Software Engineering Training Research Articles

Using Peer Assessment Leveraging Large Language Models in Software Engineering Education

This paper explores the integration of generative AI and large language models into the realm of software engineering education and training, with a specific focus on the transformation of traditional peer assessment methodologies. The motivation stems from the growing demand for innovative educational techniques that can effectively engage and empower learners in mastering Software Engineering principles. The proposed approach involves presenting students with modeling exercises solved by ChatGPT, prompting them to critically evaluate and provide constructive feedback on the generated solutions. By engaging students in a dialogue with the AI model, we aim to foster a dynamic learning environment where learners can articulate their considerations and insights, thereby enhancing their comprehension of software engineering principles, critical thinking and self evaluation skills. Preliminary results from pilot implementations indicate promising outcomes, suggesting that this approach not only enhances the quality of peer feedback but also contributes to a more interactive and engaging educational experience.

Usage of Gamification Techniques in Software Engineering Education and Training: A Systematic Review

Gamification, the integration of game design elements into non-game contexts, has gained prominence in the software engineering education and training realm. By incorporating elements such as points, badges, quests, and challenges, gamification aims to motivate and engage learners, potentially transforming traditional educational methods. This paper addresses the gap in systematic evaluations of gamification’s effectiveness in software engineering education and training by conducting a comprehensive literature review of 68 primary studies. This review explores the advantages of gamification, including active learning, individualized pacing, and enhanced collaboration, as well as the psychological drawbacks such as increased stress and responsibility for students. Despite the promising results, this study highlights that gamification should be considered a supplementary tool rather than a replacement for traditional teaching methods. Our findings reveal significant interest in integrating gamification in educational settings, driven by the growing need for digital content to improve learning.

Gamification strategy to promote social and human factors in the training of software engineers: A case study

AbstractSoftware Engineering is a discipline frequently reflected in training strategies. This discipline requires certain levels of abstraction to achieve the competencies and skills necessary for the professional development of future software developers. The software industry increasingly demands that professionals in this discipline have social and human skills to achieve highly productive teams. Therefore, these teams should respond to such demands in a world with increasing dependence on technology and the development of software products. Traditional pedagogical strategies often need help adapting to the new generations of software engineers and responding in a limited way to the demands of teaching processes related to this discipline. This article evaluates a gamification‐based strategy designed for the Software Engineering course at a Latin American higher education institution. This course addressed software project management as a training objective. Such a strategy was designed with a gamification‐based model to influence the productivity of software development teams. The results of using the model show its efficiency and usefulness as a guide for implementing new strategies based on gamification that considers social and human factors (SHFs) to intervene in the productivity of software development teams. The challenges designed in the proposal presented managed to promote SHFs in the participants, according to the analysis of the prepared case study. According to these results, the factors considered relate to skills and experience in managing software development projects, motivation, and communication. The activities executed by the participants in the context of the case study strengthened the human side of the team and allowed its growth to achieve its objectives.

Product managers in software startups: A grounded theory

Context:Defining and designing a software product is not merely a technical endeavor, but also a socio-technical journey. As such, its success is associated with human-related aspects, such as the value users perceive. To handle this issue, the product manager role has become more evident in software-intensive companies. A unique, challenging context for these professionals is constituted by software startups, emerging companies developing novel solutions looking for sustainable and scalable business models. Objective:This study aims to describe the role of product managers in the context of software startups. Method:We performed a Socio-Technical Grounded Theory study using data from blog posts and interviews. Results:The results describe the product manager as a multidisciplinary, general role, not only guiding the product by developing its vision but also as a connector that emerges in a growing company, enabling communication of software development with other areas, mainly business and user experience. The professional performing this role has a background in one of these areas but a broad knowledge and understanding of key concepts of the other areas is needed. We also describe how differences of this role to other lead roles are perceived in practice. Conclusions:Our findings represent several implications for research, such as better understanding of the role transformation in growing software startups, practice, e.g., identifying the points to which a professional migrating to this role should pay attention, and the education of future software developers, by suggesting the inclusion of related topics in the education and training of future software engineers.

