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Software Engineering: The Career or Shortage of the Future?

By Celeste Mannel

Published: October 04, 2023

The defining feature of this age in history is the rapid innovation and technological advancements made in the past century. With the invention of the computer, the human experience was revolutionized, and from the emergence of the computer came the necessity for computer programmers and then computer scientists. These engineers have always been in high demand, as computing was popularly thought as the career of the future, but unfortunately, engineers equipped with the industry’s demanded skills have been in short supply. As the 2018 Gartner Incorporated Emerging Risks Survey reports in 4Q18, senior executives ranked “talent shortage” as their primary concern (Lavelle); and this demand is twofold as well, as tech companies demand these skilled engineers to keep up with exponential technological development, and non-tech companies demand these engineers to ensure they digitize as the rest of the world seems to be doing. Chief Executive Officer of tech recruiting company Hired, Mehul Patel even states that “every company is a tech company now” (qtd. by Liu). While this demand would seem to be a great situation for engineers, the result is the opposite as these engineers do not have the skills necessary to meet the demand. In fact, as the demand increases exponentially, and the skill gap remains, there is a growing rift between the increasing quantity of engineers demanded and the slowly growing number of qualified engineers available. My inquiry investigates the reasons for the growing shortage of engineers and the existing proposed solutions. I dive into the benefits and issues with each solution. This investigation into the shortage of engineers can address issues within the technology industry hiring process and issues within the production of engineers, which will give light to solutions that will increase productivity and efficiency as well as promote intellectual and cultural diversity in the field.

The Increasing Demand for Skilled Engineers

Finding qualified engineers is proving itself increasingly difficult as the cutting edge is developing at groundbreaking rates. The 2020 Google Cloud Whitepaper reports that in 2019, 70% of leaders in technology found hiring as a “top challenge” (“Google Cloud Certification…”). Furthermore, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 411,400 new job openings for 2021-2031 employment growth, meaning employers will be facing a more competitive job market as more advanced positions open requiring skilled candidates (“Employment Projections”). However, not only is finding and hiring these qualified candidates difficult, but companies are also struggling to keep their current employees up to date with the skills the developing market demands. For example, the 2021 Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Report, which partnered with major technology companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and IBM, highlights that 76% of tech leaders found large skills gaps among their existing employees (Skillsoft). In short, while it is great for the tech industry to be advancing at such a rate, this development is creating a greater issue if these companies cannot find the required skill to keep up.

As a result of this high demand, a new trend is emerging where employers have resorted to posting about job openings on social media such as Twitter, as Netflix Senior Software Engineer Felipe Barbosa tweeted this September, “My team is hiring! And this position is aimed at less experienced engineers with strong fundamentals and a great attitude!” (Ribeiro Barbosa). Similarly, also this past September, MIT Research Scientist and popular podcast host Lex Fridman posted an announcement on his personal Twitter account, advertising Machine Learning Engineer and Programmer positions for which he is hiring (Fridman). Given that Netflix is ranked 115 th on the Fortune 500, and that Fridman’s podcast currently holds the top spot on Apple Podcasts’ Technology Top Charts, surely such corporations should have no shortage of interested candidates lining up for the opportunity of working with them (Staff; “Lex Fridman Podcast.”). However, as evidenced by both Barbosa and Fridman’s advertising, finding the right engineers is still so difficult, that they will resort to a social media post to find these hires.

The Low Supply of Qualified Engineers

While the demand for engineers increases, the growing shortage can be attributed to a lack of engineers who are qualified and experienced enough to fill the rapidly developing positions. A proposed solution to this is to shift focus from applicants’ credentials and resume fillers to their demonstrated thinking, and this shift can look like increasing the number of technologists and certified applicants hired. The Conference Board non-profit think tank reports finding that employers are “lowering educational requirements and offering more initial job training” in response to the shortage, and in 2013, former UK Prime Minister, and then-London Mayor, Boris Johnson, proposed a “London Visa” that would enable international technologists to work in London and fill the skill gap (“How Employers Combat Labor Shortages”; Flinders). Historically, both technologists and certified applicants are rarely considered for engineering positions, however, many have found that this flaw in the engineering workforce is leaving companies with further unfilled jobs and a loss of perfectly capable and trainable employees.

Increasing Technologists and Certified Applicants Hired

The qualification of “technologist” is often compared negatively to the qualification of “engineer,” with an observable difference in the number of years of education. An engineer is, on an international average, required to take a greater number of years in a training program than a technologist is required to take (Carroll). Similarly, the courses the engineer can expect to take, such as advanced calculus, differential equations, engineering concept creation, and critical thinking, are more advanced than the classes a technologist will take, such as algebra, prealgebra, and engineering principles (“Engineering Technologist vs. Engineer”). However, the most important difference between the two qualifications is the specialization of the graduates. An engineer focuses heavily on the conception of fundamental principles and transforming them into a design, while the technologist understands that design and uses technical skills to implement it (“Engineering Technologist vs. Engineer”). A third category of “technician” exists as a possible qualification as well, however, this position is more technical and less conceptual than the technologist. In other words, the progression from engineer, to technologist, to technician is a spectrum of specialization ranging from the most theoretical to the most hands on. And while each of these positions hold valuable places in the tech workforce, it is the technologist who provides the perfect balance between the conceptual and technical side of the engineering process.

Due to these multidisciplinary skills, a technologist can be a great hire for companies. In the podcast Y Combinator episode “Hiring Engineers with Ammon Bartram,” Bartram, cofounder of the hiring program Triplebyte, explains that large technology companies are able to search for employees who are flexible enough to be trained in the specialization of the desired role (Cannon). This idea follows the logic that, while the engineer may have much conceptual knowledge, they might lack the technical knowledge the company needs, because technical demands are advancing at a rate so that an engineer’s technical experience becomes outdated. Therefore, technologists provide the perfect balance for companies to mold into whatever employee they desire. However, technologists’ qualifications are undervalued because of the systemic stigma that the engineer is superior (Carroll). In his paper, Carroll suggests a reorientation of how technology companies perceive technologists and their qualifications, since a flexible employee with problem solving and critical thinking skills is very valuable to a company.

Another proposed solution is that companies begin to recognize and accept applicants with specialized certifications or professional registrations. Several large companies have begun offering free and quick certifications in response to the increasing shortage of engineers, such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, and IBM among others, and possible fields include Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, and other fields of the same nature (Leighton; “Microsoft Certifications”). In the previously mentioned interview, Bartram also comments that recently trained engineers, like certified engineers, are likely to be a great match with start-up companies, as these companies’ priorities are to create and implement their project efficiently and rapidly (Cannon). Hiring these applicants is beneficial because since certifications “offer more specific training in a shorter time frame,” there is an elastic supply of certifications and registrations, meaning they can be produced quickly, and graduates are very technical and specialized (Amsler).

The major caveat of increasing hiring of technologists and certified applicants is the risk of overspecialization, which worsens the gap when these employees no longer meet the skill demands. To counter this effect, companies must ensure that training and specialization continue as ongoing process, because if the industry is going to continue developing at this rate, employers must guarantee that their employees are “staying current with trends and technology” (Global Knowledge).

