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09.09
Software Engineering PE
Examination Development Approved
By Mitchell ThorntonAt its recent meeting in
Louisville, Ky., the NCEES
Board of Directors approved moving forward with
the development of a Principles and Practice of
Engineering examination, commonly known as the
PE exam, for the discipline of software
engineering. NCEES is an organization composed
of all engineering and surveying licensing
boards in the United States and several
territories. NCEES develops, scores, and, for
many states, administers examinations used for
engineering licensure, including the current
electrical and computer engineering PE
examinations. As part of the NCEES board action,
it was agreed that IEEE-USA will serve as the
lead technical society sponsoring the
examination with cooperative agreements from
other organizations, including the IEEE Computer
Society and the National Society of Professional
Engineers. The board action came on 11 August
2009, when a motion to begin the development of
the examination was approved.
The new software engineering PE
examination will not be part of the currently
existing electrical and computer engineering PE
examination and should not be confused with the
current computer engineering module of that
exam. Although the exact specifications of the
new software engineering PE examination will be
finalized in coming months, a study performed by
the IEEE-USA Licensure and Registration
Committee reports that the amount of examination
knowledge content overlap among the existing
computer engineering PE examination and the new
software engineering examination will likely be
at most 20 percent. This is due to the fact that
the existing computer engineering examination
contains a significant amount of content related
to hardware and data communications networking
material.
The prerequisite for NCEES to
consider initiating a PE examination in a new
discipline includes written requests from no
fewer than 10 state licensing boards that can
demonstrate a need for the examination in their
jurisdictions. The requests must include proof
of such need, estimate of usage, and evidence
that knowledge areas and skills are not
adequately measured in an existing examination.
In addition, no new discipline can be added to
the examination program unless there is an
Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC)/ABET-accredited
program in that discipline. IEEE-USA agreed to
serve as the lead technical society sponsoring
the new examination and its role will include
the coordination and support of volunteers to
participate in the development of the
examination in cooperation with other interested
organizations including the IEEE Computer
Society. The jurisdictional licensing boards
requesting the examination were those with
significant amounts of software engineering
industry and those that have institutions
granting EAC/ABET-accredited degrees in software
engineering. ABET is the accrediting agency for
all engineering and technology programs in the
United States, and the EAC is responsible for
engineering programs in particular.
Professional licensure for an
engineering discipline is established by each
U.S. jurisdiction at their discretion; however,
NCEES has an existing “model law” recommendation
that requires: 1) a four-year EAC/ABET-accredited
degree in an appropriate engineering discipline,
2) successful completion of an eight-hour
fundamentals of engineering examination, 3)
verifiable and documented evidence of four years
of qualifying engineering experience, and 4)
completion of an eight-hour Principles and
Practice of Engineering examination. Over the
past decade there have been several efforts to
establish a path to professional practice
licensure for software engineers. These efforts
have not been successful due to a variety of
issues; however, one of the primary reasons has
been the lack of infrastructure to support
licensure in accordance with NCEES model law.
Specifically, the absence of a reasonable number
of EAC/ABET-accredited programs offering an
undergraduate degree in software engineering
posed a significant impediment. According to the
ABET Web site [abet.org],
as of 1 August 2009, there are 17 EAC/ABET-accredited
software engineering programs in the United
States. Therefore, the only remaining need to
establish software engineering licensure is the
creation and administration of a software
engineering PE examination.
In a report from the IEEE-USA
Licensure and Registration committee, it was
noted that software engineering professional
licensure affects both U.S. IEEE members and
society at large. The central issue is one of
protection of public safety, health and welfare,
since the purpose of licensure is to establish
competence to practice in an area and not to
measure the level of an individual’s expertise
above the competency threshold. A large number
of technologies in existence and development
today are directly impacted by software
engineering, including safety critical artifacts
such as real-time controllers and logistics
systems. Additionally, software engineering
licensure offers practicing IEEE members in the
United States a credential that is available to
virtually all other engineering disciplines,
ranging from mainstream electrical, civil,
mechanical and chemical disciplines to smaller
populated disciplines such as control systems,
fire protection, nuclear and naval engineering.
In 2007, the Software
Engineering Licensure Consortium (SELC) — a
group of organizations with interest in
establishing a path to licensure for software
engineers — was established. SELC consists of
the Texas Board of Professional Engineers, IEEE-USA, the IEEE Computer Society, the
National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE)
and several jurisdictional licensing boards.
Early on, this group developed a software
engineering licensure needs document that was
distributed to licensing boards. It also
conducted a U.S. IEEE member survey to determine
need and interest in establishing a software
engineering licensure path. The survey was
prepared by SELC and administered by the IEEE
Computer Society with support from IEEE
Corporate Research. The survey consisted of five
questions and was sent to 10 percent of the
approximately 35,000 U.S. IEEE members who
indicated they practice software engineering
professionally as of late 2008. The survey was
concluded in approximately two weeks with a 22
percent response rate. The majority of
respondents indicated they were in support of
licensing software engineers. Based on the
survey results and the response of the
jurisdictional boards (after receiving the
document outlining the need for software
engineering licensure), the SELC began
coordinating the collection of licensure board
letters of support, and assisted in obtaining
agreement for the designation of IEEE-USA as the
lead technical organization. These efforts
culminated in the recent NCEES Board of
Directors decision to authorize the development
of the PE examination for software engineering
licensure.
The next phase of the
examination development activity will involve
undertaking a process known as a Professional
Activities and Knowledge Study (PAKS). The PAKS
process will include the development of surveys
and meetings with licensed engineers who
practice software engineering that will
ultimately result in a specification of the
content for the software engineering licensure
examination. Once the specification is
developed, IEEE-USA and the IEEE Computer
Society will coordinate formation of a committee
of software engineers to develop examination
questions under the oversight of NCEES. After
NCEES receives the committee’s software
engineering PE examination, it will be each
individual licensing board’s decision as to
whether they will license software engineers in
their state or territory. The existence of the
software engineering PE examination will serve
to enable each board to make such a decision
based on the needs of their individual
jurisdictions.
U.S. IEEE members wishing to
participate in the software engineering PE
examination development effort can volunteer by
filling out the online form located at the NCEES
Web site [www.ncees.org/volunteer.php].
To learn more about licensure
and registration, see:
Mitchell A. Thornton, Ph.D.,
P.E., is a professor of computer science and
engineering and a professor of electrical
engineering at Southern Methodist University in
Dallas, Texas. He currently serves as chair of
IEEE-USA’s Licensure and Registration Committee.
Comments on this article may be submitted to
todaysengineer@ieee.org.
Comments may be submitted to
todaysengineer@ieee.org.
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