Transitioning a Project-Based Course between Onsite and Online. An Experience Report

We present an investigation regarding the challenges faced by student teams across four consecutive iterations of a team-focused, project-based course in software engineering. The studied period includes the switch to fully online activities in the spring of 2020, and covers the return to face-to-face teaching two years later. We cover the feedback provided by over 1,500 students, collected in a free-text form on the basis of a survey. A qualitative research method was utilized to discern and examine the challenges and perceived benefits of a course that was conducted entirely online. We show that technical challenges remain a constant in project-based courses, with time management being the most affected by the move to online. Students reported that the effective use of collaborative tools eased team organization and communication while online. We conclude by providing a number of action points regarding the integration of online activities in face-to-face course unfolding related to project management, communication tools, the importance of teamwork, and of active mentor participation.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figure

COMDEVALCO framework - the modeling language for procedural paradigm

This work is part of a series referring to COMDEVALCO - a framework for Software Component Definition, Validation, and Composition. Its constituents are: a modeling language, a component repository and a set of tools. This is the first paper describing the object-oriented modeling language, which contains finegrained constructions, aimed to give a precise description of software components. The current status of the language reflects the procedural paradigm constructs

Tool Support for fUML Models

In this paper we present a tool chain that aids in the construction of executable UML models according to the new Foundational UML (fUML) standard. These executable models can be constructed and tested in the modeling phase, and code can be generated from them towards different platforms. The fUML standard is currently built and promoted by OMG for building executable UML models. The compatibility of the executable models with the fUML standard means that only the UML elements allowed by fUML should be used for the abstract syntax and the extra constraints imposed by the fUML standard should be considered. The tool chain we propose is intregrated with the existing UML tools of Eclipse modeling infrastructure

Agile Principles Survey and Responses

Survey responses targeting different experiences in agile teams have been conducted collecting 56 responses. Investigating the most difficult Agile principle to implement, together with causes and mitigations</p