Lack of Representation in Engineering

Another contributing factor to the lack of available engineers is the underrepresentation of minorities in the tech industry. While women of color compose about 40% of the female population in the United States, only 12% of women in the IT sector are of color (“Women and Girls of Color in Computing”). Additionally, a National Science Foundation report found that of all science and engineering workers in 2015, only 28.35% were women, 33% were of color, and 10.4% women of color (National Science Foundation). The issue with this is quite straight forward: there is a portion of the population whose engineering careers and talents are not being maximized; in other words, there is a large number of potential engineers that are not being trained nor hired. Simply looking to these currently marginalized groups when hiring will directly increase the number of engineers in the field because, as NIH Director Francis Collins states, STEM is currently “missing critical contributors to our talent pool” (Collins).

Getting past the historic bias against hiring women and people of color in industries like engineering, there are more concrete reasons as to why minority numbers are so low in this workforce, such as a lack of access to opportunities and a lack of interest and motivation in STEM. In the 2021 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology , a study on the role of cultural wealth in hiring explains how, prior to the application process, many minority groups do not have access to the same kind of preparations that others receive. For example, the study recalls that many “computer science professors at Historically Black Institutions [(HBIs)] may lack experience with technical interviews” (Lunn and Ross). This creates a rift in how students from HBIs can compete with other applicants, since minorities are unaware and unprepared for these types of interviews, although they are one of the most crucial elements of modern tech hiring (Bui).

Another display of the lack of adequate preparation for minorities can be seen in the disparity of students taking computer science courses in high school and university; only 23% of all students taking AP Computer Science in 2017 were female (20% were of color), and less than 10% of all computing bachelor’s degrees are held by women of color (“Women and Girls of Color in Computing”). These statistics are important because if applicants wish to meet the skill demanded by hiring companies, preparations must take place starting very young, and a lack of access to these resources, according to the Lunn and Ross’ study in hiring, “unequal divides between those with a greater availability to prepare” (Lunn and Ross).

In addition to a lack of access to preparatory opportunities, minorities are also less likely to fill these engineering roles because of a wrongfully influenced lack of interest and motivation to pursue engineering. The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) report on Engineering Messaging to Tween Girls shows that women are “inclined to hold humanistic values,” indicating that if they are not able to see the effects of engineering on society, they are less likely to pursue these roles (Society of Women Engineers). This idea is corroborated by a study seeking to investigate the idea that men prefer working with things and women with people; the study found that the idea in question does hold true, signifying that these preferences play a large influence in “gendered occupational choices and gender disparity in the STEM fields” (Su). Another reason women and minorities are less likely to show engineering interest is because the field is heavily saturated by men, specifically white men, causing minorities to perceive engineering as a “[non-inclusive] profession” (Society of Women Engineers). If the previous reports are accurate, and minorities are perceiving engineering to be a non-inclusive profession that also holds little societal impact, it makes sense that many of these potential engineers are straying away from the industry.

The loss of prospective engineers due to lack of representation is hurting the industry since the diversity and inclusion benefits the industry for a couple of reasons. Logically, increasing hiring from these applicant pools will directly increase the number of possible candidates, which in turn will increase the number of hires; however, more important is the effect this inclusion can have in the engineering workplace. Engineering Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame Michael Kitz, who has decades of industry experience in companies such as Motorola, Honeywell, and Proctor & Gamble explains that increasing engineering workplace diversity “begins to open up better solutions and better business results” (Kitz). By bringing in diverse hires, technology companies are expanding their horizons to include new perspectives and ideas. This idea is also found in a study published by the Harvard Business Review which reports that “going from having no women in corporate leadership… to a 30 percent female share is associated with a… 15 percent increase in profitability for a typical firm”, indicating that cultural and intellectual diversity is the most beneficial aspect of representation in the engineering field (Noland).

Increasing Representation

There are several approaches in which we can begin to tackle the lack of minority representation in engineering, from early education all the way to the companies who are hiring. In early education, the SWE report found that exposing young girls to engineering in a positive light increases their interest as these efforts “combat [the] negative stereotypes” that deter young girls in the first place; furthermore, this messaging should be diverse and inclusive in its representation of minority racial and ethnic groups to further combat the idea that this field is unwelcoming to these groups (Society of Women Engineers). Such exposure can begin with educators seeking grants so they can fund more classroom technology and integrate more STEM into the curriculum (“Stem Education Grants.”). In addition, incorporating inclusive STEM media and conversations that encourage minorities to pursue STEM are great ways to mitigate the commonly held negative and discouraging perceptions (Society of Women Engineers). Early educators can also join organizations and programs such as Girls who Code , an organization seeking to close the tech gender gap by providing coding clubs for girls across the nation, and contests like Digital Divas , which encourages diversity in young engineers by providing a statewide coding competition for Texas high school girls (“About Us”; Digital Divas 2023).

On the university level, there are numerous scholarship programs available to minorities interested in pursuing a degree in STEM as listed on the North Carolina State University “Funding Opportunities for International, Underrepresented Minority and Disabled Students in STEM” webpage (“Funding Opportunities…”). Lunn and Ross also suggest that educators in universities ensure their students are provided with “increased opportunities for hands on examples and problem solving” to close the preparation gap between minorities and those who are more privileged (Lunn and Ross).

Finally at the corporate level, Luna and Ross suggest companies increase offers of mentorships and internship opportunities to minorities to close their experience gap compared to other applicants. Likewise, Notre Dame Associate Professor Kitz also recalls how companies have made efforts to recruit from minority serving institutions and should increase these efforts to improve their minority representation (Kitz).

While there is a concerning increase in shortage of skilled engineers available to match the growing demand and available jobs, there are several ways to tackle the issue from the supply to the demand end. Issues in finding qualified applicants can be solved by hiring more technologists, who provide flexibility in their ability to be trained and applied as needed, and certified applicants who are very skilled technically and easy to produce. Furthermore, the short supply of skilled engineers caused by the lack of representation in the field can be solved by improving messaging to young girls and POC, increasing awareness of scholarship organizations and inclusive practices in universities, and encouraging companies to play active roles in hiring minority applicants.

Works Cited

“About Us.” Girls Who Code, 21 Apr. 2022, https://girlswhocode.com/about-us.

Amsler, Sarah. “IT Certification Vs. Degree: Which Is Better for Your Career?” WhatIs.com, TechTarget, 18 Feb. 2021, https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/feature/IT-certification-vs- degree-Which-is-better-for-your-career.

Bui, Quoctrung, and Claire Cain Miller. “Why Tech Degrees Are Not Putting More Blacks and Hispanics into Tech Jobs.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Feb. 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/upshot/dont-blame-recruiting-pipeline-for-lack-of- diversity-in-tech.html.

Cannon, Craig, host. “#1 – Hiring Engineers with Ammon Bartram.” Y Combinator, Y Combinator, 3 October 2022, https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/hiring-engineers-with- ammon-bartram.

