Teaching practical software engineering and global software engineering

Abstract

Changes and globalization of software (SW) development urgently require new ways of teaching and training students in practical and global SW engineering (SE). In this paper we present the innovative methods and experiences from several years of teaching practical and global SW engineering at the Computer Science Departments of San Francisco State University (SFSU), USA in conjunction with the University of Applied Sciences, Fulda University, Germany. We also provide analysis and evaluation of class effectiveness based on several assessment methods including extensive student questionnaires, with our recommendations for teaching such SE classes. Our approach was to combine and synchronize class teaching about SW engineering methods and processes with actual SW development work in a setting designed to simulate a small SW company. Students were divided in "local" groups of 4-6 members, each group forming small SW "companies" in charge of developing a complete working WWW application as a final class project. Several smaller groups of students at SFSU were paired with groups of students at Fulda University, whom they never met face to face, to form "global" groups, thus simulating global SW engineering in a realistic setting. Students developed their final project incorporating five well-defined milestones typical for full SW development lifecycle. Instructors spent considerable time supervising and interacting with student "companies" in the role of company customers, CTO and VPs of engineering, marketing and sales. All student groups (including global ones) were able to produce impressive final project applications and provided very positive feedback for this class.

Teaching Successful "Real-World" Software Engineering to the "Net" Generation: Process and Quality Win!

“…Today's real-world software development also includes distributed teams [12], outsourcing [13], and predetermined architecture and software reuse. TSP and the classroom methods described here can evolve to be even more realistic by including appropriate exposure to these in the team experience.…”

A classroom outsourcing experience for software engineering learning

“…Some have reported course experiences with distributed or global software engineering [7]; however, these courses were not structured as outsourcing.…”

Teaching Undergraduate Software Engineering Using Open Source Development Tools

“…More recently, techniques such as extreme programming (LeJeune, 2006), agile programming (Lu & DeClue, 2011), and software performance in programming (Dugan, 2004) have been incorporated in the educational experience. Some universities have courses which focus on programming techniques versus software engineering processes and team work (Petkovic et al, 2006). Regardless of the exact methodology taught, one common element of teaching of software engineering classes is the use of a final group project.…”