After gathering and analyzing the responses from the industry survey questionnaire, Chapter 7 presents the resulting framework for software internationalization validated against industry requirements. The framework only contains requirements that a majority of respondents strongly agree or overall agree with. The requirements in the framework are then prioritized by averages calculated from Section 6.3.
The first part of the framework is the architectural educational model with which the majority of respondents from the industry overall agree. The architectural educational models were discussed in Section 3.2. The majority of respondents agree the following requirement as the architectural educational model:
In order for computer science and software engineering graduates to be prepared for industry, students must learn about software internationalization by integrating the subject into existing courses.
As mentioned in Chapter 3, most computing programs employ the model of integrating software
internationalization into existing computing courses [1]. The ACM and IEEE Computing Curriculum 2001 identified certain courses using this educational architectural model, including ethics or social issues courses, capstone courses, and team-based courses [1]. As for the other two other architectural educational models, there was no consensus; the majority of respondents from the industry either overall agrees or disagrees with the following requirements:
• In order for computer science and software engineering graduates to be prepared for industry, students must learn about software internationalization by taking an entire course devoted to the subject.
• In order for computer science and software engineering graduates to be prepared for industry, students must learn about software internationalization by studying abroad.
After validating the architectural educational model, the overarching requirement is still broken down into a number of other requirements that embody the topic of software internationalization.
The second part of the framework is the requirements that validate the overarching requirement of the industry. The requirements were discussed in Sections 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, and 3.7. Table 6 lists, in order of importance, the requirements with which the majority of respondents from the industry overall agree:
Order of importance
Statements in the industry survey questionnaire starting with
“In order for computer science and software engineering graduates to be prepared for industry, students must …”
1 ... be aware of possible technologies and tools used for language translation and text representation (Section 3.5) 2 ... be aware of how dates and times are used in various cultures and countries (Section 3.5.3)
3 ... be aware of how the number/currency systems are different for various cultures and countries (Section 3.5.4) 4 ... be aware the possible technologies and tools to represent the direction of text in various languages (Section 3.4) 5 ... define and distinguish between software internationalization, localization, and globalization (Section 3.3) 6 ... apply software internationalization through laboratory assignments, projects, and activities (Section 3.2, 3.4) 7 ... be aware of how text is sorted in various languages (Section 3.5.2)
8 ... be aware of possible technologies and tools used for language translation and text representation (Section 3.5) 9 ... apply the possible technologies and tools for creating software that supports internationalization (Section 3.4) 10 … learn software internationalization through lecture, reading, and writing (Section 3.2)
11 ... apply the possible technologies and tools to decipher the date and time for various cultures and countries (Section 3.4, 3.5.3) 12 ... apply the possible technologies for the number/currency systems for various cultures and countries (Section 3.4, 3.5.4) 13 ... be aware of how laws of various countries can affect the software that supports internationalization (Section 3.7.4) 14 ... apply the possible technologies and tools to represent the direction of text in various languages (Section 3.4, 3.5.1) 15 ... be aware of the social responsibilities and ethics of producing software that supports internationalization (Section 3.6)
16 ... apply the possible technologies and tools to sort text in various languages (Section 3.4, 3.5.2)
17 ... be aware of how particular visual elements are viewed differently among various countries (Section 3.7.2) 18 ... define and distinguish various industry standards on software internationalization (ISO, W3C, LISA) (Section 3.3) 19 ... apply the possible technologies and tools used for language translation and text representation (Section 3.4, 3.5) 20 ... be aware of how particular colors are viewed differently among various countries (Section 3.7.1)
Table 6 - Framework of requirements the industry overall agree listed in order of importance. Table 6 shows how the requirements developed from the literature review with which the industry most strongly agree or overall agree. Unexpectedly, a majority of respondents from the industry did not strongly disagree or overall disagree with any of the requirements. The following statement was the only
• In order for computer science and software engineering graduates to be prepared for industry, students must be aware of how particular noise elements are viewed differently among various countries
Referring to the requirements in Table 6, one highlight is that the level of importance was much higher for students being aware of aspects of software internationalization than for students to apply aspects of software internationalization. The only exception to the awareness is that the sixth most agreed requirement by a majority of respondents is:
In order for computer science and software engineering graduates to be prepared for industry, students must apply software internationalization through laboratory assignments, projects, and activities.
The overall conclusion of this thesis is:
The majority of respondents from the industry overall agree that in order for computer science and software engineering graduates to be prepared for industry, universities should teach students software internationalization by integrating the various requirements from Table 6, in order of importance, into current existing courses.
CHAPTER 8. CONCLUSION