Carroll, Johnson. “Replacing the Hierarchy of Engineering Qualifications and Roles.” 2017 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON), 2017, https://doi.org/10.1109/educon.2017.7942901.

Collins, Francis, and Lawrence Tabak. “Weaving a Richer Tapestry in Biomedical Science.” Science, Science, 19 Aug. 2011, https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1211704.

Digital Divas 2023, https://digital-divas.weebly.com/.

“Employment Projections.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://data.bls.gov/projections/occupationProj.

“Engineering Technologist vs. Engineer: What’s the Difference?” Indeed, https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/technologist-to-engineer.

Flinders, Karl. “Computer Science Graduates Struggle to Find Work Despite IT Skills Shortage: TechTarget.” ComputerWeekly.com, TechTarget, 17 Oct. 2013, https://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240207378/Computer-science-graduates- struggle-to-find-work-despite-IT-skills-shortage.

“Funding Opportunities for International, Underrepresented Minority and Disabled Students in STEM.” Faculty and Staff Resources, NC State University, https://sciences.ncsu.edu/intranet/funding-opportunities-for-underrepresented-minorities- in-stem/.

Fridman, Lex [@lexfridman]. “I’m hiring translators, overdubbers, video editors, ML engineers, webdevs, assistants, etc.” Twitter, 29 Sep. 2022, https://twitter.com/lexfridman/status/1575580901219524608.

Global Knowledge. “10 Benefits of IT Certification for You (And Your Employer).” Global Knowledge, 29 Oct. 2021, https://www.globalknowledge.com/us-en/resources/resource- library/articles/10-benefits-of-it-certification-for-you-and-your-employer/#gref.

“Google Cloud Certification Impact Report.” Google Services, Google Cloud, https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/2020_googlecloud_certification_impact_ report.pdf.

“How Employers Combat Labor Shortages.” The Conference Board, 2 Dec. 2021, https://www.conference-board.org/topics/labor-shortages.

Kitz, Michael. Interview. Conducted by Celeste Mannel, 11 Oct. 2022.

Lavelle, Justin. “Talent Shortage Now the Top Risk Facing Organizations.” Gartner, 17 Jan. 2019, https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-01-17-gartner-survey- shows-global-talent-shortage-is-now-the-top-emerging-risk-facing-organizations.

Leighton, Mara. “28 Free or Affordable Online Courses Led by the Top US Companies, Including Google, Amazon, IBM, and More.” Reviews, Business Insider, 12 May 2021, https://www.businessinsider.com/guides/learning/online-classes-programs-google-ibm- facebook-amazon-goldman-sachs.

“Lex Fridman Podcast.” Chartable, 11 Dec. 2022, https://chartable.com/podcasts/artificial- intelligence-1434243584.

Liu, Jennifer. “The US Has Nearly 1 Million Open It Jobs-Here's How Much It Can Pay off to Switch Industries into Tech.” CNBC Brand Studio, CNBC, 6 Nov. 2019, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/how-switching-careers-to-tech-could-solve-the-us- talent-shortage.html.

Lunn, Stephanie, and Monique Ross. “Ready to Work: Evaluating the Role of Community Cultural Wealth during the Hiring Process in Computing.” 2021 Conference on Research in Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT), 2021, https://doi.org/10.1109/respect51740.2021.9620686.

“Microsoft Certifications.” Microsoft Learn , https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/certifications/.

National Science Foundation, National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics. 2017. Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering: 2017. Special Report NSF 17-310. Arlington, VA. Available at www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/.

Noland, Marcus, and Tyler Moran. “Study: Firms with More Women in the C-Suite Are More Profitable.” Peterson Institute for International Economics, Harvard Business Review, 20 Apr. 2021, https://www.piie.com/commentary/op-eds/study-firms-more-women-c-suite- are-more-profitable.

Ribeiro Barbosa, Felipe [@felipernb]. “My team is hiring! And this position is aimed at less experienced engineers with strong fundamentals and a great attitude!” Twitter, 26 Sept. 2022, https://twitter.com/felipernb/status/1574517256846917632.

Skillsoft, Global Knowledge 2021 IT Skills and Salary Report . https://www.globalknowledge.com/us-en/content/salary-report/it-skills-and-salary- report/

Society of Women Engineers, Engineering Messaging to Tween Girls . Feb. 2018, https://swe.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/SWE-Literature-Review-2018.pdf

Staff, Fortune. “Netflix: 2022 Fortune 500.” Fortune, Fortune, 1 Aug. 2022, https://fortune.com/company/netflix/fortune500/.

“Stem Education Grants.” Next Wave STEM, https://nextwavestem.com/stem-grants-for- teachers.

Su, Rong, et al. “Men and Things, Women and People: A Meta-Analysis of Sex Differences in Interests.” Psychological Bulletin, U.S. National Library of Medicine, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19883140/.

“Women and Girls of Color in Computing.” Arizona State University. https://www.wocin computing.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/WOCinComputingDataBrief.pdf

Celeste Mannel

Celeste Mannel is from Dallas, Texas studying Computer Science with a hopeful minor in Engineering Corporate Practice. Celeste plans to pursue a career in the tech industry where she can collaborate with teams and develop at the forefront of technology. Inspired by her Argentinian mother who works in the tech industry, and as a Latina woman in computer science herself, Celeste was led by her curiosity in women and minorities in STEM and how they can solve the engineering shortage facing the industry. This essay “Software Engineering: The Career or Shortage of the Future?” addresses the increasing shortage of engineers available to satisfy the growing industry demand, and it argues for solutions that will increase productivity and efficiency as well as promote intellectual and cultural diversity in the field. Celeste would like to thank Professor Whitney James for her feedback and encouragement, Professor Michael Kitz for participating in an interview and sharing his perspective from within the industry, and her mother Hilda Sanz Mannel for her inspiration and constant support.

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College Essay Tips for Software Engineering Programs

This article was written based on the information and opinions presented by Hale Jaeger in a CollegeVine livestream. You can watch the full livestream for more info.

What’s Covered:

“why this . . .” essays for software engineering, writing your essay.

For many college applications, you’ll write essays in addition to the Common App personal statement . These prompts will often ask you about what you’re planning on pursuing at the college. This article will give you practical advice for explaining your interest in software engineering.

Many supplemental essay prompts are quite common, such as “ Why this major? ” and “ Why this school? ” If you’re sure about pursuing software engineering and know which college you want to kick off your career at, you should already know the answers to these questions.

Certain schools have strong software engineering and computer science programs. If this is the case for your chosen college, it should be easy for you to say that you can identify with their program. You can add that you’re excited to use the specific resources there and how they will help you reach your goal of becoming a software engineer.

When talking about your major, bring up what attracts you to the field. Your eventual salary and career prospects are incentives, but you want to explain what specifically about the study of computer science and engineering makes you excited. Why do you like to learn about it? Maybe you’re fascinated by the inner workings of technology. Perhaps you’re interested in how specific tools on certain websites work. It’s also possible that you want to improve user experience and innovate existing software.