Software Engineering Education and Training: Industry Demands, Curriculum Deficits, and Pedagogy Direction

Software Engineering Education and Training: Industry Demands, Curriculum Deficits, and Pedagogy Direction

Modeling training content for software engineers in parallel computing

This study proposes a robust framework for the training of software engineers specializing in parallel computing. We first curated essential content for parallel computing education based on international standards and evolving recommendations from Computing Curricula. We then systematically structured the content and designed a well-defined learning pathway for aspiring software engineers. Concurrently, we conducted a comprehensive assessment of the current state of training for parallel computing in Ukrainian higher education institutions. We analyzed bachelor’s programs in Information Technologies and scrutinized individual course syllabi to identify valuable insights. By merging our findings with the review of educational programs, we formulated a comprehensive model for training in parallel computing. We also examined the pivotal role of the course ”Parallel and Distributed Computing” in the developed curriculum and identified essential tools and methodologies for developing parallel and distributed programs. Our research contributes to the advancement of parallel computing education and provides a valuable reference point for curriculum designers and educators.

A Systematic Mapping Study of ISO/IEC 29110 and Software Engineering Education

This article presents a study of the publications made on the ISO/IEC 29110 standard in the university context, especially from the perspective of software engineering education. ISO 29110 is a life cycle profiles for very small entities on systems and software engineering standard, published in many parts. ISO 29110, since its publication in 2011 and its continuous evolution to these days, is the subject of study in different contexts, with education being a relevant axis. Considering, that software engineering education has implications in the software industry in emerging countries, it is necessary to identify and consolidate the work done in this context. In this study, the main research question was what researches have been done at ISO 29110 in the training of software engineers? To answer this question, a systematic mapping study (SMS) was performed. In the SMS, 241 articles were obtained with search string and 17 of them became as primary study after a process selection. Based on these studies, it was possible to determine that the software engineering Basic profile of ISO 29110 and its processes (Project Management and Software Implementation) have been the most studied. Besides, it was identified that project-oriented learning and gamification techniques have been the most used ISO 29110 learning strategies in the training of future software industry professionals.

Design of a Visual Training System for Software Engineering Education Based on Knowledge Graphs

With the increase of the content and difficulty of software engineering education courses, software engineering education visual training system came into being, but the technology is not mature at present, and the representation learning algorithm part of the visual training system needs to be optimized. In order to solve this problem, the research proposes to optimize the take model by using the trans representation algorithm, and embed the optimized knowledge map into the new software engineering education visual training system. The performance of TEKEE model is verified by comparing TEKEE model with Trans E model, Trans D model and TEKED model. The experimental results show that the MR value of the optimized TEKEE model is 62, Hits@10 The value is 0.92, which is better than the other three representation learning models. In terms of the bearing capacity test of the visual training system, the response time of the business operation of the research and design training system is 1.22 seconds, and the CPU occupancy of the application server is 12.5%, all of which are normal. The experimental results show that the performance of the optimized TEKEE model has indeed been greatly improved, and the visual training system composed of the optimized knowledge map has a very good carrying capacity, which can provide a new idea for the software engineering education and training system.

ISO/IEC 29110 and Software Engineering Education: A Systematic Mapping Study

This article presents a study of the publications made on the ISO/IEC 29110 standard in the university context, especially from the perspective of software engineering education. ISO 29110 is a life cycle profiles for very small entities on systems and software engineering standard, published in many parts. ISO 29110, since its publication in 2011 and its continuous evolution to these days, is the subject of study in different contexts, with education being a relevant axis. Considering, that software engineering education has implications in the software industry in emerging countries, it is necessary to identify and consolidate the work done in this context. In this study, the main research question was what researches have been done at ISO 29110 in the training of software engineers? To answer this question, a systematic mapping study (SMS) was performed. In the SMS, 241 articles were obtained with search string and 17 of them became as primary study after a process selection. Based on these studies, it was possible to determine that the software engineering Basic profile of ISO 29110 and its processes (Project Management and Software Implementation) have been the most studied. Besides, it was identified that project-oriented learning and gamification techniques have been the most used ISO 29110 learning strategies in the training of future software industry professionals.

