Software Engineering Institute

The SEI Software Architecture Workshop for Educators was a three-day forum for sharing SEI software architecture technology with educators and for jointly determining ways to incorporate these concepts and methods into academic courses. The workshop was held in Pittsburgh on August 16–18, 2004.

Software architecture determines how engineers communicate design decisions, how managers structure work breakdowns, and how both create software product lines. The Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has developed a collection of architectural methods and practices for designing software-intensive systems that meet their intended business and quality goals. These methods and their underlying focus on quality attributes can strengthen undergraduate and graduate courses on software architecture and design.

The workshop began with a two-day course, Software Architecture: Principles and Practices, which is the root course in the SEI Software Architecture curriculum. This course introduces the basic concepts of software architecture including the relationship between system qualities and software architecture, architecture definition, architecture evaluation, architecture documentation, and architecture as a reusable asset. This course emphasizes the importance of the business or mission context in which systems are designed and built. Throughout this course, software architecture is presented in a real-world setting, reflecting both the constraints and the opportunities that organizations encounter in practice. Contents of the course are based on Software Architecture in Practice, 2nd Edition, which will be given to workshop attendees.

The third day consisted of a brainstorming session, led by SEI architecture team members, on the inclusion of SEI software architecture concepts and methods in academic courses.

There was no charge for the workshop. However, attendees were responsible for their own travel and lodging expenses.

• Marty Barrett, East Tennessee State University
• Len Bass, SEI
• Mike Battig, Saint Michael’s College
• Steve Chenoweth, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.
• Janet Hartman, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
• Larry Jones, SEI
• Mike Lutz, Rochester Institute of Technology
• Manton Matthews, University of South Carolina
• Linda Northrop, Software Engineering Institute
• Arturo Sanchez, University of North Florida
• Celia Schahczenski, Montana Tech of The University of Montana
• Jim Tomayko, Carnegie Mellon University
• Robert A. Willis, Hampton University
• Rob Wojcik, SEI

• Fitting essential concepts into a "small package": one week in a single software engineering course
• Threading concepts throughout the curriculum
• A single course in software architecture and design (Rose Hulman)
• How do you teach synthesis?
• Forums for spreading the word: OOPSLA (Educator's workshop, panels, workshops, Design Fest, birds-of-a-feather session),  SIGCSE,  CSEET, Frontiers in Education, ITiCSE (Innovations and Technology in CS Education) sponsored by SIGCSE, Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges
• Funding sources: NSF, Department of Education, Andrew Mellon Foundation, U.S. Labor Department, ACM SIGCSE

August 16–17, 2004 8:30AM – 5:00PM
Software Architecture: Principles and Practices Course

August 18, 2004 8:30AM – 3:30PM
Brainstorming session