These reasons are a bit less shallow than money. They also get to the heart of why you want to pursue software engineering: you like to build things and solve problems.

From Abstract to Specific

In general, when writing your essays, you should work on funneling these types of ideas about your major from the abstract to the specific. You can open with a particular anecdote or story to catch the reader’s attention, of course, but try to start with high-level interests. Fundamental things like identifying the inner workings of a website can lead to more niche topics.

Personal Experiences

When writing your essays, make sure you touch on any personal experiences that can help show why this subject is your passion. It can all add to the personal narrative that you’ve been building in your entire application and help make the admissions officers understand you better.

If you had an experience with technology that fascinated you, drew you into the subject, and made you want to learn more, then include that. Be sure to add the important details so the reader can get a good sense of the scene. Another way to go is if you had the opposite experience: you encountered a frustrating piece of technology and were desperate to figure out how to get it working. You realized that you wanted to go into the field to improve software and make people’s lives easier. You can try writing about your interests that way.

Another way to write your essay is to back up an explanation of your passions with a personal story that will make your essay compelling. Try to draw on an anecdote, and if possible, explain what you’ve accomplished after your initial interest was sparked.

How did you get involved in coding? If you found technology that was glitching all the time or something that excited you, did this inspire you to figure out how it all worked? Write about how you’ve developed your skills in coding and science and how much you’ve learned about good systems and malfunctioning systems. Then, write about what you want to accomplish and innovate in the field.

Plans for the Future

When you’ve discussed the past and present, you can begin to probe the future. For the sake of narrative, try to include how you’ve grown and what your ultimate ambitions are. If you’re not sure exactly what branch of software engineering you want to go into, that’s fine. You can name a few options, such as game design or mobile design, or you can just talk about how you want to build things and make better technology to improve people’s lives.

When you’re talking about personal things, you should aim to be specific. Draw on stories when you can, and be honest about what interests you about this subject and what you want to do in the field. This is your chance to explore why you’re looking to go into software engineering, so you should come away from these essays feeling much more confident about your planned course of study.

COMPSAC21 Keynote: Envisioning the Future of Software Engineering

Although software has been compared to electricity in terms of dependence, it’s a more difficult commodity to understand. It’s extremely flexible, endlessly varied, never completely done, and it controls diverse and intertwined functions in ways that few fully understand. And, as computing and software technologies advance, dependence on the critical nature of software also increases for individuals, organizations, markets, and governments.

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While much of the focus in the software engineering and research communities has continued to revolve around specific topics or innovations, there’s also value in looking further ahead. Recently, we conducted a larger initiative to look at the wider discipline of software engineering and envision the future we can create – and what we need to do to prepare for that future. While we know software can deliver more and more capabilities, we need to step back and ask: can it do so safely? Are the software-reliant systems we’re creating evolvable? Reliable? Timely? Secure? Meanwhile, new system types and software innovations, such as those driven by artificial intelligence, are adding new dimensions of both opportunity and risk as we begin to entrust software with life and death decisions.

As the United States’ Federally Funded Research and Development Center focused on improving the practice of software engineering, the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute is working to develop a broad, impact-oriented national agenda for software engineering research and development. Developing this agenda has been a community effort with participation from a broad coalition of thought leaders in industry, academia, and government.

In this talk, Forrest Shull, 2021 IEEE Computer Society President, shared some of the current results of Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute in terms of future challenges in engineering software-reliant systems, and key components of a research roadmap that will drive advances in foundational software engineering principles across system types such as intelligent, autonomous, safety-critical, and data-intensive systems. With their collaborators, they have also been working to articulate grand challenge problems that can be used to focus research efforts and provide confidence that progress is being made to meet important future needs. The institute aims for this work to aid the development of an ecosystem for software engineering that engages academic, government, and commercial communities to work together on solving future problems and developing critical abilities.

About COMPSAC

IEEE Computer Society’s signature Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC) was held July 12, 2021. COMPSAC is a week-long yearly conference that brings together computer science and information technology professionals and researchers from across the world to network and share their most recent discoveries. The meeting rotates annually from Asia, North American, and Europe. Unfortunately, this was the second year this 45-year-old conference was conducted virtually once again. 2021 was a special year for COMPSAC as it was held during the Computer Society’s 75th anniversary year.

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Cite this post.

AMS Citation

Carleton, A., 2021: Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A Research and Development Roadmap. Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Insights (blog), Accessed March 30, 2024, https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/architecting-the-future-of-software-engineering-a-research-and-development-roadmap/.

APA Citation

Carleton, A. (2021, July 12). Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A Research and Development Roadmap. Retrieved March 30, 2024, from https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/architecting-the-future-of-software-engineering-a-research-and-development-roadmap/.

Chicago Citation

Carleton, Anita. "Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A Research and Development Roadmap." Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Insights (blog) . Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute, July 12, 2021. https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/architecting-the-future-of-software-engineering-a-research-and-development-roadmap/.

IEEE Citation

A. Carleton, "Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A Research and Development Roadmap," Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Insights (blog) . Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute, 12-Jul-2021 [Online]. Available: https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/architecting-the-future-of-software-engineering-a-research-and-development-roadmap/. [Accessed: 30-Mar-2024].

BibTeX Code

@misc{carleton_2021, author={Carleton, Anita}, title={Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A Research and Development Roadmap}, month={Jul}, year={2021}, howpublished={Carnegie Mellon University, Software Engineering Institute's Insights (blog)}, url={https://insights.sei.cmu.edu/blog/architecting-the-future-of-software-engineering-a-research-and-development-roadmap/}, note={Accessed: 2024-Mar-30} }

Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A Research and Development Roadmap

Anita Carleton

July 12, 2021, published in.

Software Engineering Research and Development

This post has been shared 10 times.

This post is coauthored by John Robert, Mark Klein, Doug Schmidt, Forrest Shull, John Foreman, Ipek Ozkaya, Robert Cunningham, Charlie Holland, Erin Harper, and Edward Desautels

Software is vital to our country’s global competitiveness, innovation, and national security. It also ensures our modern standard of living and enables continued advances in defense, infrastructure, healthcare, commerce, education, and entertainment. As the DoD’s federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) focused on improving the practice of software engineering, the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is leading the community in creating a multi-year research and development vision and roadmap for engineering next-generation software-reliant systems. This blog post describes that effort.

Software Engineering as Strategic Advantage

In a 2020 National Academy of Science Study on Air Force software sustainment , the U.S. Air Force recognized that “to continue to be a world-class fighting force, it needs to be a world-class software developer.” This concept clearly applies far beyond the Department of Defense . Software systems enable world-class healthcare, commerce, education, energy generation, and more. These systems that run our world are rapidly becoming more data intensive and interconnected, increasingly utilize AI, require larger-scale integration, and must be considerably more resilient. Consequently, significant investment in software engineering R&D is needed now to enable and ensure future capability.

