Software Engineering Education for Ensuring Russia's Priorities in the Digital Economy Vladimir Khalin Andrei Terekhov Stanislav Tkachenko Alexander Yurkov Information Systems in Software Engineering Department of European Information Systems in Economics Department Department Studies Economics Department Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg State University State University State University State University Russia Russia Russia Russia v.halin@spbu.ru a.terekhov@spbu.ru s.tkachenko@spbu.ru a.v.yurkov@spbu.ru ABSTRACT with higher education, and 31 specialties for training of highly qualified personnel (candidate and doctoral studies), which are Attempts of Russian authorities to find proper place for national primarily related to the development of the main technology economy in global market and to diversify traditional patterns of areas in Russia, such as power industry; defense and security; production demand elaboration and implantation of software aviation and rocket and space equipment; software and products as elements of digital economy with a strategic aim to information management; medical industry and biotechnologies; create Russian innovative technologies, resources and nano-technologies and new materials; railway and motor managerial solutions. However, there are still numerous vehicles. The Russian higher education institutes which unresolved problems in this area, which restrain establishment implement the aforementioned disciplines receive special state of software engineering as an instrument for maintainability of support which is expressed in extended provision of resources Russia’s competitiveness in global transparent digital economy. and funds to support the education process, accelerated The key problem for our research is to elaborate reasons for development and modernization of facilities and resources absence of scientific qualification “software engineering”, which thereof, increase of scholarship allowances for bachelors, is meant to provide training for specialists of the highest masters, specialists, postgraduate and doctoral students trained academic and research qualification. in such specialties and disciplines. It is also worthy of note that the share of priority specialties and disciplines included into the CCS CONCEPTS list approved by the RF Government is quite small in the total • Social and professional topics→Software engineering list of specialties and disciplines for training of bachelors, education masters, specialists, post-graduate students, and doctoral candidates currently used for education in the Russian higher KEYWORDS school and amounts to less than 15% in total. For example, only digital economy, software engineering, higher education, 38 disciplines or 20% of 188 ones implemented for training of scientific specialties, PhD training. bachelors and masters in the Russian higher school are included into the priority list. The situation with post-graduate education and doctoral studies is even more complicated. For example, the 1 Higher education for digital economy in List of specialties of research scientists [2] approved by the Russia: priorities and reality Order of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science of 10.01.2012 No.5, on which the degrees of the candidate and the By the Order of January 6, 2015 No. 7-r, the Government of the doctor of sciences are defended in Russia and the academic Russian Federation approved the list of 104 disciplines and degrees of candidate and doctor of sciences are awarded, specialties for higher education which correspond to the priority includes 424 scientific specialties, and the priority list of of modernization and technological development of the Russian disciplines for training of postgraduate students and doctoral Economy [4]. The list included 3 8 disciplines for training of candidates approved by the RF Government only includes 31 bachelors and masters, 35 specialties for training of specialists items or approximately 7%. The aforementioned data show the Copyright © 2018 for the individual papers by the papers' authors. Copying importance of the higher education disciplines included into the permitted for private and academic purposes. This volume is published and priority list approved by the RF Government for the copyrighted by its editors. The 2018 Workshop on PhD Software Engineering Education: Challenges, Trends, modernization and technological development of the Russian and Programs, September 17th, 2018, St. Petersburg, Russia economy. The analysis of the aforementioned order of the RF Government of 06.01.2015 No.7-r, the applicable Federal State Education Standards of the Russian system of higher education V. Khalin et al. and the regulatory documents of the RF State Commission for Science3, Parallel Algorithms4, Operations Research5, Programs Academic Degrees and Titles makes it possible to identify a include profile disciplines: serious systemic problem which currently exists in the Russian higher education system in relation to training of specialists in ─ Structures and algorithms for computer data processing the sphere of Software Engineering. On the one hand, the ─ Practice of Programming Software Engineering discipline of bachelor and master training ─ Software Engineering is included by the RF Government into the list of priority ─ Computer Graphics disciplines of modernization and technological development of ─ Software Project Management the Russian economy which emphasize the importance and ─ Formal Languages and Automata Theory relevance thereof for further development of our country; on the ─ Databases other hand it turns out that no training of highly qualified ─ Architecture of Computational Systems personnel (postgraduate students and doctoral candidates) ─ Algorithms and Complexity within the aforesaid discipline is currently performed. Moreover, Software Engineering is missing