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The Software Assurance Curriculum Project

Software Assurance Competency Model for Review

You are invited to review and comment on the draft Software Assurance (SwA) Competency Model. This Software Assurance (SwA) Competency Model was developed to create a foundation for assessing and advancing the capability of software assurance professionals. To help organizations and individuals determine SwA competency across a range of knowledge areas and units, this model provides a span of competency levels 1 through 5 as well as a decomposition into individual competencies based on knowledge and skills. This model also provides a framework for an organization to adapt the model’s features to the organization’s particular domain, culture, or structure.

To review, download the draft Software Assurance (SwA) Competency Model (application/vnd.ms-word.document.12, 1.6 MB, info)and the review form (application/vnd.ms-word.document.12, 59.4 kB, info). Send your completed review form to bsi-curriculumreview@sei.cmu.edu by February 21, 2013.  

Share Software Assurance Education Materials with the Community

The Software Assurance (SwA) Education Project team is looking for materials to share with educators interested in adopting elements of the software assurance curricula. The team has developed the Master of Software Assurance (MSwA) Reference Curriculum that can be used to establish a graduate program or track, syllabi to support the development of courses to be used in an MSwA curriculum, undergraduate SwA course outlines, and SwA community college courses. While these materials can help educators get started in SwA education, more resources are needed to support wider adoption of undergraduate and graduate SwA courses, programs, and tracks. The team is seeking materials related to software assurance, including the following:

  • case studies
  • homework assignments
  • examples
  • lecture slides
  • notes

Authors will retain their own copyright. Materials submitted will be subject to peer review for relevance to the SwA course topics. If selected, materials will either be posted as submitted on the Software Assurance Curriculum website, or a link to the author’s site will be posted. If you are interested in submitting materials to help support the SwA education community, please send them, along with an indication of the appropriate course and topic, to swa-education [@] sei.cmu.edu.

Software Assurance Curriculum Materials Available for Download

The following Software Assurance Curriculum materials are available for download:

  • Software Assurance Curriculum Project Volume I: Master of Software Assurance Reference Curriculum can be used by educational institutions to create a Master of Software Assurance degree program or a track within existing software engineering and computer science degree programs.
  • Software Assurance Curriculum Project Volume II:Undergraduate Course Outlines provide students with fundamental skills for entering the software assurance field directly or continuing with graduate-level education. 
  • Software Assurance Curriculum Project Volume III: Master of Software Assurance Course Syllabi includes syllabi created to support the development of a set of courses to be used in a master of software assurance curriculum.
  • Software Assurance Curriculum Project Volume IV: Community College Education focuses on community college courses for software assurance. The courses are intended to provide students with fundamental skills for continuing with graduate-level education or to provide supplementary education for students with prior undergraduate technical degrees who wish to become more specialized in software assurance.

These materials are part of the Software Assurance Curriculum Project sponsored by DHS. This project recognizes that software assurance is emerging as an important discipline for the development, acquisition, and operation of software systems and services that provide requisite levels of dependability and security.

Visit the Software Assurance Curriculum website to download these materials, as well as presentation materials that provide faculty with an overview of the curriculum work.

Technical Note on Integrating the MSwA Reference Curriculum into Information Systems Curriculum Now Available

The technical note Integrating the Master of Software Assurance Reference Curriculum into the Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Graduate Degree Programs in Information Systems provides the SwA specialization for the Master of Science in Information Systems (MSIS). It addresses the secure software domain by providing a point of reference and guidance for software assurance education and training to better address secure development, sustainment, and acquisition of software code. The report examines how the recommendations of the MSwA Reference Curriculum might be integrated into the model curriculum recommendations for an MSIS.

Visit the Software Assurance Curriculum website to download this technical note.

Curriculum Now Recognized by the IEEE Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery

The IEEE Computer Society (IEEE-CS) and Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) have recognized the Master of Software Assurance (MSwA) Reference Curriculum as appropriate for a master’s program in software assurance. This formal recognition signifies to the educational community that the MSwA Reference Curriculum is suitable for creating graduate programs or tracks in software assurance. The IEEE-CS and ACM have developed several computing curricula and are community leaders in curricula development. This MSwA curriculum includes focused curriculum recommendations for software assurance—the first curriculum developed for this specific field.

Start a Master of Software Assurance Degree Program

Interested in starting a Master of Software Assurance degree program or track at your educational institution? Learn more at the Software Assurance Curriculum website.

Software Assurance Education Pocket Guide

Download the Software Assurance in Education, Training, & Certification Pocket Guide at the Software Assurance Community Resources and Information Clearinghouse website.

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