DevOps Research-Based Teaching Using Qualitative Research and Inter-Coder Agreement

DevOps is becoming a main competency required by the software industry. However, academic institutions have been slow to provide DevOps training in software engineering (SE) curricula. One reason for this is the fact that the problems addressed by DevOps may be hard to understand to students who have not previously worked in the industry or on projects of meaningful size and complexity. This paper shows an experience that integrates DevOps in SE curricula through research-based teaching (RBT). We aim to expose students to the problems that have led companies to adopt DevOps by researching and analyzing real cases of companies, thereby placing students at the center of learning. The contribution of this work is to innovate the application of RBT in software engineering by showing that the RBT approach is, at least, as good as the traditional approach and that it also leads to some extra benefits. This innovative solution has been implemented by using (i) qualitative analysis, specifically coding techniques, to discover knowledge and (ii) inter-coder agreement (ICA), specifically Krippendorff’s <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha$</tex-math></inline-formula> coefficients, to measure the extent of students’ learning. These techniques allow teachers to determine whether students’ learning in the subject is homogeneous and to analyze disagreements among students during their analysis. This approach provides teachers with new tools (Krippendorff’s <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\alpha$</tex-math></inline-formula> coefficients) to identify those concepts that are less understood by students and to evaluate whether improvements in the research instruments (e.g., the codebook used in the qualitative analysis) also generate improvements in the students’ agreement. This RBT experience shows evidence that can be used to assess whether a similar experience and the use of ICA could be applied in similar learning contexts with similar research contexts.

Professional competencies of future software engineers in the software design: teaching techniques

The article is devoted to one of the competence components of a mobile-oriented environment for professional and practical training of future software engineers. It is shown that the introduction of higher education standard 121 “Software Engineering” for the first (bachelor) level of higher education in Ukraine has generated a number of training quality assurance problems associated primarily with the low level of detailed competencies and program learning outcomes. By solving these problems, the detailed design of the system of professional competencies for future software engineers is developed. The article deals with the approaches to developing one of the most important special professional competences of future software engineers – the ability to participate in software design, including modeling (formal description) of its structure, behavior, and processes of functioning. Based on a historical and genetic review of the software engineering training practice of future software engineers in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, recommendations for choosing forms of training organization, selection of training content, ways of students’ and teachers’ activities in software engineering, modeling and designing tools; assessment of the appropriate competence formation level are formulated. The example of organizing design training in conditions close to industrial-studio training is considered. The problems of transition from architectural to detailed design and project implementation are shown. Prospects for further development of this study are to substantiate the third (after requirements engineering and design engineering) engineering component of software engineering – the software construction.

Software Engineering Education for the Next Generation SEENG 2021 Workshop Report

The 3rd International Workshop on Software Engineering Education for the Next Generation was held remotely on May 24, 2021. The workshop was an integral component of the Joint Track on Software Engineering Education and Training at the 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering. It specifically supported the general theme of "Educating the Next Generation of Software Engineers". Building on its predecessors, the workshop used a highly interactive format, structured around eight short paper presentations to generate discussion topics, an activity to select the most interesting topics, and structured breakout sessions to allow participants to discuss those topics in detail. Participants presented the results of the breakout sessions using mind maps.

