Software Engineering Project Course Research Articles

Students’ Communication Self-efficacy and Its Impact on the Enhancement of Communication Skills in Software Engineering Project Courses

Developing the communication skills of software engineering graduates to meet industry requirements is a challenge for educators. This study presents a project-based learning framework that promotes students’ communication skills in a software engineering project course. The questionnaire on self-efficacy for software development (CSESD) was designed for students’ self-assessment of their confidence in communication skills. Findings indicate that students’ CSESD increased significantly after the course ended. Educators can apply the designed framework to software development-related project courses. The CSESD questionnaire can be used to assess students' confidence in their communication skills and assist educators in preparing students’ readiness before graduation.

A Three-Year Study on Peer Evaluation in a Software Engineering Project Course

<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background:</i> Peer evaluation in software engineering (SE) project courses enhances the learning experience of students. It also helps instructors monitor and assess both teams and individual students. Peer evaluations might influence the way individual students and teams work; therefore, the quality of the peer evaluations should be tracked through the project course. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Contribution:</i> In this article, we analyzed the quality and scoring behavior of students in peer evaluation in an undergraduate SE project course over three years. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research Questions:</i> RQ1: What is the quality of peer evaluation of undergraduate students in a SE project course? RQ2: How do undergraduate students in an SE project course score each other? <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methodology:</i> The quality of peer evaluation (length, level of detail, etc.) and scoring of peers based on various aspects of peer evaluations of third-year students in a year-long SE project course were studied. Taking into account the grade students received at the end of the course (A, B, C, and F-calibers), peer evaluations were categorized, analyzed over time, and compared between students calibers. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Findings:</i> After analyzing 6854 peer evaluations from 193 students, it was found that the quality of peer evaluations across students was mostly consistent throughout the course. Also, it was observed that quantitative aspects of the peer evaluation were scored similarly across student calibers. However, the qualitative aspects of the peer evaluation were impacted by the caliber of students. These findings suggest that weaker students (i.e., C-caliber students) generally receive better quality peer evaluations than stronger students (i.e., A-caliber students). Finally, a preliminary analysis showed a positive connotation of emotions and sentiments found in the textual feedback delivered by students.

Assessing individual contributions to software engineering projects: a replication study

ABSTRACT Background and Context Assessing team members’ indivdiual contributions to software development projects poses a key problem for computing instructors. While instructors typically rely on subjective assessments, objective assessments could provide a more robust picture. To explore this possibility, In a 2020 paper, Buffardi presented a correlational analysis of objective metrics and subjective metrics in an advanced software engineering project course (n= 41 students and 10 teams), finding only two significant correlations. Objective To explore the robustness of Buffardi’s findings and gain further insight, we conducted a larger scale replication of the Buffardi study (n = 118 students and 25 teams) in three courses at three institutions. Method We collected the same data as in the Buffardi study and computed the same measures from those data. We replicated Buffardi’s exploratory, correlational and regression analyses of objective and subjective measures. Findings While replicating four of Buffardi’s five significant correlational findings and partially replicating the findings of Buffardi’s regression analyses, our results go beyond those of Buffardi by identifying eight additional significant correlations. Implications In contrast to Buffardi’s study, our larger scale study suggests that subjective and objective measures of individual performance in team software development projects can be fruitfully combined to provide consistent and complementary assessments of individual performance.

The Effectiveness of Project Based Learning with Computational Thinking Techniques in a Software Engineering Project Course

To date, finding the most effective method to teach SE students is extremely challenging. This study used the project-based learning approach which applies computational thinking techniques by engaging students via inquiry based, hands on and student centric in teaching the software engineering Project course to students enrolled in a software engineering program. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the project-based learning approach as an innovative pedagogical method to improve software engineering students’ skills in three critical domains, namely practical, knowledge, and soft-skills. Seventy students’ skills and knowledge of various aspects of software engineering before and after the learning intervention were compared using the t-test. They were guided to carry out a software engineering project in several groups. Survey questionnaires consisting of close and open-ended questions to probe various aspects of software engineering, namely project planning, requirement analysis, software design, developments, and presentation, were administered to the students after the learning intervention. The results showed the differences in students’ skills and knowledge in the above aspects of software engineering were significant, signifying that the project-based learning––computational thinking approach is an effective approach to help students learn such aspects of software engineering more efficaciously and boost cooperative learning.