in the List of specialties of The List of key professions of graduates: research scientists approved by the order of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science of 10.01.2012 No.5, which generally ─ Programmer does not allow to defend candidate’s and doctoral dissertations ─ Software architect and award specialists in software engineering the degrees of ─ Database administrator candidate and doctor of sciences. ─ Information Systems specialist It is the authors’ opinion that the creation of an information ─ Project manager in Information Technology and communication infrastructure of future digital economy ─ Testing expert in the field of Information Technology definitely requires not only good bachelor and master level ─ Head of Software Development projects specialists in the field of software engineering but also higher ─ Technical writer scientific qualification personnel – candidates and doctors of ─ Systems analyst sciences – for whom software engineering is the subject of ─ Technical support specialist in Information and professional activity: they are the ones who shall initiate, Communication Systems develop, and perform management of future large-scale ICT ─ Systems programmer. projects in our country [6]. Analysis of the higher education in Software Engineering in More than 30 professors - doctors of sciences - take part in the Russia is done in the work [3]. implementation of the programs, including: Andrey N. Terekhov6 - Head of the Software Engineering department, Boris A. Novikov 7 , Nikolay K. Kosovsky 8 , Demyanovich Yu.K. 9 , 2 Training in Software Engineering in Saint Vladimir O. Safonov 10, and others. Petersburg State University In addition to training in the area of Software Engineering for Saint Petersburg State University (SPbSU) by the Federal Law bachelors and masters, SPbSU provides postgraduate, masters "On Education in the Russian Federation" has right to develop and bachelor's training in a number of specialties close to the their own sets of educational standards, determine the structure professional field of Software Engineering, among them: and content of educational programs at their own direction at all levels of higher education. Saint Petersburg State University's • Educational programs for graduate students: own educational standard approved in 2014, is set up for each ─ 02.06.01 - Computer and Information Sciences direction of training – bachelor, specialist, and master. Master ─ 09.06.01 - Informatics and Computer Engineering includes several models: academic, academically-oriented and ─ 27.06.01 - Control in Engineering Systems. practice-oriented. • Educational programs for the training of masters: According to the license (2011), training of bachelors and masters in Software Engineering in SPbSU is conducted at the ─ 01.04.02 - Applied Mathematics and Informatics Mathematics and Mechanics Faculty under the programs No. ─ 02.04.02 - Fundamental Informatics and Information 09.03.04 (for bachelors) and No. 09.04.04 (for masters). The Technologies following key departments of the faculty take part in the implementation of these educational programs: Software Engineering 1 , Analytical Information Systems 2 ; Computer 3 http://math.spbu.ru/en/chairs/dep10.html 4 http://www.math.spbu.ru/en/chairs/dep22.html 5 http://math.spbu.ru/en/chairs/dep09.html 6 http://www.math.spbu.ru/user/ant/ 7 http://www.math.spbu.ru/user/boris_novikov/index.shtml 8 http://www.math.spbu.ru/user/kos/kos.html 1 http://math.spbu.ru/en/chairs/dep11.html 9 http://www.math.spbu.ru/parallel/demjanovich_priv_en.php 2 http://math.spbu.ru/SD_AIS/index.shtml 10 https://sites.google.com/site/vosafonov/ ─ 02.04.03 - Information Systems Administration and ─ Business analyst Mathematical Support ─ Systems analyst ─ 03.04.01 - Applied Mathematics and Physics ─ Specialist in the Implementation of Information Systems ─ 09.04.03 - Applied Informatics ─ Systems programmer ─ 27.04.03 - Systems Analysis and Control ─ Information Systems designer ─ 38.04.05 - Business Informatics. ─ Information Systems consultant • Educational programs for bachelor's training: ─ Service engineer for Information Systems ─ 01.03.02 - Applied Mathematics and Informatics ─ Economist in Planning ─ 01.03.04 - Applied Mathematics ─ Director for Economics, ─ 02.03.01 - Mathematics and Computer Science that is, in the professions which create the digital economy of ─ 02.03.02 - Fundamental Informatics and Information the future. Technologies It should be noted nevertheless that the educational standard at ─ 02.04.03 - Information Systems Administration and the level of training of highly qualified personnel in Software Mathematical Support Engineering – PhD-doctorate – in the Saint Petersburg State ─ 03.04.01 - Applied Mathematics and Physics University is currently missing ─ 09.04.03 - Applied Informatics ─ 27.04.03 - Systems Analysis and Control. ─ 38.04.05 - Business Informatics. 3 European cooperation SPbSU uses various forms of international cooperation for the The implementation of educational programs for training of preparation of highly qualified specialists, such as the masters and bachelors in the areas of Fundamental Informatics Agreement for Double Doctoral Degree between Lappeenranta and Information Technology and Systems Analysis and Control University of Technology and Saint Petersburg State University is carried out by the following departments of the Faculty of signed in 2016. This agreement makes it possible to PhD- Applied Mathematics–Control Processes: Computer Applications students and applicants from both the universities to defend and Systems 11 , Computer Modelling and Multiprocessor their scientific degrees at the dissertation councils of the SPbSU Systems 12 , Electromechanical and Computer Systems and get the PhD diplomas of the two universities-partners, in all Modelling13. licensed specialties, including SWE. Moreover, international