FORMATION OF THE CONTENT OF PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF FUTURE SOFTWARE ENGINEERS IN THE FIELD OF PARALLEL COMPUTING

The article describes the formation of the content of professional training of future software engineers in the field of parallel computing based on foreign fundamental works. The author highlights the problems that arise in shaping the content of professional training of future software engineers in the field of parallel computing. The difficulty of forming the content of professional training of future software engineers in the field of parallel computing is due to the constant rapid development of the theoretical basis for the use of parallel computing and tools for developing parallel and distributed programs. The following main sources were used to form the content of professional training of future software engineers in parallel and distributed computing: recommendations on the subject area of parallel and distributed computing of the ACM and IEEE-CS project, recommendations on the subject area of parallel and distributed computing with the support of NS. and the IEEE-TCPP Committee, fundamental work on parallel computing. Based on the sources described above, five main areas of knowledge were identified, covering the full range of parallel computing issues: mathematical foundations of parallel computing, parallel computing systems (computer basics), parallel programming technologies, parallel problemsolving algorithms, parallel computing, big tasks and specific subject areas. A consolidated content of professional training was formed in the form of a list of thematic sections on parallel calculations, which indicates the presence or absence of the relevant topic. ACM’s analysis of the paradigms of global computer education over the years and the work of foreign authors has led to a list of topics for training future software engineers in parallel computing and a recommended sequence of study paths.

Software Sustainability: A Systematic Literature Review and Comprehensive Analysis

Software Engineering is a constantly evolving subject area that faces new challenges every day as it tries to automate newer business processes. One of the key challenges to the success of a software solution is attaining sustainability. The inability of numerous software to sustain for the desired time-length is caused by limited consideration given towards sustainability during the stages of software development. This review aims to present a detailed and inclusive study covering both the technical and non-technical challenges and approaches of software sustainability. A systematic and comprehensive literature review was conducted based on 107 relevant studies that were selected using the Evidence-Based Software Engineering (EBSE) technique. The study showed that sustainability can be achieved by conducting specific activities at the technical and non-technical levels. The technical level consists of software design, coding, and user experience attributes. The non-technical level consists of documentation, sustainability manifestos, training of software engineers, funding software projects, and leadership skills of project managers to achieve sustainability. This paper groups the existing research efforts based on the above aspects. Next, how those aspects affect open and closed source software is tabulated. Based on the findings of this review, it is seen that both technical and non-technical sustainability aspects are equally important, taking one into contention and ignoring the other will threaten the sustenance of software products.

Model of formation of professional competences of future software engineers under the conditions of the shortened cycle of professional training at universities

The author's model of formation of professional competences of future software engineers under the conditions of the shortened cycle of professional training at universities is characterized in the article. The relevance of such a study is due to the need of the labour market in the quality of training of software engineers in a short time, and hence the need to create appropriate conditions and use effective forms, methods and tools of training. In order to pre-evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed organizational and pedagogical conditions for the formation of professional competencies of future software engineers under the conditions of the shortened cycle of professional training at universities and forecasting the results of planned impacts, we have developed a structural and functional model of this process. The model contains the following blocks: block of organizational and pedagogical conditions, target block (purpose and tasks), methodological block (scientific approaches, pedagogical principles), content and procedural block (content, forms, methods and means of forming professional competencies of future software engineers), evaluation and reflective block (components of professional competencies of future software engineers, criteria, levels and indicators of their formation, assessment tools and diagnostic techniques), result block (expected result of the research process).

Understanding students’ software development projects: Effort, performance, satisfaction, skills and their relation to the adequacy of outcomes developed

Given the inclusion of (often team-based) course projects in tertiary software engineering education, it is necessary to investigate software engineering curricula and students’ experiences while undergoing their software engineering training. Previous research efforts have not sufficiently explored students perceptions around the commitment and adequacy of effort spent on software engineering projects, their project performance and skills that are developed during course projects. This gap in skills awareness includes those that are necessary, anticipated and learned, and the challenges to student project success, which may predict project performance. Such insights could inform curricula design, theory and practice, in terms of improving post-study software development success. We conducted a survey involving undergraduate across four universities in New Zealand and Cyprus to explore these issues, where extensive deductive and inductive analyses were performed. Among our findings we observe that students’ commitment of effort on software engineering project seems appropriate. Students are more satisfied with their team’s collaboration performance than technical contributions, but we found that junior students seemed to struggle with teamwork. Further, we observe that the software students developed were of higher quality if they had worked in project teams previously, had stronger technical skills and were involved in timely meetings. This study singles out mechanisms for informing good estimation of effort, mentoring technical competencies and suitable coaching for enhancing project success and student learning.