Goals of This Work

The SEI has leveraged its connections with academic institutions and communities, DoD leaders and members of the Defense Industrial Base , and industry innovators and research organizations to:

identify future challenges in engineering software-reliant and intelligent systems in emerging, national-priority technical domains, including gaps between current engineering techniques and future domains that will be more reliant on continuous evolution and AI
develop a research roadmap that will drive advances in foundational software engineering principles across a range of system types, such as intelligent, safety-critical, and data-intensive systems
raise the visibility of software to the point where it receives the sustained recognition commensurate with its importance to national security and competitiveness
enable strategic partnerships and collaborations to drive innovation among industry, academia, and government.

Guided by an Advisory Board of U.S. Visionaries and Senior Thought Leaders

To succeed in developing our vision and roadmap for software engineering research and development, it is vital to coordinate the academic, defense, and commercial communities to define an effective agenda and implement impactful results. To help represent the views of all these software engineering constituencies, the SEI formed an advisory board from DoD, industry, academia, research labs, and technology companies to offer guidance. Members of this advisory board include the following:

Deb Frincke , advisory board chair, Associate Laboratory Director for National Security Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Michael McQuade , vice president for research, Carnegie Mellon University
Vint Cerf , vice president and chief internet evangelist, Google
Penny Compton , vice president for software systems, cyber, and operations, Lockheed Martin Space
Tim Dare , deputy director for prototyping and software, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (previous position)
Sara Manning Dawson , chief technology officer enterprise security, Microsoft
Jeff Dexter , senior director of flight software & cybersecurity, SPACEX
Yolanda Gil, president, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI); Director of Knowledge Technologies, Information Sciences Institute at University of Southern California
Tim McBride , president, Zoic Studios
Nancy Pendleton , vice president and senior chief engineer for mission systems, payloads and sensors, Boeing Defense, Space and Security
William Scherlis , director Information Innovation Office, DARPA

In June 2020, the SEI assembled this board to leverage their diverse perspectives and provide strategic advice, influence stakeholders, develop connections, assist in executing the roadmap, and advocate for the use of our results.

Future Systems and Fundamental Shifts in Software Engineering Require New Research Focus

Rapidly deploying software with confidence requires fundamental shifts in software engineering. New types of systems will continue to push beyond the bounds of what current software engineering theories, tools, and practices can support, including (but not limited to):

Systems that fuse data at a huge scale, whether for news, entertainment, or intelligence: We will need to continuously mine vast amounts of open-source data streams (e.g., YouTube videos and Twitter feeds) for important information that will in turn drive decision making. This vast stream of data will also drive new ways of constructing systems.
Smart cities, buildings, roads, cars, and transport: How will these highly connected systems work together seamlessly? How will we enable safe and affordable transportation and living?
Personal digital assistants: How will these assistants learn, adapt, and engage in home and business workflows?
Dynamically integrated healthcare: Data from your personal device will be combined with hospital data. How do we meet stringent safety and privacy requirements? How do we evaluate assurance in a highly data-driven environment?
Mission-level adaptation for DoD systems: DoD systems will feature mission-level construction of new integrated systems that combine a range of capabilities, such as intel, weapons, and human/machine teaming. The DoD is already moving in this direction, but how can we increase confidence that there will be no unintended consequences?

A Guiding Vision of the Future of Software Engineering

Our guiding vision is one in which the current notion of software development is replaced by the concept of a software pipeline consisting of humans and software as trustworthy collaborators who rapidly evolve systems based on user intent. To achieve this vision, we anticipate the need for not only new development paradigms but also new architectural paradigms for engineering new kinds of systems.

Advanced development paradigms, such as those listed below, lead to efficiency and trust at scale:

Humans leverage trusted AI as a workforce multiplier for all aspects of software creation.
Formal assurance arguments are evolved to assure and efficiently re-assure continuously evolving software.
Advanced software composition mechanisms enable predictable construction of systems at increasingly large scale.

Advanced architectural paradigms, as outlined below, enable the predictable use of new computational models:

Theories and techniques drawn from the behavioral sciences are used to design large-scale socio-technical systems, leading to predictable social outcomes.
New analysis and design methods facilitate the development of quantum-enabled systems.

AI and non-AI components interact in predictable ways to achieve enhanced mission, societal, and business goals.

Research Focus Areas

The fundamental shifts and needed advances in software engineering described above require new areas of research. In close collaboration with our advisory board and other leaders in the software engineering community, we have developed a research roadmap with six focus areas. Figure 1 shows those areas and outlines a suggested course of research topics to undertake. Short descriptions of each focus area and its challenges follow.

AI-Augmented Software Development . At almost every stage of the software development process, AI holds the promise of assisting humans. By relieving humans of tedious tasks, they will be better able to focus on tasks that require the creativity and innovation that only humans can provide. To reach this goal, we need to re-envision the entire software development process with increased AI and automation tool support for developers, and we need to ensure we take advantage of the data generated throughout the entire lifecycle. The focus of this research area is on what AI-augmented software development will look like at each stage of the development process and during continuous evolution, where it will be particularly useful in taking on routine tasks.
Assuring Continuously Evolving Systems . When we consider the software-reliant systems of today, we see that they are not static (or even infrequently updated) engineering artifacts. Instead, they are fluid—meaning that they are expected to undergo continuing updates and improvements throughout their lifespan. The goal of this research area is therefore to develop a theory and practice of rapid and assured software evolution that enables efficient and bounded re-assurance of continuously evolving systems.
Software Construction through Compositional Correctness . As the scope and scale of software-reliant systems continues to grow and change continuously, the complexity of these systems makes it unrealistic for any one person or group to understand the entire system. It is therefore necessary to integrate (and continually re-integrate) software-reliant systems using technologies and platforms that support the composition of modular components, many of which are reused from existing elements that were not designed to be integrated or evolved together. The goal of this research area is to create methods and tools (such as domain specific modeling language and annotation-based dependency injection) that enable the specification and enforcement of composition rules that allow (1) the creation of required behaviors (both functionality and quality attributes) and (2) the assurance of these behaviors.
Engineering Socio-Technical Systems . Societal-scale software systems, such as today’s commercial social media systems, are designed to keep users engaged to influence them. However, avoiding bias and ensuring the accuracy of information are not always goals or outcomes of these systems. Engineering societal-scale systems focuses on prediction of such outcomes (which we refer to as socially inspired quality attributes) that arise when we humans as integral components of the system. The goal is to leverage insights from the social sciences to build and evolve societal-scale software systems that consider qualities such as bias and influence.
Engineering AI-enabled Software Systems . AI-enabled systems, which are software-reliant systems that include AI and non-AI components, have some inherently different characteristics than those without AI. However, AI-enabled systems are, above all, a type of software system. These systems have many parallels with the development and sustainment of more conventional software-reliant systems. This research area focuses on exploring which existing software engineering practices can reliably support the development of AI systems, as well as identifying and augmenting software engineering techniques for the specification, design, architecture, analysis, deployment, and sustainment of systems with AI components.
Engineering Quantum Computing Systems . Advances in software engineering for quantum are as important as the hardware advances. The goals of this research area are to first enable current quantum computers so they can be programmed more easily and reliably, and then enable increasing abstraction as larger, fully fault-tolerant quantum computing systems become available. Eventually, it should be possible fully integrate these types of systems into a unified classical and quantum software development lifecycle.

