse opportunities across 
multiple systems, and its evolution reflects the changing system 
development environment.  Domain Engineering provides a systematic 
approach, viewing individual systems as members of a domain, a group of 
related systems that share functionality and data requirements.  It 
consists of three processes.  Domain Analysis gathers and analyzes 
information about the systems in the domain, focuses on what the systems 
in the domain must do, and organizes and represents that information in a 
domain model that delineates the commonality and variability within the 
domain.  Domain Design focuses on how that functionality must operate, 
and this information is added to the domain model to create a 
domain-specific architecture and detailed design specifications.  In the 
Domain Implementation process, the information that was developed during 
the analysis and design phases is used to create new, reusable software 
products that can also be reintegrated into the domain's systems.  The 
rest of the series, which will appear in future editions of ARC News, 
will explore these processes in more detail.

Source:  Deborah Laforme, "Domain Engineering:  A Viable Approach for 
Defining and Constructing System Solutions", ARC News, v6, n5, p2  
http://arc_www.belvoir.army.mil

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TOOL SUITE MOVES MAINFRAME CODE TO DESKTOP

Topic:  Y2k

Micro Focus Group PTL has introduced a suite of products designed to make 
it easier to make Year 2000 fixes, and maintain old mainframe 
applications, by moving them to a desktop computer.  The Mainframe 
Maintenance Solution allows programmers to download mainframe-based 
software code and data to a PC or workstation and provides a graphical 
user interface, project management functions, and other automated 
programming tools.  Users can download portions of an application, make 
changes, and recompile the code quickly.  The tool suite supports 
editing, debugging, and compiling of code written in COBOL, System/370 
Assembler, Customer Information Control System, DB2, Job Control 
Language, Clist, and Information Management System.  The suite will be 
available in June.  Further information about The Mainframe Maintenance 
Solution can be found at Micro Focus's Web site, located at 
http://www.microfocus.com.

Source:  John Stein Monroe, Colleen O'Hara, and Elana Varon, "Tool suite 
moves mainframe code to the desktop", Federal Computer Week, May 11, 
1998, v12, n14, p 40  http://www.fcw.com

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