The Analysis of Mathematical Skills Used in the Software Industry

Abstract

Mathematical skills can provide a scientific basis for software engineering (SE) activities by helping practitioners comprehend the unambiguous logic, which is critical for both abstract thinking and problem solving besides development of any applications in the software industry. Many practitioners in different roles take different mathematics courses at the university education; however there are various perceptions about the necessity and the weight of these courses. \textit{"What are their usage in the software industry?}" or \textit{"do we need such a (heavy) mathematical curriculum at the university?}" are frequently asked questions for software teams. To better understand different opinions, we utilized the results of our survey, which investigated the skills gaps in the software industry. 628 Turkey-educated practitioners, whose undergraduate degree was completed in Turkey, working in 13 countries responded the survey. In this paper, we examined different perceptions (1) about the usage of the mathematics courses in the software industry; and (2) about current weight of these courses in the curriculum. The findings shed light on the perceptions about mathematical skills in the industry by presenting various cross-factor analysis.

Keywords

• Curriculum
• Mathematics courses
• Software engineering education
• Software industry
• Survey

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