Assessing Students’ IT Professional Values in a Global Project Setting

This research aimed at evaluating the development and use of low-cost affective domain assessment instruments, culminating with personal and group characterization of representative global information technology (IT) professional values. Values and valuing are a compelling component of Bloom's affective domain of learning for engineering education. In helping students develop professional engineering competencies, it is essential that they develop not just cognitive knowledge of something but also values related to that knowledge and the ability to express these values in professional action. However, even if some professional values are identified, understood, and expressed, assessing students’ values and valuing are difficult, and assessment instruments are often difficult to develop, particularly for assessing student learning in the context of a particular course. This exploratory study aimed at examining assessment of dispositional knowledge in the context of global software engineering (GSE). It focused on the development and use of a set of instruments for assessing affective domain student learning of global IT/software engineering (SE) professional values. The project included making explicit the IT professional values of interest among the participating faculty in the form of actionable value statements. Following a process derived from Thurstone scale development, the project included validation of these statements with an expert panel as question roots, followed by the use of these questions to investigate student and alumni receiving, responding, and valuing of these professional values. The effort needed to generate questionnaires suitable for course use was relatively low; these questionnaires were deployed to students and alumni from an open-ended global software engineering project course. Students responding reported significant agreement when receiving these global values, but sent more mixed responses in responding to and valuing them. The effort helped identify several actionable IT professional values worth reinforcing in future course offerings.

Enhancing the Student Learning Experience in Software Engineering Project Courses

Carrying out real-world software projects in their academic studies helps students to understand what they will face in industry, and to experience first-hand the challenges involved when working collaboratively. Most of the instructional strategies used to help students take advantage of these activities focus on supporting agile programming, which is appropriate for capstone courses. This is not always recommended in initial software engineering project courses, however, where novice developers run projects in teams while simultaneously taking other courses. To enhance the learning and teamwork experience in this latter instructional scenario, this paper proposes a formative monitoring method, reflexive weekly monitoring (RWM), for use in project courses that involve disciplined software processes and loosely coupled work. RWM uses self-reflection and collaborative learning practices to help students be aware of their individual and team performance. RWM was applied in a case study over nine consecutive semesters. The results obtained indicate that RWM was effective in enhancing the learning experience in the instructional scenario studied. While students in the monitored teams were more effective and coordinated, and experienced a higher sense of team belonging and satisfaction, little evidence was found of them being more productive than students working in non-monitored teams.

Software Engineering Project Courses with Industrial Clients

There is an acknowledged need for teaching realistic software development in project courses. The design space for such courses is wide, ranging from single-semester to two-semester courses, from single-client to multicustomer courses, from local to globally distributed courses, and from toy projects to projects with real clients. The challenge for a nontrivial project course is how to make the project complex enough to enrich students’ software engineering experience, yet realistic enough to have a teaching environment that does not unduly burden students or the instructor. We describe a methodology for project courses that is realizable for instructors, improves students’ skills, and leads to viable results for industry partners. In particular, recent advances in release management and collaboration workflows reduce the effort of students and instructors during delivery and increase the quality of the deliverables. To enable release and feedback management, we introduce Rugby, an agile process model based on Scrum that allows reacting to changing requirements. To improve early communication, we use Tornado, a scenario-based design approach that emphasizes the use of informal models for the interaction between clients and students. The combination of Rugby and Tornado allows students to deal with changing requirements, produce multiple releases, and obtain client feedback through the duration of the course. We describe our experience with more than 300 students working on 40 projects with external clients over a 4-year period. In the latest instance of our course, the students have produced more than 7000 builds with 600 releases for eleven clients. In an evaluation of the courses, we found that the introduction of Rugby and Tornado significantly increased students’ technical skills, especially with respect to software engineering, usability engineering, and configuration management, as well as their nontechnical skills such as communication with the client, teamwork, presentation, and demo management. Finally, we discuss how other instructors can adapt the course concept.

The Company Approach to Software Engineering Project Courses

Teaching larger software engineering project courses at the end of a computing curriculum is a way for students to learn some aspects of real-world jobs in industry. Such courses, often referred to as capstone courses, are effective for learning how to apply the skills they have acquired in, for example, design, test, and configuration management. However, these courses are typically performed in small teams, giving only a limited realistic perspective of problems faced when working in real companies. This paper describes an alternative approach to classic capstone projects, with the aim of being more realistic from an organizational, process, and communication perspective. This methodology, called the company approach, is described by intended learning outcomes, teaching/learning activities, and assessment tasks. The approach is implemented and evaluated in a larger Master's student course.

