Incorporating software quality assurance in computer science education: an experiment

Abstract

This paper describes an experiment which involved students in the undergraduate computer science senior project capstone design course, and students in the graduate software testing course. Students entering the senior project class are graduating seniors who have completed all but maximum of two required CS classes. They have already completed a one-semester software engineering class, with major emphasis on software development life cycle and software processes. Students entering the software testing course have already completed graduate courses in software engineering, project management, requirement engineering, and they may have other courses in software design and architecture. Students in the undergraduate class worked as the development team while students in the graduate class worked as the software quality assurance team, both working on a single product. This paper describes the process, product, and the out come of this experiment. In addition, student feedback and lessons learned are also discussed.