Help Shape Our National Software Research Agenda

Along with the advisory board, our research team has examined future trends in the computing landscape and emerging technologies; conducted a series of expert interviews; and convened multiple workshops for broad engagement and diverse perspectives, including a workshop on Software Engineering Grand Challenges and Future Visions co-hosted with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) . This workshop brought together leaders in the software engineering research and development community to describe (1) important classes of future software-reliant systems and their associated software engineering challenges, and (2) research methods, tools, and practices that are needed to make those systems feasible. An upcoming SEI blog post will provide a synopsis of what was covered in this workshop.

Your feedback would be appreciated on the software engineering challenges and proposed research focus areas to help inform the National Agenda for Software Engineering Study. Please email [email protected] to send your thoughts and comments on the software engineering study & research roadmap or to volunteer as a potential reviewer of study drafts. Thank you.

Author Page

Digital library publications, send a message, more by the author, application of large language models (llms) in software engineering: overblown hype or disruptive change, october 2, 2023 • by ipek ozkaya , anita carleton , john e. robert , douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university), join the sei and white house ostp to explore the future of software and ai engineering, may 30, 2023 • by anita carleton , john e. robert , mark h. klein , douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university) , erin harper, software engineering as a strategic advantage: a national roadmap for the future, november 15, 2021 • by anita carleton , john e. robert , mark h. klein , erin harper, more in software engineering research and development, applying the sei sbom framework, february 5, 2024 • by carol woody, 10 benefits and 10 challenges of applying large language models to dod software acquisition, january 22, 2024 • by john e. robert , douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university), the latest work from the sei, january 15, 2024 • by douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university), the top 10 blog posts of 2023, january 8, 2024 • by douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university), applying generative ai to software engineering: navigating ethical and educational landscapes, december 11, 2023 • by john e. robert , douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university), get updates on our latest work..

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Architecting the future of software engineering: a national agenda for software engineering research & development, created november 2021.

We live in an age of software-enabled transformation. Software makes our world-class healthcare, defense, commerce, communication, education, and energy systems possible. Software engineering is the discipline that builds the invisible foundation upon which all this rests. As we become almost completely dependent on ever larger and more complex software-reliant systems, the competitiveness and security of our nation will increasingly depend on our ability to engineer software. A focused effort and continual investment in critical software engineering knowledge, technologies, and foundational research are needed to make next-generation applications possible.

A Guiding Vision and Roadmap for the Future of Software Engineering

Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A National Agenda for Software Engineering Research & Development , a study written in collaboration with the software engineering community, reimagines the discipline of software engineering and identifies the technologies and areas of research that are most critical for enabling future systems. The research roadmap provided by this study offers a path toward a new vision: one in which humans and AI are trustworthy collaborators that rapidly evolve systems based on programmer intent.

“As software-enabled systems and applications become integral to every sector of our economy, this is a critical time to re-envision the future of software engineering, and I am pleased that CMU’s SEI is working with its partners to define this paradigm shift. With breathtaking advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, we can create the next generation of societal and global software platforms, ones that are trustworthy, reliable, safe, and secure,” said Carnegie Mellon University President Farnam Jahanian.

Study Advisory Board

Deb Frincke, Chair Associate Laboratory Director for National Security Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Sara Manning Dawson, Chief Technology Officer, Enterprise Security, Microsoft
Jeff Dexter, Senior Director of Flight Software & Cybersecurity, SPACEX
Yolanda Gil, Director of Knowledge Technologies, Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California
Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
Penny Compton, Vice President for Software Systems, Cyber, and Operations, Lockheed Martin Space
Tim McBride, President, Zoic Labs
Michael McQuade, Vice President for Research, CMU
Nancy Pendleton, Vice President and Senior Chief Engineer for Mission Systems, Payloads and Sensors, Boeing Defense, Space and Security
Tim Dare, Defense Business Technical Director, Booz Allen Hamilton
William Scherlis, Director, Information Innovation Office, DARPA

Research and Enactment Recommendations Catalyze Change

Future research must be planned with the software ecosystem in mind, and it must be representative of key software engineering challenges. In close collaboration with an advisory board and other leaders in the software engineering research community, the study authors selected six research focus areas, which are described in detail the study. The research topics and recommendations in this report provide the essential groundwork for advancing the discipline of software engineering.

To read the complete findings and roadmap for future research and investment, download Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A National Agenda for Software Engineering Research & Development:

Full report
Executive Summary
Blog post: Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A Research and Development Roadmap

Software Engineering as a Strategic Advantage: A National Roadmap for the Future

November 15, 2021 blog post, anita carleton , john e. robert , mark h. klein , erin harper.

The SEI led the community in creating this multi-year research and development vision and roadmap for engineering next-generation software-reliant...

Architecting the Future of Software Engineering: A National Agenda for Software Engineering Research & Development

November 03, 2021 book, anita carleton , mark h. klein , john e. robert , erin harper , robert k cunningham , dionisio de niz , john t. foreman , john b. goodenough , james d. herbsleb , ipek ozkaya , douglas schmidt (vanderbilt university) , forrest shull, architecting the future of software engineering: a research and development roadmap, july 12, 2021 blog post, "> anita carleton.

The SEI, a DoD federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), shares its multi-year research roadmap for next-gen software-reliant...

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What is the Future of Software Engineering [2024 and Beyond]

Home Blog Web Development What is the Future of Software Engineering [2024 and Beyond]

Becoming a software engineer is the dream of many and an aspiring career option for most students today. The path of becoming a software engineer is not an easy one. But what about the future of software engineering?

This article will give essential insights into software engineering , its trends, and the future of software engineers. It will help you create a planned and organized career after your Software Developer training .

What is S oftware E ngineering?

As a course, software engineering is the detailed study of engineering or creating software applications' design, development, and maintenance. It eliminates the problems of low-quality software projects and ensures that the software and applications are provided to the clients within the prescribed timelines. It includes a set of rules and methodologies which can help a person giant the requisite information to build effective software within the time and budget allotted.

In practice or as a career choice, software engineering is a role that includes several tasks that are done to deal with software applications. This might include designing, creating, implementing, or even monitoring them for regular upgrades and improvements. It is the process of analyzing user requirements and offering them the final product in the form of problem-solving software solutions.

What is the F uture of S oftware E ngineers?

The future of software engineering is surely bright, keeping in mind the increasing technological demands of the world. In 2024, the demand for software engineers rose by nearly 17% across all industries, as per Opportunity Desk. The demand of e very sector and industry today demands software solutions that can help streamline their work and make it more effective and accurate. With subsequent knowledge of software engineering, a person can develop a cosmic career in various job roles. This gives us the perspective of the software engineer’s future demand.

The scope of software engineering has widened a lot in the past two decades. With the development of powerful technologies such as cloud services, artificial intelligence , blockchain technology, cybersecurity, and many more such advancements, organizations are looking for better solutions and solution providers. There is a rising demand for skilled software engineers today, which is not going down anytime soon. In fact, with the arrival of new advent technologies, the rise is likely to face a boom.

