Are Requirements Engineering Courses Covering what Industry Needs? A Preliminary Analysis of the United States Situation

In the United States, only few undergraduate curricula for computing-related field majors have an entire course dedicated to requirements engineering (RE). Usually, these are the bachelors of science in software engineering (BS SWE), while bachelors of science in computer science (BS CS) cover the topic during an overview course on software engineering, and dedicate only a couple of weeks to RE. Recent studies have shown that companies have specific demands for the competences that requirements engineers should have, and often such competences, such as analytical thinking and communication skills, are not sufficiently covered by RE textbooks and courses. However, no systematic analysis has been performed on the actual content of RE-related courses. In this paper, we survey what is taught in academia in RE-related courses. Our analysis is based on the data collected from more than 40 universities in the United States that offer a BS SWE. We show potential misalignments between what is offered by courses and industry needs, and we propose a research plan to further investigate this situation and to develop possible remedies for it.