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History

The Consortium for Software Engineering Research (CSER), a not-for-profit corporation, was established in 1996 with funding from NSERC and strong support from the software engineering industrial sector. In the years since its inception, CSER has been recognized for its significant contributions to the Canadian software industry and to software engineering knowledge. As well, CSER has played a major role in the creation and improvement of software engineering programs in Canadian Universities.

The founding members recognized an urgent need for improved software engineering practice. Not only did they face a shortage of qualified practitioners, they felt that there was a lack of appreciation among the academic community as to the critical research challenges in software engineering. Consequently the two goals of CSER were to undertake collaborative research with university investigators into critical industrial problems and to raise the profile of software engineering technology in the university curriculum. Evaluation of the research projects included performance measures related to student participation and to new course material introduced as a result of CSER experience.

CSER’s success stems from the high quality of its research program and the active participation of its members who, in addition to providing funding, participate in the definition of the research project and remain involved to provide ongoing guidance. The success of the CSER approach has been recognized by the prestigious award of the 2000 NSERC Leo Derikx Synergy Award bestowed for “an innovative model of long-lasting university-industry interaction in a pre-competitive realm that has benefited the general well-being of an industry”.

The results of early CSER work has been collected in a book entitled “Advances in Software Engineering” Springer Verlag ISBN 0-387-95109-1, 2001 as well as being reported in more than 300 technical papers. CSER university investigators are heavily involved in the creation and advancement of software engineering programs. More than 20 courses have been created or significantly modified as a result of CSER experience. Five former students in the CSER research program who have become university professors, are now current principal investigators

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The Challenge

  • undertake collaborative research with university investigators into critical industrial problems in software engineering
  • raise the profile of software engineering technology in the university curriculum.
  • promote "best practices" among software engineering practitioners.

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The Way it Works

  • Industry takes the lead in defining the research program and opens its development environments and proprietary software to the academic researchers.
  • University investigators and their students collaborate closely with industry and NRC researchers, often at the company location and always fully aware of the industrial context.
  • NRC provides technical coordination and hosts visiting workers who are participating in the consortium's research program. NRC will also provide financial support to CSER university investigators and students working at its laboratories.

CSER is managed by a five member Board of Directors, three of whom, including the Chair, are from industry. Two senior academic appointees represent the university community. The Board is responsible for resource allocation. CSER research projects are organized by themes and a Theme Steering Committee manages technical development and evolution of theme projects.

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Research Area

The CSER research program will improve and expand the methodologies, tools and techniques used to construct, deploy, support and evolve software; and to improve the quality of software, increase productivity, and manage costs. The current theme is "Engineering Software Change for Network-Centric Environments". Find out more about the upcoming themes for 2005 on the "Themes 2005" page.

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Training

Exchange of ideas through semi-annual forums and posting of results on the members-only web pages will expeditiously inform CSER participants of advances. University professors will develop course material based on their CSER experience and with the cooperation of the Consortium, contribute to the ongoing training of software practitioners. Dissemination of the best software engineering practices among the Canadian software development community is an explicit goal of CSER.

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Benefits

  • Industry benefits from academic effort focused on its problems
  • University investigators will be exposed to software engineering challenges in an industrial context
  • Research results will be disseminated beyond the immediate participants, both to current practitioners and to students

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Funding

CSER Members and NSERC fund University investigators. Current Phase III projects are supported by cash payments of $4.1 million. When in-kind contributions by the participants are included the CSER Phases III is a $6.8 million, 3-year research program.

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Future

CSER is proposing modest growth. Industrial and university interest is solicited.

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Legal Documents

Three documents govern the Consortium and are available for download in PDF format:

Bylaw No.1 defines the organizational structure and functioning of the Consortium.

The Membership Agreement defines membership categories, sets out general rights and obligations of the members and defines the rules governing intellectual property rights.

The Research Agreement with the Universities defines the relationship between the Consortium and research participants.

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