Bachelor of Software Engineering: Emerging sustainable partnership with industry in ODL L.S.K. UDUGAMA, JANAKA LIYANAGAMA Faculty of Engineering Technology The Open University of Sri Lanka POBox 21, Nawala, Nugegoda-10250, Sri Lanka Tel: +94 11 2768610 Fax: +94 11 2806577 Email: udugama@ou.ac.lk, dvc@ou.ac.lk Abstract The ever-increasing demand for IT professionals needs to be addressed. To this end numerous actions have been taken by the Sri Lankan government. Industry, being a major beneficiary, is encouraging the national universities to increase the numbers of IT graduates. Analysis of the findings shows that software engineering is the specialization for the job categories in demand. The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) undertook the challenge to offer a new degree programme- Bachelor of Software Engineering to meet the demand of the IT industry. Process of designing the programme included gathering actual requirements of the stakeholders, identifying major capabilities that the IT industry was expecting from graduates and major problems faced by the fresh graduates, and feasibility and sustainability of offering the degree. The key factors related to employability were identified and developed the curriculum incorporating them. To ensure the success of the task, OUSL signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM), the representative body of all software developing companies in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, the Industry was involved in designing, developing and delivering the programme as well as providing industrial placements for students. A survey was conducted among the trainees and identified the level of satisfactory implementation of agreed aspects of administration by the member companies according to the MoU. Finally why university industry partnership is important and the success of the collaboration in this programme is highlighted. Introduction Today there is a huge demand for IT specialists in Sri Lanka and in the rest of the world. However, the number of IT specialists produced by National Universities and other Higher Education Institutes of the country is far below the numbers required for the industry. To address this issue, Sri Lankan government has taken numerous actions. At the same time IT industry is also encouraging the national universities to increase the numbers of IT graduates. According to the survey report [1] published by the Sri Lanka ICT Association in 2007, the demand for IT graduates is rising gradually. It is reported that around 20% growth of IT workforce can be seen in each year. However, according to the report the supply of the total number of IT graduates is less than 50% of the actual demand. Though the report suggested short term solutions it is necessary to find solid solutions which can deal with the problem in the medium and long term as well. The swift approach would be to identify the most
demanding sector of the IT professionals and provide suitable diploma/ degree programmes as appropriate. In the same survey report [1] the demanding areas of the IT were identified. It is depicted in the Fig. 1. Accordingly, the job categories/ areas in high demand are Programming/ Software Engineering (28%), Testing & Quality Assurance (21%) and Technical Support (13%). Similarly, at the entry level, jobs in the area of Programming/ Software Engineering will draw the highest salary compared to other categories, indicating a higher demand. In order to decide on suitable specialisations for an IT degree the Overview Report [2] published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Association for Information Systems (AIS) and IEEE Computer Society has been used. Closer analysis of the findings of [1] and fields of IT identified in [2] shows that software engineering (SE) is the specialization which covers over the 50% of the job categories in demand (Programming/ Software Engineering, Testing & Quality Assurance, Database Administration and Development, and Project and Programme Management). At the time no Sri Lankan national university had degree programmes specifically targeting for this specialisation. Therefore, delivering a programme targeting the SE specialization was guaranteed to cater to the industry requirement in both short and long term. Fig. 1. Demand for IT professionals [1]
Evolution of the degree programme The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) undertook the challenge of offering a new degree programme in SE to meet the demands of the IT industry. The process of the designing of the degree programme officially commenced in 2007. In the process the following aspects were given due consideration: actual requirements of the stakeholders, major capabilities that the IT industry was expecting from graduates, major problems faced by the fresh graduates in general, feasibility and sustainability of offering such a degree at the OUSL. At the inception several meetings and workshops had been conducted with representatives from leading software companies and from IT divisions of some reputed companies. Additionally some graduates who completed the Computer Engineering degree and working in the IT industry had also been interviewed. Following these meetings and interviews, requirements and expectations of the IT industry in terms of level of knowledge and skills of graduates were identified. Based on these preliminary information gathering sessions, communication skills, English language skills and team work skills were identified as key requirements at the time of recruitment in the IT industry. Similar results are also presented in [1, 3]. The feedbacks obtained