Formal or informal, practical or impractical: towards integrating formal methods with informal practices in software engineering education

Two conflicting schools of thought have been dominating software engineering education. One school stresses on the popular software development methodologies, but horror stories on poorly designed systems are not uncommon. The other school advocates formal methods, but most practitioners regard them as impractical. We recommend that we should bridge the gap between the formal and informal by bringing theory to existing practice. The formalism should be used as a working tool behind popular software development methodologies. Students should not be trained as craftsmen who consider software development as an art and learn only from past mistakes. Nor should they be trained as mathematicians who are more comfortable with theory than applications. Software engineers must be educated as real 'engineers' who are competent with industrial practices as well as the mathematical foundation directly supporting them.postprin

Enseñanza Práctica de Ingeniería del Software Mediante la Colaboración de Alumnos de Diferentes Cursos

Se presenta el contenido de las asignaturas de Ingeniería del Software correspondientes a la titulación de Ingeniero en Informática de la Universidad de Oviedo. Se describe fundamentalmente el modelo de prácticas que realizan los alumnos, en el que unos realizan la especificación de un producto y otros constituyen un equipo de calidad realizando revisiones del mismo

Using a Class-Wide, Semester-Long Project to Teach Software Engineering Principles

A senior-level, project-based Software Engineeringcourse taught at the University of Central Arkansas serves asthe capstone course for the Computer Science Program andintroduces students to the theory, tools, and techniques used tobuild large-scale software systems in a project-driven setting.Foundational to the course is the use of a class-wide, semesterlongcourse project to emphasize the theoretical aspects of thesoftware process and the system used for scoring studentperformance on the project. One project is selected for theentire class with students divided into teams of four to sixstudents to support different functional requirement areas. Amilestone-driven approach is used following a modifiedversion of the Unified Process for project development.Student scores on the project are divided into a group score,assignable via a rubric-like grade sheet, and an individualscore which is determined by the individual’s effort asassigned using the task-management tool, Issue-Tracker.Experiences gained and lessons learned in teaching the courseare provided as a guide for those wishing to follow a similarapproach to teaching Software Engineering in the future

IS 2002 Model Curriculum and Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems

This article contains the official text of the IS 2002 Model Curriculum for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems as approved by The Association for Computing Machinery, The Association for Information Systems, and The Association of Information Technology Professionals. It is presented in its original form

Software metrics for monitoring software engineering projects

As part of the undergraduate course offered by Edith Cowan University, the Department of Computer Science has (as part of a year\u27s study) a software engineering group project. The structure of this project was divided into two units, Software Engineering l and Software Engineering 2. ln Software Engineering 1, students were given the group project where they had to complete and submit the Functional Requirement and Detail System Design documentation. In Software Engineering 2, students commenced with the implementation of the software, testing and documentation. The software was then submitted for assessment and presented to the client. To aid the students with the development of the software, the department had adopted EXECOM\u27s APT methodology as its standard guideline. Furthermore, the students were divided into groups of 4 to 5, each group working on the same problem. A staff adviser was assigned to each project group. The purpose of this research exercise was to fulfil two objectives. The first objective was to ascertain whether there is a need to improve the final year software engineering project for future students by enhancing any aspect that may be regarded as deficient. The second objective was to ascertain the factors that have the most impact on the quality of the delivered software. The quality of the delivered software was measured using a variety of software metrics. Measurement of software has mostly been ignored until recently or used without true understanding of its purpose. A subsidiary objective was to gain an understanding of the worth of software measurement in the student environment One of the conclusions derived from the study suggests that teams who spent more time on software design and testing, tended to produce better quality software with less defects. The study also showed that adherence to the APT methodology led to the project being on schedule and general team satisfaction with the project management. One of the recommendations made to the project co-ordinator was that staff advisers should have sufficient knowledge of the software engineering process

Models for undergraduate project courses in software engineering

Abstract: "The software engineering course provides undergraduates with an opportunity to learn something about real-world software development. Since software engineering is far from being a mature engineering discipline, it is not possible to define a completely satisfactory syllabus. Content with a sound basis is in short supply, and the material most often taught is at high risk of becoming obsolete within a few years. Undergraduate software engineering courses are now offered in more than a hundred universities. Although three textbooks dominate the market, there is not yet consensus on the scope and form of the course.The two major decisions an instructor faces are the balance between technical and management topics and the relation between the lecture andproject components. We discuss these two decisions, with support from sample syllabi and survey data on course offerings in the United States and Canada. We also offer some advice on the management of a project-oriented course."</p

Models for Undergraduate Project Courses in Software Engineering

The software engineering course provides undergraduates with an opportunity to learn something about real-world software development. Since software engineering is far from being a mature engineering discipline, it is not possible to define a completely satisfactory syllabus. Content with a sound basis is in short supply, and the material most often taught is at high risk of becoming obsolete within a few years. Undergraduate software engineering courses are now offered in more than a hundred universities. Although three textbooks dominate the market, there is not yet consensus on the scope and form of the course. The two major decisions an instructor faces are the balance between technical and management topics and the relation between the lecture and project components. We discuss these two decisions, with support from sample syllabi and survey data on course offerings in the United States and Canada. We also offer some advice on the management of a project-oriented course

Models for Undergraduate Project Courses in Software Engineering. Review paper for curriculum design workshop, MIT Endicott House, January 1991

The software engineering course provides undergraduates with an opportunity to learn something about real-world software development. Since software engineering is far from being a mature engineering discipline, it is not possible to define a completely satisfactory syllabus. Content with a sound basis is in short supply, and the material most often taught is at high risk of becoming obsolete within a few years. Undergraduate software engineering courses are now offered in more than a hundred universities. Although three textbooks dominate the market, there is not yet consensus on the scope and form of the course. The two major decisions an instructor faces are the balance between technical and management topics and the relation between the lecture and project components. We discuss these two decisions, with support from sample syllabi and survey data on course offerings in the United States and Canada. We also offer some advice on the management of a project-oriented course.</p