Saturday, February 8, 2014

Refactoring How Software Engineering Is Taught with Professor Armando Fox

There's a world of difference between how software was designed, coded, and deployed a decade ago compared to the current approach.  With fuller adoption of agile practices, the evolution of cloud computing, and the shift toward software-as-a-service, software engineering as a practice has been completely refactored. Now, what about the education of software engineers?  Has the education been refactored to match?

Our very eloquent guest, Professor Armando Fox, along with the eminent Professor David Patterson, both of UC Berkeley, have refactored the undergraduate software engineering course, itself.  They have updated not just the content, but also the approach, including how the course is delivered, by co-authoring a free MOOC (massively open online course) entitled "Engineering Software as a Service: An Agile Approach Using Cloud Computing" as well as an accompanying book with the same title.

Listen to this episode to learn more about the course, agile practices, software-as-a-service (SaaS), service oriented architecture (SOA), why large projects fail (e.g. the  Affordability Care Act website), and how to approach large projects more safely.

Note that the Kindle edition of the book now comes with a promotional code for a $10 Amazon's Web Services Credit, enough to help launch your SaaS service built during the course.

Listen now: (download)

References:

The course: Engineering Software as a Service: An Agile Approach Using Cloud Computing

An article that covers the Standish Group statistics on failed IT projects:
Healthcare.gov website 'Didn't Have a Chance in Hell'

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