Realism in project-based software engineering courses: rewards, risks, and recommendations

  • Authors:
  • Pierre Flener

  • Affiliations:
  • Computing Science Division, Department of Information Technology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

  • Venue:
  • ISCIS'06 Proceedings of the 21st international conference on Computer and Information Sciences
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

A software engineering course is often the capstone of a general undergraduate curriculum in computer science. It is usually at least partly a project-based course, with the intention that student groups can deploy their already acquired skills on programming, verification, databases, and human-computer interaction, while applying the new material about requirements, architecture, and project management on a project. I have taught a software engineering course six times, using a combination of ideas that I have never seen elsewhere, with a strong emphasis on realism. I here reflect on the rewards and risks of this approach, and make some recommendations for future offerings.