Demand for S killed S oftware E ngineers in F uture

Our speculations for the future say that AI , machine learning, and data science will affect all spheres, and software code will automate most jobs worldwide. And all the software running around the world will need experts in software engineering to develop, maintain, and improve their working. This means that the software engineer demand in the future is going to rise, for more managerial roles like taking care of automated software, etc.

The customer demands for software are altering daily in the market, which has opened the sphere of innovation for organizations. While the new technologies being used today demand new skills and the assistance of skilled and experienced software engineers, the software engineers are working hard to learn new languages and stay updated with the trends.

Along with skills, software engineers will need to possess higher levels of ethics and integrity to work in data privacy and transparent AI applications. Software engineers' future prospects will increase as they adapt to the ever-changing digital world around them.

Trends t hat will I mpact S oftware Engineer's F uture

To become a software engineer , you must master some essential aspects of software engineering to make your career stand out. Mentioned below are the emerging trends which are set to revolutionize the software engineer's future.

1. Cloud services

Cloud is the new generation of computing as most organizations want to eliminate the complexities of managing data to focus on more essential goals. Cloud computing makes accessibility easier for organizations and simplifies backup issues. Cloud computing is integral to software engineering studies today and will witness substantial growth in the coming years. Therefore, software engineers can opt for cloud computing to make the most of their careers. They can become cloud architects, security experts, engineers, administrators, and more.

2. Artificial Intelligence

AI is bound to impact every aspect of software engineering. It has utility in all steps of creating software; thus, it is an essential topic for software engineers to learn and make a career out of. Artificial intelligence helps engineers acquire the best information and data, an input for software design. It can take the task of designing the software based on the client's requirements and budget. AI today is also efficient in doing coding, which is clean and effective. Thus, getting a hold of AI is essential for a software engineer.

3. Low code development

It is a tool that creates codes without needing a professional developer. It is gaining essence as it is budget-friendly, constantly available, and offers faster deliverables. However, there is still a need for a software engineering expert who can oversee the results provided by low-code development tools. To use low code development, an engineer must be well-versed in its functionality. Thus, learning low code development and its applications and usage have become essential for the software engineer's future.

4. Blockchain technology

In finance and other essential industries, blockchain technology is changing the shape of money and the economy. It greatly affects banking and financial institutions and public and regulatory bodies. However, with the rise of blockchain technology and its utilization, industries are also witnessing the rising importance of specialized tools and techniques for developing blockchain-oriented software. This demands new professional roles, especially in the field of software engineering. Thus, the world needs software engineers that can create blockchain-based software to handle and regulate its usage, which makes it an important impacting trend for software engineers.

5. Cybersecurity

The clients expect every app or software developed by software engineers for personal or professional use to be safe, secure, and free of risks. This is because people, especially big corporations, deal with a lot of data and would not want software that threatens their data. Thus, cybersecurity is an essential element of the study of software engineering. It reduces the security weakness of the apps and ensures that the software addresses the safety assurance to the organizations and individuals who use it.

6. The new re ali ty wit h A R & VR

Augmented reality and virtual reality are the trends revolutionizing almost every industry today. However, the biggest impact is on the software engineering industry. Every solution will need AR/VR software for their business, which software engineers will create. Thus, adequate knowledge of AR/VR in software engineering will be quite fruitful for the software engineer future. Companies worldwide are hiring more experts daily to build such realities. In this field, software engineers must work with a huge amount of data on the web and cloud databases and have significant knowledge of programming languages to create cutting-edge products.

7. Introduction of n ew programming languages

In the beginning, the role of software engineers was to develop computer applications, including basic utilities and system software. However, the scope has increased a lot today, as there are applications for mobile phones, tabs, car audio systems, televisions, etc. To be able to perform well in all spheres, there are multiple new languages that software engineers would need to learn for a better future. Some of them include Dart, TypeScript, Pony, Python 3, Rust, Swift, etc. To stay updated with trends and have a good software engineer's future scope, you must get a strong hold over as many languages as possible.

8. Continuous integration & continuous deployment

CI and CD aim to encourage software development teams to continuously deploy software updates while speeding up the release date and reducing costs throughout the process. They eliminate manual processes, which might bring the risk of errors, and thus, the apps that can be built as a result are high quality. With this technology, teams can bring more efficient software to market and work more effectively to reduce risks. Therefore, it is an important trend for a software engineer's future and must be considered.

9. Advanced algorithms driving automation

Today, organizations are searching for ways to automate their everyday work. In this regard, advanced algorithms are of great use. They are essential for mastering any programming language and are one of the most vital concepts of software engineering. Today, software companies aim to create unique algorithms to devise innovative software. Therefore, advanced algorithms made once and automating an organization's working are in great trend and must be focused on by the software engineers.

10. Landing B etter J obs

As more and more companies will move towards digitalization, software engineer demand in the future will increase. This means the software engineer's future outlook looks brighter for budding software engineers. The f uture goals of software engineers are essential and will help them to choose a field of study to pursue a successful career. This will help them secure better jobs. With the help of the key trends mentioned above, you can understand the elements and skills that are in demand that you must possess. To land better jobs, take a professional course from an esteemed institute and get the prerequisites for becoming a successful engineer.

Software E ngineer C areer P ath

Becoming a software engineer starts with completing a software engineering course. You will learn technical skills, based on which you can acquire good jobs. However, to work with the best organizations, you must take a course from a reputed and helpful institute. In this regard, the Full Stack Developer course with placement by KnowledgeHut is a highly beneficial course for aspiring software engineers.

Looking to level up your coding skills? Join our Python course online and unlock endless possibilities. From building websites to data analysis, Python is the language of the future. Don't miss out, enroll today!

Enroll in KnowledgeHut's Software Developer training program to gain all the essential skills. Become a master in the field you choose with the help of real-life experiences and examples. Learn from our experienced and qualified mentors, who also give suggestions regarding the best software engineer future options to help you take your career on a successful path!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The future aspirations of a software engineer can be quite wide, as there are many options available after software engineering. The software engineering future is quite extensive.

While machines and software are trying to automate the work of software engineers, they will always need human expertise to work accurately and be maintained properly.

Artificial intelligence, DevOps, cyber security, UI/UX development, data analytics, and other sectors are currently lucrative in addition to software engineering.

Sachin Bhatnagar

With 20+ yrs of industry experience in media, entertainment and web tech, Sachin brings expertise in hands-on training and developing forward-thinking, industry-centric curricula. 30k+ students have enrolled in his tech courses.

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The Future of Software Engineering by 2050s: Will AI Replace Software Engineers?

Lubna Mahmoud Abu Zohair The British University in Dubai

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By submitting an article, the author grants to this journal the non-exclusive right to publish it. The author retains the copyright and the publishing rights for his article without any restrictions.

