Topics where there was the greatest difference between questions 2 and 1 on the survey, counting only participants who had learned almost nothing about the topic in their formal education. The implication is that these people were forced to learn this material on the job, and hence it must be important to someone with a career in software development.
Sample of data from the
1998 Survey of Software Practitioners|
Rank |
Topic |
Forced Learning (Q2 - Q1) |
Std. Dev. |
n |
|
1 |
Specific Programming Languages |
3.1 |
1.45 |
20 |
|
2 |
Data Structures |
2.7 |
1.61 |
38 |
|
3 |
Operating Systems |
2.7 |
1.24 |
52 |
|
4 |
Testing, Verification & Quality Assurance |
2.7 |
1.23 |
106 |
|
5 |
Project Management |
2.7 |
1.35 |
111 |
|
6 |
Object Oriented Concepts & Technology |
2.6 |
1.54 |
103 |
|
7 |
Databases |
2.6 |
1.30 |
79 |
|
8 |
Configuration and Release Management |
2.6 |
1.58 |
146 |
|
9 |
Requirements Gathering & Analysis |
2.5 |
1.47 |
100 |
|
10 |
Ethics and Professionalism |
2.5 |
1.65 |
104 |
|
11 |
Software Design and Patterns |
2.5 |
1.43 |
83 |
|
12 |
Giving Presentations to an Audience |
2.4 |
1.42 |
88 |