Teaching software engineering in a computer science department

This paper discusses four issues that are related to teaching software engineering, which the authors have found of particular relevance with respect to the computer science programme offered by the Department of Computer Science at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. These issues are programming vs. software engineering, structured vs. object-oriented methods, textbook selection and assessment of project work. Underlying these issues is the question of how industrial experience can be taught or simulated in software engineering courses. The aim of this paper is to share our experiences hoping to stimulate further discussion on how software engineering can best be taught.