The use of cloud computing technology in professional training of future programmers

The article provides a brief analysis of the current state of the study of cloud technologies by future software engineers at foreign and Ukrainian universities. The author experience in the application of cloud technologies in the training of future software engineers in Ukraine is presented. The application of cloud business automation systems, online services to monitor the implementation of the software projects, Google services for collaboration, planning and productivity while studying professional disciplines and carrying out diploma projects is described. Based on the survey conducted at Stackoverflow, the state of application of cloud technologies by software engineers around the world has been analyzed. The cloud technologies that are not studied at the analyzed universities of Ukraine and those that are not popular with software developers in the world, but studied at Ukrainian universities by future software engineers are outlined. Conclusions are made on the modernization of training programs for future software engineers. Topics for the study of cloud technologies by future software engineers in the content of professional disciplines are proposed.

Evaluation of Critical Thinking in Online Software Engineering Teaching: A Systematic Mapping Study

Critical thinking consists in analysing and evaluating the coherence of reasoning. This ability is crucial when we talk about software quality (SQ). SQ is closely related with the engineer’s ability to judge and discriminate between solutions correctly, so students are required to analyse, evaluate and draw conclusions. Critical thinking, therefore, becomes a crucial part of the training of software engineers. The problem arises from the diversity of proposals and the lack of rigour in existing experiences, making it difficult to find specific recommendations, especially in online contexts. This article reports a systematic mapping study (SMS), the purpose of which was to detect, organise and characterise specific dimensions in online teaching-learning of critical thinking for software engineering. Based on the results of the SMS, we propose a preliminary framework for the evaluation of critical thinking in the training of software engineers in a context of online higher education. It is expected that this proposal will serve as a basis for instructors of the discipline when evaluating critical thinking in a context of online teaching.

Consideration of cognitive styles as a method of solving the problem of intensification of professional training of future software engineers

Consideration of cognitive styles as a method of solving the problem of intensification of professional training of future software engineers

Approaches to taking into account cognitive styles in the process of professional training of future software engineers

The article presents the results of a study aimed at analyzing the psychological phenomenon of «cognitive personality style». The research goal is to determine approaches to taking into account the cognitive styles of future software engineers in the process of professional training in educational programs of master's level. Methods. Basic research methods used were search and selection of relevant articles on the research problem in the Google Scholar search engine and bibliographic abstract database Scopus; analysis and generalization of scientific publications; study of the educational process. The results. The scientific publications on the problem of cognitive personality styles are analyzed. The modern interpretations of this concept and its characteristics are considered. In particular, it is established that cognitive style is a well-established individual ways of intellectual behavior of the individual. It is shown that the consideration of cognitive styles is important for achieving the goals of training future software engineers in master's degree programs, as one of the requirements for them is the ability to work in conditions of uncertainty. Methods of pedagogical design taking into account cognitive styles of personality in the process of professional training of future software engineers are offered. Conclusions. Professional training of future software engineers in a modern student-centered educational environment is based on individual qualities and cognitive processes of the individual. In addition, attention to cognitive styles of personality is increased as the sustainable ways of handling information are essential for successful activities in the information society. The relationship between the cognitive styles of the individual and the effectiveness of its activities is currently insufficiently studied, so there are a number of problems in the educational process that need to be addressed to achieve the goals of quality training of future software engineers. Based on the analysis of scientific publications and our own experience, we can offer the following approaches to taking into account the cognitive styles of higher education: building an educational process based on the formed cognitive styles for the formation of new knowledge; grouping students with different styles to work together; creating situations for the manifestation of atypical for the individual models of intellectual behavior.