An empirical study of skills assessment for software practitioners

Software professionals face the difficult challenge of keeping up with today's fast-paced technological environment. There has been much discussion about technical obsolescence in a field where the half-life of an undergraduate education is only a few years. Moreover, assessments provide measurable proof of behavioral changes, legitimizing the human resource department's role in improving productivity by rendering it quantifiable. In this paper, we describe an empirical study of the skills assessment of software practitioners. This study is based on a survey performed collaboratively by the Software Engineering Research Center (SERC), Purdue University, and IBM Training and Education, with direct participation from the IEEE. The goal of this research was the determination of the critical skills necessary for software professionals. This paper describes the survey, the structure of the questionnaire, and the skills assessment process. Skills assessment stages such as data collection, data analysis, data representation, and follow-up reassessment are also described. Detailed results of the survey and selected critical skills relating to both object-oriented and client-server technologies are presented in this paper. These assessments provide a systematic approach through which human resources departments can improve productivity during downturns by increasing the working effectiveness of software developers. We believe that university software engineering students must understand the differences between academic programming and industry software development and engineering. They must also be able to perform the activities involved with plan development, project management, and software product evaluation. We also conclude that these assessments will foster genuine commitment and motivate software practitioners to grow in a field of technology that changes daily.