Development of customer-based outcome measures for an engineering program

The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has proposed fundamental changes to their accreditation criteria that are performance based, rather than prescriptive. As a result, engineering schools must now consider developing methods and measures to evaluate their engineering programs. One approach to developing program outcomes is to utilize feedback from customers of the engineering education system, specifically alumni and practicing engineers. As part of a larger research effort, the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh used customer feedback to develop a set of outcome measures for its program. Responses from surveys sent to the 1987 engineering graduates were analyzed by focus groups consisting of industrial engineers from the Pittsburgh area. From this information, the participants developed affinity diagrams to represent the requirements of an industrial engineering degree. Results of the affinity diagrams were then consolidated to form a set of fifteen measures that could be used in an evaluation program. The outcome measures developed were found to be in concert with the EAC 2000 criteria, yet were specific to the needs of the industrial engineering discipline. This paper discusses the research results and how the methods employed can be transferred to other engineering disciplines.