Evaluation of team dynamic in Norwegian projects for IT students

The need for teaching realistic software development in project courses has increased in a global scale. It has always been challenges in cooperating fast-changing software technologies, development methodologies and teamwork. Moreover, such project courses need to be designed in the connection to existing theoretical courses. We performed a large-scale research on student performance in Software Engineering projects in Norwegian universities. This paper investigates four aspects of team dynamics, which are team reflection, leadership, decision making and task assignment in order to improve student learning. Data was collected from student projects in 4 years at two universities. We found that some leader's characteristics are perceived differently for female and male leaders, including the perception of leaders as skilful workers or visionaries. Leadership is still a challenging aspect to teach, and assigned leadership is probably not the best way to learn. Students is are performing well in task review, however, needs support while performing task assignment. The result also suggests that task management to be done in more fine-grained levels. It is also important to maintain an open and active discussion to facilitate effective group decision makings

Planning and Sprinting: Use of a Hybrid Project Management Methodology within a CIS Capstone Course

An increasing number of information systems projects in industry are managed using hybrid project management methodologies, but this shift in project management methods is not fully represented in our CIS curriculums. CIS capstone courses often include an applied project that is managed with traditional project management methods (plan first, execute second). While agile methods (adapt to change through iterations) are making inroads, little research has been conducted on using a hybrid of these two project management methods in a capstone course. In this paper, we explain the hybrid project management methods we used in four sections of an undergraduate CIS Capstone course during the Fall and Spring of the 2011-2012 academic year. We also present the results of an end-of-term student satisfaction and critical success factor survey. We find that overall satisfaction with the hybrid approach is high among our sample. We also find that more client involvement and a pragmatic approach to initial project planning are areas for future improvement. The results of our experience and survey provide lessons learned and best practices for those who wish to provide students with applied experience that combines waterfall (traditional) and Scrum (agile) project management techniques in their own courses

A preliminary study of the relationship between complexity, motivation, and design quality.

This collection of work comprises a preliminary study of the relationships between product complexity, design motivation, and design quality. Complexity, as it relates to the design process, is largely undefined and there exists no generally accepted method of measurement. This study applies an independent data set to a complexity measurement technique and develops complexity measurements at the pre and post design stages. Pre design is considered when design ideas are in formation and customer needs are being addressed. Post design is considered when a functional prototype is realized, manufacturing and assembly processes have been considered, and the product design is considered finalized. Developing complexity measurements for both stages of design are critical to realizing lean design development. Additionally, this study investigates the effects of personal motivation on design quality outcomes. Taking from the field of sociology, a survey tool is utilized to gauge an individuals’ motivation toward design as a serious leisure activity. Serious leisure is considered an activity in which participants glean an internal reward, pleasure, or satisfaction from participation. Utilizing a proposed design quality survey, this study determines quality metrics based on customer needs, manufacturability, serviceability, and product fit and finish, and considers quality to be the ultimate measure of a design. The intersection of complexity, personal motivation, and design quality is of particular interest in this study, as it may provide insight into engineering team dynamics as it relates to design outcomes

Opiskelijoiden valmistaminen työelämään yliopiston sisäisen ohjelmisto-startupin avulla

Tertiary education aims to prepare computer science students for the working life. While much of the technical principles are covered in lower-level courses, team-based capstone projects are a common way to provide students hands-on experience and teach soft skills. Although such courses help students to gain some of the relevant skills, it is difficult to simulate in a course context what work in a professional software engineering team really is about. Our goal is to understand ways tertiary education institutions prepare students for the working life in software engineering. Firstly, we do this by focusing on the mechanisms that software engineering capstones use to simulate work-life. A literature review of 85 primary studies was conducted for this overview. Secondly, we present a more novel way of teaching industry-relevant skills in an university-lead internal software startup. A case study of such a startup, Software Development Academy (SDA), is presented, along with the experiences of both students and faculty involved in it. Finally, we look into how these approaches might differ. Results indicate that capstone courses differ greatly in ways they are organized. Most often students are divided in teams of 4–6 and get assigned with software projects that the teams then develop from an idea to a robust proof-of-concept. In contrast, students employed in the SDA develop production-level software in exchange for a salary for university clients. Students regarded SDA as a highly relevant and fairly irreplaceable educational experience. Working with production-quality software and having a wide range of responsibilities was perceived integral in giving a thorough skill set for the future. In conclusion, capstones and the internal startup both aim to prepare students for the work-life in software engineering. Capstones do it by simulating professional software engineering in a one-semester experience in a course environment. The internal startup adds a touch of realism to this by being actual work in a relatively safe university context

What do we know about successful software project factors

This dissertation discusses how different practitioners define project success and success factors for software projects and products. The motivation for this work is to identify the way software practitioners’ value and define project success. This can have implications for both practitioner motivation and software development productivity. Accordingly, in this work, we are interested in the various perceptions of the term “success” for different software practitioners and researchers. To get this information we performed a systematic mapping of the recent year’s software development literature trying to identify stakeholders’ perceptions about the success of a project and also possible differences among the views of the various stakeholders of a project. Some common terms related to project success (success project; software project success factors) were considered in formulating the search strings. The results were limited to twenty-two selected peer-reviewed conferences, papers/journal articles, published between 2003 and 2012

