Preparing students for industrial teamwork: a seasoned software engineering curiculum

This paper reports on a two-term workshop taught as part of a master's degree in computer science. Lectures on software engineering (SE) methods, major issues in project management and work organisation accompany the workshop. The organisational framework, SE course schedule and contents aim at meeting industrial needs with limited personnel and technical resources, while maintaining good academic standards. Teaching project management in parallel with experiencing work organisation in teamwork is a major factor in tailoring SE education towards practical needs. The authors' SE consulting and project management experiences in industry have tuned the course priorities to caution with ‘latest’ methods or tools; focus on experiencing roles in SE teams, work organisation at team level as well as at the individual level; and focus on the careful selection of team supervisors.

[1]  Peter J. Denning,et al.  Educating a new engineer , 1992, CACM.

[2]  S. Biffl,et al.  A course in software engineering and project management at university level for industrial needs: some reliable results after ten years of experiences , 1997, Proceedings Eighth IEEE International Workshop on Software Technology and Engineering Practice incorporating Computer Aided Software Engineering.

[3]  Roy J. Daigle,et al.  Integrating collaborative problem solving throughout the curriculum , 1996, SIGCSE '96.

[4]  James Bach.  Point: SE Education: We're on Our Own , 1997, IEEE Softw..

[5]  A. Jones,et al.  An individual assessment technique for group projects in software engineering , 1989, Softw. Eng. J..

[6]  Stefan Biffl,et al.  The Challenge of Introducing the Object-Oriented Paradigm - An Empirical Investigation of a Software-Engineering Course , 1993, Struct. Program..

[7]  Joyce J. Elam,et al.  Inside a software design team: knowledge acquisition, sharing, and integration , 1993, CACM.

[8]  Judith S. Olson,et al.  Small Group Design Meetings: An Analysis of Collaboration , 1992, Hum. Comput. Interact..

[9]  Michael McCracken.  SE Education: What Academia Can Do , 1997, IEEE Software.

[10]  Ron W. Newsham,et al.  Introducing Software Engineers to the Real World , 1997, IEEE Softw..

[11]  Gary Simons,et al.  A project planning and development process for small teams , 1993, CACM.

[12]  Christopher J. Fox,et al.  Requirements for a computer science curriculum emphasizing information technology: subject area curriculum issues , 1996, SIGCSE '96.

[13]  Ronald B. Adler.  Communicating at Work: Principles and Practices for Business and the Professions , 1983 .

[14]  Bill Z. Manaris,et al.  Documentation standards in the undergraduate computer science curriculum , 1996, SIGCSE '96.

[15]  Harriet J. Fell,et al.  Writing across the computer science curriculum , 1996, SIGCSE '96.

[16]  Norman E. Gibbs,et al.  The education programme of the Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University , 1989, Softw. Eng. J..

[17]  Jane Chu Prey,et al.  Undergraduate computer science education: a new curriculum philosophy & overview , 1994, SIGCSE '94.

[18]  Larry L. Constantine,et al.  Work organization: paradigms for project management and organization , 1993, CACM.

[19]  Allen B. Tucker,et al.  Computing Curricula 1991 , 1991, CACM.

[20]  Peter J. B. King.  Experiences with group projects in software engineering , 1989, Softw. Eng. J..

[21]  A CarverCurtis,et al.  Felder's learning styles, Bloom's taxonomy, and the Kolb learning cycle , 1996 .

[22]  James E. Tomayko,et al.  Agents of Change: Educating Software Engineering Leaders , 1997, Computer.

[23]  Tim DeClue.  Object-orientation and the principles of learning theory: a new look at problems and benefits , 1996, SIGCSE '96.