Trends in teaching object-oriented programming at the Community College level

The purpose of this study was to determine the current trends in teaching object-oriented programming at the community college level. A questionnaire was developed and sent to all community colleges in the state of New Jersey to assess the extent of object-oriented material offered in computer science courses. Nine community colleges participated in the study. All nine colleges reported offering at least one course containing some degree of object-oriented material. Of the eighty-five computer science courses offered, thirty of them (35%) contained some degree of object-oriented material. The degree of the object-oriented material ranged from 5% to 100%. Fourteen of the thirty courses (48%) contained at least 50% of objected-oriented material. Eight of the thirty courses (27%) were reported to have contained 100% object-oriented material. Colleges that reported the most object-oriented content had recently revised their computer science curriculum. The conclusions from this study indicated that the majority of computer science courses in the community college do not currently contain object-oriented material and the migration to an object-oriented paradigm is occurring slowly. The study also revealed a correlation between the computer science faculty\u27s experience in object-oriented programming and the degree of object-oriented material offered in the curriculum

Stability for component integration assessment

Component-Based Software Development is focused on assembling previously existing components (COTS and other non-developmental items) into larger systems, and migrating existing systems toward component approaches. Ideally, most of the application developer’s time is spent integrating components. We present an approach that can be used in the process of establishing component integration’s quality as an important field to resolving CBS quality problems – problems ranging from CBS quality definition, measurement, analysis, and improvement to tools, methods and processes. In this paper, we introduce an important property we called system’s stability as part of a cycle for assessing and improving component-based systems. This property is the basis for determining the impact of incorporating COTS components into a stable system.Eje: Ingeniería de SoftwareRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

The Quest for a Practical Sophomore-Level Software Engineering Course

This paper describes our efforts starting since 2014 when we began developing a practical introductory sophomore-level software engineering course. The aim is to guide students into the fundamental theory and practice of building reliable software, with an emphasis on agile and object-oriented practices. Course topics revolve around three main themes: 1) managing complexity (how to model and scale software), 2) achieving quality (how to minimize defects) and 3) supporting usability (how to deliver user functionality). Students are exposed to theoretical and practical aspects of software production, such as software life-cycle models, strong-typing, testing, documentation, graphical user interfaces, UML, design patterns, version control systems and software deployment. The course is in constant evolution: near-future plans include adding build automation tools and DevOps concepts. We made the early decision to use reference materials available to our students at no cost; therefore, all reference materials are accessed online through resources afforded by our library

Role-play and Use Case Cards for Requirements Review

This paper presents a technique that uses role-play and index cards to review use cases and to assist in making use case development more accessible and better guided. The technique is based on the established CRC card technique used for object-oriented design. In our technique, essential use cases are recorded on index cards, and role-play is used for development and review. The paper presents the technique, and outlines our experience in applying it

Quality Management Systems and Information Systems: Getting More than the Sum of the Parts

Companies are increasingly concerned with quality management of their products and services. Holding a quality certification, such as ISO 9001:2000, is becoming a compulsory requirement to play in selected markets. Designing a quality management system requires the extensive involvement of staff and managers and the analysis and redesign of business procedures. Interestingly enough, very similar requisites and tasks characterize enterprise systems design. However, the two endeavors are systematically conducted as separate projects, which are handled by different teams, equipped with unconnected methodologies. We present the first results of an approach we are developing to simultaneously address the design of the Quality Management System and of the Enterprise System. We identify the important synergies between the two initiatives, with the ultimate goal of creating a streamlined match between business processes and information system support, so that, when the project is finished, we can get both a fully operational information system and an officially certified quality audit for the whole enterprise