from the graduates on the other hand indicated that the training received during the undergraduate studies plays a major role for employability. The main strengths the OUSL had in offering a degree programme in Software Engineering were the human and physical resources already available with the University. Further, industry came forward to support with expertise in the various areas of the SE field. To ensure the success of the task and to formalise the support promised by the industry, OUSL signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies (SLASSCOM), the representative body of all software developing companies in Sri Lanka. As per the MoU, the Industry has agreed to collaborate with the OUSL in designing, developing and delivering the programme as well as providing industrial placements (which is a compulsory part of the curriculum) for students. The curriculum design is mainly based on the curriculum guidelines provided in [4]. However some minor variations were incorporated in order to fulfil requirements requested by the industry. Experts from the IT industry and other universities participated in curriculum. When drafting the syllabi of the specialized courses in SE and in their, experts in the industry were invited to course teams. Moreover, some IT companies took the responsibility of developing new courses under the supervision of the OUSL staff (Table 1). Thus industry has extensively participated in of about 25% of the total number of courses.
Table 1. Involvement of the industry in syllabus and course Company Name Course Contribution Completed in Amba Research Software project Drafting syllabus 2008 management Course material 2010 IFS Advanced Drafting syllabus 2008 database systems Course material Yet to be completed Navantis Object oriented Drafting syllabus 2008 design and programming Course material 2009 Virtusa Software quality Drafting syllabus 2008 assurance and Course material testing 2009 Software Drafting syllabus 2009 architecture and Course material design 2010 In the curriculum, a number of special courses has been included in addition to the SE courses in order to improve communication skills, team work skills and employability. Industrial training is a vital component of the curriculum which was expected to enhance the employability of the fresh graduates by way of giving industrial exposure before graduation. It is expected that students go into industry in the second year while engaged in their studies and SLASSCOM will facilitate finding placements for students in their member companies. With the intention of maintaining sustainability of the programme, special clauses related to the industrial placement have been incorporated in the MoU. The related aspects of administration for training that should be provided by the member companies of the SLASSCOM are given in the Table 2. Table 2. Aspects of administration provided by the companies related to training Index A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 Aspects of administration Provide necessary facilities for mentoring during the placement Appoint a coordinator to co-ordinate the company-based elements of the programme and check that the training plan is being followed Provide the Trainee with opportunities to observe good practice at work in the company Inspect the Trainee s individual progress on a regular basis Ensure that the Trainee during the placement will get at least one day off, out of working days of each week Grant appropriate leave during the examination periods as specified by the university
Programme delivery Newly designed and developed programme for SE Bachelor of Software Engineering (BSE) was launched in June 2009. The courses have been conducted mainly by the OUSL staff. However, in addition to course, experts from the industry also came forward to take part in delivery of courses. The delivery of courses which are more industry oriented and selected specialized SE courses were entrusted to them expecting that students receive knowledge directly from relevant experts in the industry. In this manner the industry has played a major role in programme delivery. The experts who have participated in course delivery and the companies to which they are attached are given in the Table 3. Information given in the table is for the first 2 academic years 2009/2010 and 2010/2011. Table 3. Industry participation in delivery of courses in BSE Course Experts attached Company Academic year Software project management Amba Research 2010/2011 Object oriented design and programming Software quality assurance and testing Navantis John Keels Computer Services 2009/2010 2010/2011 Virtusa 2009/2010 2010/2011 Software architecture and design Virtusa 2010/2011 All of the courses are offered online. However, as the traditional method of delivery in distance learning, printed course materials are also given to students in most of the courses. The laboratory works which are essential components of some of the courses are held in the university laboratories only. The most important part of this degree programme is the industrial training component. The understanding with the SLAACOM is to place the students in industry soon after the completion of their first year of studies. It was envisaged that this approach will help them in their studies as industry oriented courses will be offered from the second year onwards. However, out of 24 students who were eligible to receive industrial training, the companies have selected only 13 students in 2010. In 2011, only 6 students have been selected by July out of 28 eligible students. The distribution of the training placements is given in the Table 4.
