An analysis of the gap between the knowledge and skills learned in academic software engineering course projects and those required in real: projects

This paper describes how the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge, (SWEBOK) can be used as a guide to assess and improve software engineering courses. A case study is presented in which the guide is applied to a typical undergraduate software engineering course. The lessons learned are presented which the authors believe are generalizable to comparable courses taught at many academic institutions. A novel approach involving largescale software project simulation is also presented a way to overcome some of the course deficiencies identified by the guide.