Worldwide, most of the value in new products and systems is delivered through software. Much of the complexity of those products and systems resides in and is addressed by software. Most of the "surprises" that occur after product shipment and system deployment can be traced back to incorrect software implementation. Software is the underlying technology required to advance mobile phones, automobiles, and aircraft. The ability of any large company or government agency to manage its projects and organization depends heavily on sophisticated software that supports its business and technical processes, ranging from logistics systems to manufacturing or customer relationship management systems. Software is everywhere. Yet, reports from the Software Engineering Institute and others have painted the same story for years:  creating and evolving large-scale software on schedule, on budget, with expected functionality, is uncommon.

Software engineering (SwE) is the acknowledged discipline by which large-scale and complex software is developed. Many universities teach software engineering at the undergraduate level. In 2004, the IEEE and ACM supported the development of the reference curriculum for undergraduate SwE education; more than 30 colleges and universities supported this effort.

However, SwE at the graduate level has not been addressed since 1991, when the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) created a model curriculum for graduate education in SwE. Given the changes in global technology and the advent of numerous programming languages since 1991, the lack of a current reference graduate curriculum is dismaying. The world economy relies on the quality of senior SwE professionals, but a SwE professional educated on 1991 standards can not hope to keep pace with the current pace of SwE innovation.