Educational programs for the training of masters and bachelors cooperation in the field of higher qualification scientific in the direction of Business Informatics are implemented at the personnel training is supported by the project Joint Programs Faculty of Economics of SPbSU by the Department of and Framework for Doctoral Education in Software Engineering Information Systems in Economics 14 . Basic courses of this (PWs@PhD) in the European Union Erasmus+ Program Capacity educational program, correlating with those listed in the Building in Higher Education15. Software Engineering Body of Knowledge SWEBOK [1], are as follows: ─ Databases 4 Particular features of training of specialists ─ Object-Oriented Analysis and Programming in Software Engineering ─ Business Information Analysis Analysis of national and foreign practice of personnel training in ─ Information Systems software engineering shows that such training has a number of ─ Analysis and Modeling of Business Processes specific features [7]. Being inter-disciplinary in essence, it ─ IT-infrastructure Management includes dozens of areas of knowledge, from fundamental (mathematics, informatics, modeling) to technical and ─ Simulation Modeling technological ones: software design, development processes, ─ Decision support systems software product management, etc. Acquisition of necessary ─ Decision theory. competencies in the latter fields is impossible without According to the statistics of the period of 2011-2018, the participation in designers’ teams working under real projects. graduates worked in the following positions: The long-term practice of training of such specialists by the Software Engineering department of Saint Petersburg State ─ Database administrator University gives evidence [8] to the fact that success can be ─ Computer Network administrator achieved when the industry requirements for IT specialists are duly taken into account in the training process organization; the Russian and international standards are used as a methodological 11 http://www.apmath.spbu.ru/ru/structure/depts/kts/ 12 http://www.apmath.spbu.ru/ru/structure/depts/kmms/ 13 http://www.apmath.spbu.ru/ru/structure/depts/mems/ 14 http://www.spbu-bi.ru/ru/ 15 http://fase.it.lut.fi/ V. Khalin et al. base of training; support of training by enterprises acting both as by non-trivial competencies in production economics and participants in the training process and as interested consumers research and development management, and the production of trainees is ensured; finally, when the technological platform component shall ensure gain in experience of management of for educational and scientific activity is a state-of-the-art software projects and scientific research in the field of technology park on the basis whereof the future software information and communication technologies. engineering specialists in teams of professional developers take part in preparation and implementation of relevant ICT projects. The method of training of fledgling specialists in the field of 5 Problem software engineering based on essential combination with on- In Russia there is still no scientific specialty exactly named the-job training in software companies has proved to be Software Engineering for the training of post-graduate students economically justified, strongly sought-for, and was taken on and doctoral candidates [2]. board not only by national universities but also by foreign IT The Russian scientific specialty closest to the foreign companies [9]. Software specialty on which PhD theses are defended is specialty It is impossible to educate a software engineer by using 05.13.11 – Mathematical Support and Software of Computers, traditional method “with chalk at a black-board” [10]. One of the Complexes and Computer Networks (technical sciences). the main differences of software engineering from informatics is the passport of such scientific specialty states that theses defended work with people. Large software packages and products are in this specialty shall contain results ensuring improvement of created by large teams for long periods of time. A software the efficiency of data and knowledge processing operations in engineer must be able to plan the time limits and the budget of a computers, complexes, and computer networks and the project, provide necessary machines and other resources to its reduction of their time, and the scientific degrees of candidate team. In addition, some issues or conflicts within the team occur and doctor of technical sciences shall be awarded for research on a day-to-day basis, problems with customers may frequently studies which result in substantial technical effect when the arise: all these may only be learned in practice. results are used and implemented. The comparative analysis of The development of the system of student projects guided by competencies of specialists who defend dissertations in the employees of both local and foreign IT companies started in the specialty 05.13.11 with those of a specialist in the field of Software Engineering department of SPbSU many years ago. software engineering as required by the SWEBOK, proves that Each project is managed by at least two employees of an IT 77% of such competencies are the same. company (one of them may fall ill or go away on business, but the training process may not be interrupted). Those employees Table 1. Comparison with competencies of a specialist offer subjects interesting for their companies, and the in software engineering department makes sure that the subject should be adequately Specialty science-intensive. The whole process is organized in compliance 05.13.11 08.00.13 08.00.05 Competencies with industrial practices: planning, weekly reporting, tracking, Economic configuration management, QA (quality assurance), and team Fundamentals of work. We think that this is a win-win situation: the students + + economics receive additional industrial education in the IT sphere totally Life cycle free of charge; the university, again totally free of charge, + + economics obtains professional supervisor of term and graduate papers and Risk and access to state-of-the-art technologies (if an IT company uncertainty + + employee conducts a class on a certain subject, any student or estimate even any faculty member interested in such subject may attend Methods of such a class). Finally, the enterprise which certainly spends economic + + money for payment of salary to its employees providing training analysis to the students will obtain employees who will be able to start Computational creative work at the enterprise without any additional training. Problem solving Management of student projects is an excellent school of + + methods training of software engineers able not only to perform programming but also to lead teams. Abstractions + + The peculiarities of training and the specific features of Fundamentals of + + operating activity of software engineers resulted in the programming separation of the respective specialty as an independent one and Knowledge of in the development of federal educational standards for training basic + of bachelors and masters in the Software Engineering discipline. programming In the course of training of specialists with higher scientific languages qualification in the field of software engineering, fundamental Debugging + and technical fields of knowledge are essentially supplemented techniques and tools Cause analysis + Data Total Coinciding: Coinciding: Coinciding: representation + + competencies: 27 (77%) 19 (54%) 9 (26%) and structure 35 (100%) Algorithms + + Fundamentals of + + 6 Proposals and prospects systems analysis Computer The result of a system analysis of the 2017-2030 Strategy of the + organization Development of an Information Society in the Russian Basics of Federation approved by the Executive Order of the Russian + compilation President of May 9, 2017 No.203 and the national program OS basics + “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” approved by the Database and Order of the Government of the Russian Federation of July 28, data management + + 2017 No.1632-r, which was conducted by professors and PhD basics Software Engineering candidates of the System Programming Basics of Department and the Department of Information Systems in + Economics is as follows: networks Parallel and 1) Substantiation of critical importance and necessity of the distributed + development of software engineering to ensure competitiveness computation of Russia under the conditions of transition to digital economy. Requirements Disclosure of the essence and particularities of software analysis engineering as a backbone component for the creation of an Human resources information society in Russia. + management Information 2) Identification of key issues of the development of software + engineering in Russia (mathematical and technological support, safety and + + support software and hardware, personnel training, management, Mathematical financing, regulatory support, government control, etc.). Sets, relations, Identification of software engineering development management + + risks in the digital economy environment. functions Fundamentals of 3) Comparative analysis of the Russian and international + + logic experience of training of highly qualified specialists in the field Hypothesis of software engineering. Identification of existing problems + + testing related to training of highly qualified specialists in the field of Graphs and trees + software engineering for the digital economy of Russia. Discrete Identification of management risks in the Russian high school + + probability within the context of opening of a new scientific specialty and Finite state creation of a favorable management system [20] in the leading + automation Russian universities for effective training of specialists of higher Theory of scientific qualification – PhD specialists (candidates and doctors + + numbers of sciences) in the field of Software Engineering. Algebraic + 4) Preparation and substantiation of recommendations for the structures improvement of the system of training of highly qualified Engineering personnel in the field of software engineering in Russia to Empiric methods respond to the challenges of digital economy. In particular: and experimental techniques • Draft application to the Ministry of Science and Higher Statistical Education of Russia for the inclusion of the new scientific + + + analysis specialty “Software Engineering” to the Nomenclature of Measurements + + Specialties of Scientific Workers. This will make it possible to Engineering defend MPhil and PhD theses and award academic degrees of design MPhil and PhD in the specialty “Software Engineering”. The Modeling, addition of the currently missing research degree in the simulation, + + + Software Engineering discipline to the two existing levels of prototyping higher professional education (bachelor’s degree and master’s V. Khalin et al. degree) will become an important backbone solution-creating ACKNOWLEDGMENTS environment for training of personnel meant to implement The research is partially supported by the Russian Foundation various ICT projects of the digital future. for Basic Research (RFBR), grant 16-06-00221. Authors are sincerely grateful to Ms. Ekaterina Morozova for her invaluable • The project of the Federal State Educational Standard of help in translating this article. higher education in the Software Engineering discipline (the level of highly qualified personnel training) for approval REFERENCES thereof by the order of the Ministry of Science and Higher [1] Bourque, P., Fairley, R.E. (eds.): Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Education of the Russian Federation16 . 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