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The future of software engineering: Visions of 2025 and beyond

2021, International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE)

In the current technological scenario of the industry and businesses, there has been increasing need of software within systems and also an increasing demand being put onto software-intensive systems. This in effect will lead to a significant evolution of software engineering processes over the next twenty years. This is due to the fact of emerging technological advancements like Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things in the IT field, among other new developments. This paper addresses and tries to analyses the key research challenges being faced by the software engineering field and articulates information that is derived from the key research specializations within software engineering. The paper analyses the past and current trends in software engineering. The future of software engineering is also looked with respect to Industry 4.0 which including emerging technological platforms like Internet of Things. The societal impact aspect of future trends in software engineering is also addressed in this paper.

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Warren Buckland

In response to systems’ growing complexity and ambitious deadlines, software companies often make assumptions during the software development process. Additionally, the very nature of team members’ interactions, communications, preferred software development tools, and emerging technologies had become a hindrance during the software development process causing skyrocketing costs and missed deadlines. In response to these issues, the Agile Alliance was formed and created, “…an alternative to documentation driven, heavyweight software development processes…” (Agilemanifesto.org, 2001). The Agile Manifesto was born. However, as information systems continue to grow in complexity relying on cloud computing technologies that span multiple platforms comprised of massive non-relational and relational databases, software engineering has increasingly become more important as well as the need for talented software programmers to tackle expansive software development projects. The search for talent has created diverse teams scattered throughout the globe in order to meet tight project deadlines of these massively complex projects. In order to meet customers’ needs, many teams make assumptions during the software development process. This paper will explore some of those assumptions during the software development process, the affects on the project’s architecture, selection of tools and the future of software engineering.

Aakash Ahmed

Internet of Things based systems (IoT systems for short) are becoming increasingly popular across different industrial domains and their development is rapidly increasing to provide value-added services to end-users and citizens. Little research to date uncovers the core development process lifecycle needed for IoT systems, and thus software engineers find themselves unprepared and unfamiliar with this new genre of system development. To ameliorate this gap, we conducted a mixed quantitative and qualitative research study where we derived a conceptual process framework from the extant literature on IoT, that identifies 27 key tasks for incorporating into development processes for IoT systems. The framework was then validated by means of a survey of 127 IoT systems practitioners developers from 35 countries –across 6 continents– with 15 different industry backgrounds. Our research provides an understanding of the most important development process tasks and informs both software engi...

Guilherme Travassos

The Roadmap is performed in the context of a Ph.D. research in collaboration between the Experimental Software Engineering Group, from the Systems Engineering and Computing Program of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (COPPE/UFRJ) and the Laboratory of Industrial and Human Automation Control, Mechanical engineering and Computer Science (LAMIH UMR CNRS 8201) in the Universit\`e Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (UPHF). The Roadmap resulted from an investigation on the particularities of IoT applications. It is the concrete organization of the concepts and evidence gathered from different experimental studies. It comes to support the definition of IoT software systems, with specific items for the project team to discuss and define the essential aspects related to the specifying, designing, and implementing an IoT application.

pedro campos

Anthony Finkelstein

ABSTRACT This paper provides a roadmap for software engineering. It identifies the principal research challenges being faced by the discipline and brings together the threads derived from the key research specialisations within software engineering. The paper draws heavily on the roadmaps covering specific areas of software engineering research collected in this volume.

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Perspectives on the Future of Software Engineering: Essays in Honor of Dieter Rombach

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Perspectives on the Future of Software Engineering: Essays in Honor of Dieter Rombach 2013th Edition

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The dependence on quality software in all areas of life is what makes software engineering a key discipline for today’s society. Thus, over the last few decades it has been increasingly recognized that it is particularly important to demonstrate the value of software engineering methods in real-world environments, a task which is the focus of empirical software engineering. One of the leading protagonists of this discipline worldwide is Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Dieter Rombach, who dedicated his entire career to empirical software engineering. For his many important contributions to the field he has received numerous awards and recognitions, including the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award and the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He is a Fellow of both the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society. This book, published in honor of his 60th birthday, is dedicated to Dieter Rombach and his contributions to software engineering in general, as well as to empirical software engineering in particular.

This book presents invited contributions from a number of the most internationally renowned software engineering researchers like Victor Basili, Barry Boehm, Manfred Broy, Carlo Ghezzi, Michael Jackson, Leon Osterweil, and, of course, by Dieter Rombach himself. Several key experts from the Fraunhofer IESE, the institute founded and led by Dieter Rombach, also contributed to the book. The contributions summarize some of the most important trends in software engineering today and outline a vision for the future of the field. The book is structured into three main parts. The first part focuses on the classical foundations of software engineering, such as notations, architecture, and processes, while the second addresses empirical software engineeringin particular as the core field of Dieter Rombach’s contributions. Finally, the third part discusses a broad vision for the future of software engineering.

ISBN-10 9783642373947
ISBN-13 978-3642373947
Edition 2013th
Publisher Springer
Publication date June 25, 2013
Language English
Dimensions 6.14 x 0.88 x 9.21 inches
Print length 382 pages
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Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

“This is a valuable contribution to the software engineering literature. … whether you are a young software engineer or a seasoned software academic, this would be a worthwhile investment.” (Birol Aygün, Computing Reviews, January, 2014)

From the Back Cover

About the author, product details.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 3642373941
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Springer; 2013th edition (June 25, 2013)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 382 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9783642373947
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-3642373947
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.38 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.88 x 9.21 inches

About the authors

Klaus schmid.

I am professor of software engineering and head of the Software Systems Engineering group at the University of Hildesheim. I am also a research fellow / technical expert at the Software Engineering Center (SEC), NIPA, in South Korea.

I work in software engineering now since the mid of 1990′s. While being a researcher, work with industry and real world problems was always very important to me. Thus, over the years, I accumulated also significant consulting experience with a number of companies ranging from very large to very small.

Other profiles:

-DBLP: dblp.uni-trier.de/pers/hd/s/Schmid:Klaus.html

-Google Scholar: scholar.google.com/citations?user=dK9g6a4AAAAJ&hl=en

-SSE group: www.sse.uni-hildesheim.de/en/schmid.htm

-My web page: www.klausschmid.net

Jürgen Münch

Jürgen Münch is a Professor of Software Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation at Reutlingen University, Germany. Furthermore, he is associated with the Faculty of Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences at University of Hohenheim. Prior to this position, he has been the first Finland Distinguished Professor in the field of Software Systems at the University of Helsinki and head of its Software Systems Engineering Research Group. Prof. Münch's research interests include product management, product strategy, product design, startup methods, and measurement. Münch has been a principal investigator of numerous research and industrial development projects. Münch is the method creator of the WHEELS OF VALUE MODEL and has co-invented the GQM+Strategies method for aligning organizations through measurement.

Jürgen Münch is a Professor of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Software Engineering at Reutlingen University, Germany.

His research in centers on data- and value-based software development, software product management, lean analytics, innovation processes, business model validation, and agile engineering.

He consults for companies delivery management, software measurement, quality assurance, and software technology in general. Jürgen regularly teaches product management courses and helps companies to develop innovation capabilities and new digitally-enabled products and services.

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