A Case Study of Teamwork and Project Success in a Comprehensive Capstone Course

Teamwork is essential in agile software development projects. Therefore, software engineering students who participate in a software engineering capstone course involving teamwork are better prepared for the industry. This study investigated student teams over three years in a comprehensive capstone course offered by the University of Oslo. The collaboration between the students involved in the course changed from in person in 2019 to virtual in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we aimed to explore the differences in teamwork and the effect on project success when the student teams collaborated in person versus virtually. A mixed-methods case study was conducted. The quantitative data consisted of surveys representing 126 student teams and 595 individual respondents. The qualitative data included eight semi-structured interviews. The results indicate that the student teams in such software engineering capstone courses perform well even when collaborating virtually, but they are less satisfied than they are when in person. The student teams found it hard to motivate themselves when they suddenly had to work virtually. Still, the motivation increased when they found ways to collaborate and make the project case exciting. The teams found adequate collaboration tools and managed to carry out the teamwork virtually. Even though it was harder to work virtually, project success was not significantly affected. The student teams that performed well also used virtual collaboration proficiently

Theory of Planned Behavior and the Influence of Communication Self-Efficacy on Intention to Pursue a Software Development Career

In modern software development, communication is one of the key success factors in software project development and team performance. However, software engineering (SE) students and educators may not have fully considered its significance in comparison to technical skills. The objective of the study was to determine the influence of communication self-efficacy and factors related to the theory of planned behavior (TPB) on the intention to pursue a career in software development. A survey was used to collect data from senior SE students at six universities in Thailand. The partial least squares – structural equation model (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data. The findings indicate that attitudes toward software development careers and communication self-efficacy for software development had a positive influence on the students’ intention to pursue a career in software development. This study is the first attempt to investigate how communication self-efficacy in software development affects intention to work in a software development career. Educators can use the findings to improve curricula to foster students’ communication self-efficacy and encourage them to pursue a software development career

Agile Learning: Students’ Perceptions of Collaboration

Educators are encouraged to incorporate collaborative learning into their classrooms in order to promote active learning through teamwork. However, students often regard collaboration as lacking coordination and accountability among the team members, thus resulting in fewer opportunities for academic success. Nested within project-based learning, agile learning provides the framework for effective team and workflow regulation which is based on a collaborative, incremental and iterative learning process. With the help of the quasi-experimental method, both quantitative and qualitative data was collected through a series of anonymous surveys. Aimed to investigate whether the incorporation of agile learning has an effect on students’ perception of collaboration opportunities and their academic performance in college-level English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classes, the results of the study indicated that the learners did not perceive a correlation between agile learning and the aforementioned notions. The findings are discussed in relation to the learners’ preferences for learning in foreign language classrooms and their own definition of collaboration which is ultimately reduced to the individual work process

Analyzing the Implementation of the Agile Methodology in a Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Course

As major companies transition to an Agile development methodology it is crucial that mechanical engineering students learn this process before they enter the workforce. In order to prepare students, The University of Vermont’s Mechanical Engineering Senior Design course has implemented an Scrum methodology into its curriculum. This study will look at its implementation and analyze student perceptions after working with Scrum on their senior design projects. Student surveys showed strong support for implementing the Agile methodology, while peer and client feedback maintained a high rating from 2018. In addition, recommendations for future implementation will also be provided

Involving External Stakeholders in Project Courses

Problem: The involvement of external stakeholders in capstone projects and project courses is desirable due to its potential positive effects on the students. Capstone projects particularly profit from the inclusion of an industrial partner to make the project relevant and help students acquire professional skills. In addition, an increasing push towards education that is aligned with industry and incorporates industrial partners can be observed. However, the involvement of external stakeholders in teaching moments can create friction and could, in the worst case, lead to frustration of all involved parties. Contribution: We developed a model that allows analysing the involvement of external stakeholders in university courses both in a retrospective fashion, to gain insights from past course instances, and in a constructive fashion, to plan the involvement of external stakeholders. Key Concepts: The conceptual model and the accompanying guideline guide the teachers in their analysis of stakeholder involvement. The model is comprised of several activities (define, execute, and evaluate the collaboration). The guideline provides questions that the teachers should answer for each of these activities. In the constructive use, the model allows teachers to define an action plan based on an analysis of potential stakeholders and the pedagogical objectives. In the retrospective use, the model allows teachers to identify issues that appeared during the project and their underlying causes. Drawing from ideas of the reflective practitioner, the model contains an emphasis on reflection and interpretation of the observations made by the teacher and other groups involved in the courses. Key Lessons: Applying the model retrospectively to a total of eight courses shows that it is possible to reveal hitherto implicit risks and assumptions and to gain a better insight into the interaction...Comment: Abstract shortened since arxiv.org limits length of abstracts. See paper/pdf for full abstract. Paper is forthcoming, accepted August 2017. Arxiv version 2 corrects misspelled author nam