FHNW launches new computer science specialization DevOps
Software development does not stop when the product is ready for deployment - it continues as long as the product is alive. This is the central idea behind DevOps, the new IT specialization at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland FHNW, which will be launched in the autumn semester of 2024.
DevOps engineers are urgently sought-after specialists on the Swiss job market. Behind the term "DevOps" lies a cultural philosophy for the development of software products: "This refers to direct collaboration between software development and software operations. Ideally, both take place in the same team. That's why we need computer scientists who not only develop software as a project, but also operate it as a product themselves," explains Prof. Dr. Sebastian Graf. The Professor of Cloud Infrastructures and Agile Software Operations at the FHNW School of Engineering helped develop the new specialization and shaped it with his experience.
Developing software that overcomes boundaries
The new course is aimed at students who not only want to develop their software professionally themselves, but also operate it. "The beauty of DevOps is that it combines the classic Dev (short for development) and Ops (short for operations) currents," says Sebastian Graf.
One target group for this specialization is, for example, platform developers who want to transfer their experience in operating infrastructures to the operation of applications. Another group is made up of application developers who want to host and operate their applications themselves.
Develop and operate products
Practical projects also play a central role in the new specialization. However, unlike the previous specializations, the projects are not completed after one semester - the DevOps principle should also be put into practice here: students will work continuously on products that are developed and operated over several semesters. "The prospective DevOps engineers will develop and operate one or more FHNW-internal applications in a team over several semesters. In doing so, they learn to weigh up the trade-off between stability and new features themselves," explains Sebastian Graf.
"With the new specialization, we are the first university of applied sciences in Switzerland to offer students dedicated specialist training at Bachelor's level in the field of DevOps," says Prof. Dr. Ruth Schmitt, Head of Education at the FHNW School of Engineering. "In doing so, we are not only meeting a need for students, but also specifically addressing the shortage of specialists in a key area of software development."
Source: www.fhnw.ch
