research-article

Free access

Capstone programming courses considered harmful

Author:

Keith WrightAuthors Info & Claims

Communications of the ACM, Volume 53, Issue 4

Pages 124 - 127

https://doi.org/10.1145/1721654.1721689

Published: 01 April 2010 Publication History

All formats PDF

Abstract

When Edgster Dijkstra wrote his paper Go To Statements Considered Harmful, programmers were lost in millions of lines of spaghetti code. Now programmers have lost their way again---this time amidst thousands of unread resumes. Between 2000 and 2004, the percentage of incoming computer science freshmen fell by 60%. Drop rates of 30--50% are common. Results are similar for the other computing related fields including Information Systems, Software Engineering, and Information Technology. Many of these degree programs, which H.A. Simon referred to collectively as the Artificial Sciences, have failed or are about to fail.

This loss of student interest in artificial sciences has been blamed in part on the impression that they require extraordinary programming skills. Computing journals perpetuate these notions. For example, in capstone (senior level) computer science courses, students should design and code a 'real world' application. This article is an opposing viewpoint.

References

[1]

ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) Globalization and Offshoring of Software. ACM Job Migration Task Force; http://www.acm.org/globalizationreport/. 2006.

Google Scholar

[2]

Brooks, F.P. No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering. Computer, 20, 4 (April 1987).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[3]

Dijkstra, E.W.G. Go To statement considered harmful. Comm. ACM 11, 3 (Mar. 1968).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[4]

Denning, P.J. and McGettrick. Re-centering computer science. Comm. ACM 48, 11, (Nov. 2005).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[5]

Hudak P. Conception, evolution and application of functional programming languages. ACM Computing Surveys 21, 3, (Sept. 1989).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[6]

Martin, F. Toy projects considered harmful. Comm. ACM 49, 7 (July 2006).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[7]

McCarthy, John C. 3.3 Million U.S. Services Jobs to go Offshore. Forrester, Nov. 11, 2002; http://www.forrester.com/ER/Research/Brief/Excerpt/0,1317,15900,FF.html.

Google Scholar

[8]

McDougall, P.C. IBM to move all solutions development operations to India. InformationWeek, (Mar 8, 2006).

Google Scholar

[9]

McKinsey Global Institute. Offshoring: Is it a win-win game? San Francisco: McKinsey & Company. 2003.

Google Scholar

[10]

Prabhakar, B. and Litecky, C. R. IT skills in a tough job market. Comm. ACM 48, 10, (Oct. 2005).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[11]

Reich, R. The work of nations. NY: Alfred A. Knopf. 1991.

Google Scholar

[12]

Simon, H. A. The Sciences of the Artificial. The MIT Press; 3 edition. (Oct. 1, 1996).

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[13]

Srivastav S. and Theodore, N. A long jobless recovery: Information technology labor markets after the bursting of the high-tech Bubble. The Journal of Labor and Society 8, (Mar. 2005), 1089--7011.

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Hans R(2024)Systematic review of software project success criteria from future software practitioners’ perspectiveProcedia Computer Science10.1016/j.procs.2024.06.298239(1289-1297)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2024.06.298
Harms SHastings J(2021)A cross-curricular approach to fostering innovation such as virtual reality development through student-led projects2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2016.7757628(1-9)Online publication date: 11-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/FIE.2016.7757628
Greenberg Davis HZilora SBoisvert DZilora S(2016)A Tale of Two CapstonesProceedings of the 17th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/2978192.2978234(130-135)Online publication date: 28-Sep-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2978192.2978234
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Capstone programming courses considered harmful
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
        Information science education
    2. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Project and people management
      2. Software management
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software development process management
  2. Software notations and tools
    1. Software configuration management and version control systems

Recommendations

Programming early considered harmful
SIGCSE '01: Proceedings of the thirty-second SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer Science Education

The premise of this panel is that most introductory Computer Science courses are too narrowly focused on teaching students a programming language. This is a controversy that has been debated for years, but in recent years seems to have been forgotten. ...
Programming early considered harmful

The premise of this panel is that most introductory Computer Science courses are too narrowly focused on teaching students a programming language. This is a controversy that has been debated for years, but in recent years seems to have been forgotten. ...
C++ templates considered harmful

C++ is considered by many professional software developers and educators to be the lingua franca of programming languages. Once mastered, its power of expression is nearly limitless for the class of problems for which an imperative and object-oriented ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

Communications of the ACM Volume 53, Issue 4

April 2010

131 pages

ISSN:0001-0782

EISSN:1557-7317

DOI:10.1145/1721654

Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 April 2010

Published in CACM Volume 53, Issue 4

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Research-article
Popular
Refereed

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

7
Total Citations
View Citations
1,565
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)63
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)9

Reflects downloads up to

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Hans R(2024)Systematic review of software project success criteria from future software practitioners’ perspectiveProcedia Computer Science10.1016/j.procs.2024.06.298239(1289-1297)Online publication date: 2024
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2024.06.298
Harms SHastings J(2021)A cross-curricular approach to fostering innovation such as virtual reality development through student-led projects2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE.2016.7757628(1-9)Online publication date: 11-Mar-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/FIE.2016.7757628
Greenberg Davis HZilora SBoisvert DZilora S(2016)A Tale of Two CapstonesProceedings of the 17th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/2978192.2978234(130-135)Online publication date: 28-Sep-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2978192.2978234
Zilora SSettle ASteinbach TBoisvert D(2015)Industry-Emulated Projects in the ClassroomProceedings of the 16th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education10.1145/2808006.2808029(115-119)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2808006.2808029
May JLending D(2015)A Conceptual Model for Communicating an Integrated Information Systems CurriculumJournal of Computer Information Systems10.1080/08874417.2015.1164578355:4(20-27)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2015
https://doi.org/10.1080/08874417.2015.11645783
Camill PPhillips K(2011)Capstones and practica in environmental studies and sciences programs: rationale and lessons learnedJournal of Environmental Studies and Sciences10.1007/s13412-011-0038-81:3(181-188)Online publication date: 13-Sep-2011
https://doi.org/10.1007/s13412-011-0038-8
Clear T(2010)A place for learning agreements in Capstone computing courses?ACM Inroads10.1145/1869746.18697491:4(10-11)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1869746.1869749

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Magazine Site

View this article on the magazine site (external)

Magazine Site

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Abstract

References

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Programming early considered harmful

Programming early considered harmful

C++ templates considered harmful

Comments

Information

Published In

Publisher

Publication History

Permissions

Check for updates

Qualifiers

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View options

PDF

eReader

Magazine Site

Get Access

Login options

Full Access

Figures

Other

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media

Affiliations