Table 4. Distribution of the training placements in companies Company No. of training placements provided 2010 2011 (by July) Advanced Data 1 0 Technologies hsenid 1 0 Navantis 1 0 NIE 0 1 Pricewarterhousecoopers 2 0 SSIPL 0 1 Virtusa 6 3 Zone24x7 2 1 According to the MoU signed between the OUSL and SLASSCOM, the member companies are expected to provide training placements to all eligible students. However, statistics given in Table 4 does not yet show full commitment on the part of the member companies of SLASSCOM in providing training placements. To assess the effectiveness of industrial placement and the students feedback on industrial training, a survey was conducted. The survey focused on the aspects listed in Table 2, except A4, data relating to which the trainees may not be able to observe as companies may monitor individual progress without indication to the person concerned. Total sample population for the survey was 19 students who were already undergoing training. 18 students out of 19 returned the survey form. According to the responses received, all companies had provided the trainees with the aspects listed in Table 2 as agreed by the MoU up to a satisfactory level (Fig. 2). Fig. 2. Satisfaction of key aspects of administration (Table 2)
In the same survey additional feedbacks with regard to the quality and relevance of the BSE programme were also obtained. Based on students feedback it was noted that the knowledge gained during the first year of studies were useful for the training. All those who responded have indicated that there is scope for them to join the respective companies as permanent employees which clearly indicates that the training will definitely improve the employability. Moreover they were willing to join the company if they are recruited soon after the training. Conclusion Industry involvement in all segments curriculum design, course and delivering has been commendable to date. Professionals in the industry actively participated in design and of courses and the overall output is satisfactory. During the delivery of the courses experts have voluntarily undertaken specialized courses. As per the feedback of the trainees, member companies of the SLASSCOM maintained the aspects of administration of training component mentioned in the MoU to an acceptable level. However, in the selection process for training placements, students of BSE programme, who just completed their first year of studies, have to compete with students from other universities following IT related degrees, who are in the final year or who have just graduated. Therefore, changes of attitudes towards the BSE students are necessary across all the member companies. During these years, it is evident that industry is adapting to this challenge of accommodating trainees with one year of studies. Further it is necessary to get feedback from the industry as well to check their satisfaction and shortcomings. On the whole the programme is already proving to be a success with industry. The following general points can be highlighted in conclusion: The private sector has a major obligation towards human resource of the country, especially in developing countries like Sri Lanka. The reason for this is that Industry of the country benefits most from the graduates/specialists produced by the national universities and other higher education institutes. The more they go for collaborations with universities and higher educational institutes, the more opportunity they have to recruit specialists suitable for direct employment in the workplace with required knowledge and skills including softskills. All stakeholders have to appreciate that what you get out of a beneficial partnership/ collaboration will be determined by what each stakeholder is able and willing to contribute towards the success of the collaboration. Failure by any party to fulfil their obligations will be detrimental and adversely affect successful achievement of the partnership goals. Universities and other higher education institutes also must deviate from traditional practice of depending on state sponsorships and funding and try to strengthen collaborations with the industry to produce employable graduates who will fit into the world of work. The Software Engineering programme offered by the Open University of Sri Lanka in collaboration with the industry is a very good example for success stories of such collaborations. Lessons learnt from this collaboration can easily be extended to other fields as well.
References [1] Rising Demand: The increasing demand for IT workers spells a challenging opportunity for the IT industry, April 2007, Sri Lanka ICT Association. [2] Computing Curricula 2005 The Overview Report, September 2005, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Association for Information Systems (AIS) and IEEE Computer Society. [3] Will Archer and Jess Davison, Graduate Employability: What do employers think and want?, The Council for Industry and Higher Education, 2008. [4] Software Engineering 2004, Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Software Engineering, August 2004, The Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula, IEEE Computer Society and ACM.