Software Systems Engineering programmes a capability approach.

Discusses undergraduate programmes that prepare graduates for a career building software intensive systems.Presents detailed description of capabilities that graduates should have acquired.Derived from historical discussions of the field.Explains differences between Science programmes and Engineering programmes.Presents a broad set of specialized programs. This paper discusses third-level educational programmes that are intended to prepare their graduates for a career building systems in which software plays a major role. Such programmes are modelled on traditional Engineering programmes but have been tailored to applications that depend heavily on software. Rather than describe knowledge that should be taught, we describe capabilities that students should acquire in these programmes. The paper begins with some historical observations about the software development field.