A project spine for software engineering curricular design

Software engineering education is a technologically challenging, rapidly evolving discipline. Like all STEM educators, software engineering educators are bombarded with a constant stream of new tools and techniques (MOOCs! Active learning! Inverted classrooms!) while under national pressure to produce outstanding STEM graduates. Software engineering educators are also pressured on the discipline side; a constant evolution of technology coupled with a still emerging engineering discipline. As a handson engineering discipline, where engineers not only design but also construct the technology, guidance on the adoption of project-centric curricula is needed. This paper focuses on vertical integration of project experiences in undergraduate software engineering degree programs or course sequences. The Software Enterprise, now in its 9^th year, has grown from an upper-division course sequence to a vertical integration program feature. The Software Enterprise is presented as an implementation of a project spine curricular pattern, and a plan for maturing this model is given.