The software engineering initiative: the past and the future

The joint BCS/IEE initiative, whose report ´undergraduate curricula for software engineering´ was published in June 1989, was a direct response to the Government ACARD report of 1986: Software-a vital key to UK competitiveness (HMSO, 1986). This ACARD report was produced following a raft of surveys all indicating the steeply rising trade deficit in computer and software products-for example the pessimistic prediction by Alvey of 1982 that this would reach Pounds 1B by 1990, was in fact realised one year later in 1983! There is a widely held view that the UK is ´good at software´-however the facts clearly do not bear out out this contention. At present the general information technology industry accounts for a significant segment of the total UK trade deficit. The author discusses the past and future aspects of BCS/IEE initiative.<>