Walking Through the Method Zoo: Does Higher Education Really Meet Software Industry Demands?

Software engineering educators are continually challenged by rapidly evolving concepts, technologies, and industry demands. Due to the omnipresence of software in a digitalized society, higher education institutions (HEIs) have to educate the students such that they learn how to learn, and that they are equipped with a profound basic knowledge and with latest knowledge about modern software and system development. Since industry demands change constantly, HEIs are challenged in meeting such current and future demands in a timely manner. This paper analyzes the current state of practice in software engineering education. Specifically, we want to compare contemporary education with industrial practice to understand if frameworks, methods and practices for software and system development taught at HEIs reflect industrial practice. For this, we conducted an online survey and collected information about 67 software engineering courses. Our findings show that development approaches taught at HEIs quite closely reflect industrial practice. We also found that the choice of what process to teach is sometimes driven by the wish to make a course successful. Especially when this happens for project courses, it could be beneficial to put more emphasis on building learning sequences with other courses

Thermotropic and piezotropic phase behaviour of phospholipids in propanediols and water

The investigation of the solvation process of phospholipids includes the investigation of the thermotropic and piezotropic phase behaviour in presence of non-aqueous polar solvents. 1,2-propanediol and 1,3-propanediol were chosen to investigate the influence of the solvents on the parameters of the main phase transition. The non-polar parts of the propanediols slightly reduce the main phase transition temperature in contrast to water. On the other hand, the pressure induced increase of the transition temperature hardly differs between propanediols and water. Furthermore, a coexistence of a lamellar gel phase and an isotropic liquid phase was found for a number of phospholipid/1,2-propanediol dispersions. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.status: publishe

Characterisation of antibiotic moenomycin A interaction with phospholipid model membranes

Using a combination of physico-chemical techniques (MAS NMR, DSC, freeze-fracture electron microscopy, molecular modelling) the antibiotic moenomycin A was found to be anchored by its hydrophobic chain into multilamellar POPC membranes. The lamellar phase structure of the modified membrane is retained, while moenomycin A in water at different concentrations does not form any other but isotropic phase structures. The mobility of POPC molecule segments is reduced with increasing moenomycin A concentrations. Freeze-fracture electron microscopy images show ripple like structures for low moenomycin A concentrations, which are rare for high concentrations. A sugar-group network of the antibiotic seems to cover the whole membrane surface for molar ratios moenomycin A/POPC of 1:2, which is supported by C-13-MAS (Magic Angle Spinning) NMR, P-31-NMR, and molecular modelling. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd.status: publishe

What Makes Agile Software Development Agile

Together with many success stories, promises such as the increase in production speed and the improvement in stakeholders\u27 collaboration have contributed to making agile a transformation in the software industry in which many companies want to take part. However, driven either by a natural and expected evolution or by contextual factors that challenge the adoption of agile methods as prescribed by their creator(s), software processes in practice mutate into hybrids over time. Are these still agile In this article, we investigate the question: what makes a software development method agile We present an empirical study grounded in a large-scale international survey that aims to identify software development methods and practices that improve or tame agility. Based on 556 data points, we analyze the perceived degree of agility in the implementation of standard project disciplines and its relation to used development methods and practices. Our findings suggest that only a small number of participants operate their projects in a purely traditional or agile manner (under 15%). That said, most project disciplines and most practices show a clear trend towards increasing degrees of agility. Compared to the methods used to develop software, the selection of practices has a stronger effect on the degree of agility of a given discipline. Finally, there are no methods or practices that explicitly guarantee or prevent agility. We conclude that agility cannot be defined solely at the process level. Additional factors need to be taken into account when trying to implement or improve agility in a software company. Finally, we discuss the field of software process-related research in the light of our findings and present a roadmap for future research