Balancing Plan-Driven and Agile Methods in Software Engineering Project Courses

For the past 6 years, we have been teaching a two-semester software engineering project course. The students organize into 5-person teams and develop largely web-based electronic services projects for real USC campus clients. We have been using and evolving a method called Model- Based (System) Architecting and Software Engineering (MBASE) for use in both the course and in industrial applications. The MBASE Guidelines include a lot of documents. We teach risk-driven documentation: if it is risky to document something, and not risky to leave it out (e.g., GUI screen placements), leave it out. Even so, students tend to associate more documentation with higher grades, although our grading eventually discourages this. We are always on the lookout for ways to have students learn best practices without having to produce excessive documentation. Thus, we were very interested in analyzing the various emerging agile methods. We found that agile methods and milestone plan-driven methods are part of a “how much planning is enough?” spectrum. Both agile and plan-driven methods have home grounds of project characteristics where they clearly work best, and where the other will have difficulties. Hybrid agile/plan-driven approaches are feasible, and necessary for projects having a mix of agile and plan-driven home ground characteristics. Information technology trends are going more toward the agile methods' home ground characteristics of emergent requirements and rapid change, although there is a concurrent increase in concern with dependability. As a result, we are currently experimenting with risk-driven combinations of MBASE and agile methods, such as integrating requirements, test plans, peer reviews, and pair programming into “agile quality management.”

Software Engineering Education for the Knowledge Creating Society

For several years, the focus of management has shifted to software production in all divisions of the Hitachi group. In the development of software products, it is necessary to satisfy not only the function, the performance, and the usability but also various requirements for cost, delivery date, quality, extendibility, and maitainability. SEP: Software Engineering Project course is perhaps one of the most advanced industrial training programs for software engineering in the world. Two factors are particularly important: emphasis on both technical and managerial topics, and continuous improvement of the course. The SEP will result in improved software engineering capabilities for Hitachi, both in the nearterm and long-term future of the knowledge creating society.

Communication metrics for software development

Presents empirical evidence that metrics on communication artifacts generated by groupware tools can be used to gain significant insight into the development process that produced them. We describe a test-bed for developing and testing communication metrics, a senior-level software engineering project course at Carnegie Mellon University, in which we conducted several studies and experiments from 1991-1996 with more than 400 participants. Such a test-bed is an ideal environment for empirical software engineering, providing sufficient realism while allowing for controlled observation of important project parameters. We describe three proof-of-concept experiments to illustrate the value of communication metrics in software development projects. Finally, we propose a statistical framework based on structural equations for validating these communication metrics.

Assessing the software process maturity of software engineering courses

Since its introduction by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in 1987, the SEI Software Process Maturity Model has gained wide visibility and acceptance by industry. Its overall goal is to enable an organization to assess its software process maturity in order that it might be able to improve its software development process. Inspired by the success of the SEI model, this paper describes an attempt to develop an analogous, but highly simplified and unvalidated process maturity framework applicable to software engineering project courses. Our goal is to enable an instructor of a software engineering project course to assess the software development processes utilized in the course and to improve these processes leading to better managed and more successful projects.

Lessons learned teaching Ada in the context of software engineering

Educators across the country are struggling with difficult issues in the teaching of Ada and its relationship to the computer science curriculum. By design, the language supports software engineering principles. Therefore, it would seem that the “natural” place for teaching Ada is within the context of software engineering. This paper reports on the author's and his students' experiences in learning and using Ada in different settings, including a software engineering project course, and a course centered on Ada and its use.

Experience with a Software Engineering Project Course

This paper presents an approach to meeting the academic objectives of advanced software engineering project courses. The objectives are increased competence and confidence of the students in carrying out software development projects. The academic context includes a simulated industrial context. Part of the industrial context consists of industrial roles played for the student team by the instructor and others. The project itself is divided into tasks related to deliverables and collateral responsibilities. The software production model is a combination of the waterfall, iterative enhancement, and document-driven techniques. A software development environment is mentioned although the details are presented elsewhere. Further detail is given for five project courses conducted by the author.