Teaching extreme programming to large groups of students

  • Authors:

  • Görel Hedin;Lars Bendix;Boris Magnusson

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Computer Science, Lund Institute of Technology, Ole Römers väg 3, Lund, Sweden;Department of Computer Science, Lund Institute of Technology, Ole Römers väg 3, Lund, Sweden;Department of Computer Science, Lund Institute of Technology, Ole Römers väg 3, Lund, Sweden

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Systems and Software - Special issue: The new context for software engineering education and training
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

We find the extreme programming methodology highly suitable for introducing undergraduate students to software engineering. To be able to apply this methodology at a reasonable teaching cost for large student groups, we have developed two courses that work in tandem: a team programming course taken by more than 100 students, and a coaching course taken by around 25 students. In this paper we describe our view of how extreme programming fits into the software engineering curriculum, our approach to teaching it, and our experiences, based on two years of running these courses. Particularly important aspects of our set up include team coaching (by older students), fixed working hours, and colocation during development. Our experiences so far are very positive, and we see that students get a good basic understanding of the important concepts in software engineering, rooted in their own practical experience.