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Achieving Industrial Relevance in Software Engineering Education
Abstract
This paper presents a collection of experiences related to success factors in graduate and postgraduate education. The experiences are mostly concerned with how to make the education relevant from an industrial viewpoint. This is emphasized as a key issue in software engineering education and research, since the main objective is to give the students a good basis for largescale software development in an industrial environment. The presentation is divided into experiences at the graduate and postgraduate levels respectively. For each level a number of strategies to achieve industrial relevance are presented. These strategies have been successful, but it is concluded that more can be done regarding industrial collaboration in the planning and conduction of experiments and case studies. Another interesting strategy for the future is a special postgraduate programme for people employed in industry.
... One philosophical view of the nature of relevance is that it is dynamic and multi-dimensional (Hjørland, 2010) and thus industry relevance is closely related to the individual's interaction with the EIT knowledge ecology. Additionally, 'industry relevance' implies that the education will prepare students so that they are ready to cope with industry demands (Wohlin & Regnell, 1999). EIT education links industry relevance to being aware of and having broadened perspectives of the challenges and proven techniques applied in industry (Markes, 2006;Webster, 2000). ...
... Professional relevancy is not limited to program and curriculum design, neither is it the sole responsibility of educators, but a progressive collaborative partnership with students, industry and universities. The authenticity and relevance of EIT students' education can be strengthened through a close partnership of industry practitioners and educators (King, 2008;Wohlin & Regnell, 1999). Therefore, efforts to ensure relevance and increase graduate employability need to be holistic, strategic and based on close collaboration between educators, employers, industry associations and government bodies (Clayton et al., 2013;Markes, 2006;Wohlin & Regnell, 1999). ...
... The authenticity and relevance of EIT students' education can be strengthened through a close partnership of industry practitioners and educators (King, 2008;Wohlin & Regnell, 1999). Therefore, efforts to ensure relevance and increase graduate employability need to be holistic, strategic and based on close collaboration between educators, employers, industry associations and government bodies (Clayton et al., 2013;Markes, 2006;Wohlin & Regnell, 1999). This also ensures that industry-relevant issues are addressed in the students' learning experiences and thus contribute to the shelf-life of their postgraduate qualification. ...
BACKGROUND
In response to the changing environment, industry requirements and the underpinning AQF specifications for higher education awards, UTS Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT) has embarked on a research project to review their Masters programs to ensure that the commitment to practice-based fields in both Engineering and Information Technology (EIT) education remains relevant. Both fields share synergies for teaching and research, and both professions are constantly evolving in a dynamic environment. For context, postgraduate courses in this study are the Masters of Enginering (ME), Engineering Studies (MES), Engineering Management (MEM), Internetworking (MSc.I) and Information Technology (MIT).
This paper draws on research insights that form part of a larger project that entails stakeholder consultations (students/graduates, industry and academics) as part of the 3 yearly Faculty Masters review and renewal process. The research completed to date includes quantitative and qualitative perspectives of current students and recent graduates regarding their learning and professional expectations and actual experiences, including relevance and currency in industry.
PURPOSE
The key purpose of this paper is to present the insights based on research conducted with stakeholder perspectives centred on their needs, expectations and actual experience. Consequently the purpose is to evaluate the currency, relevance and value of current postgraduate program contributions to industry and the Engineering and IT profession; and more importantly in addressing future industry needs to ensure that Engineering and IT education programs remains robust, relevant and sustainable in dynamic industry environments where rapid change is the norm.
DESIGN/METHOD
The study utilised a mixed-methodology with quantitative and qualitative perspectives. 308 students and graduates were surveyed online to gauge their attitudes with regards to the relevance and contribution of the respective Masters programs undertaken in enhancing career and employment opportunities. Another 13 students and graduates were involved in semi-structured qualitative interviews to explore what drove student choices in undertaking the programs, key contributions to learning and to their current professions, areas to improve on and what an ideal Masters program might look like.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Students indicate that they expect a program to be industry relevant; to be up to date with market needs; to foster linkages across research, academia, their cohorts and industry; to provide extensive practical opportunities and include a balance of technical application and managerial development. Programs also need to provide sufficient choice and flexibility to meet student goals and future career aspirations. Age and personal goals; as well as employer support, educator industry experience and the economic environment play a key role in professional sentiments towards program relevance in meeting industry needs and thus enhancing career opportunities. To extend the shelf-life of a postgraduate qualification in a dynamic environment faced by professionals today, universities need to work in close collaboration with industry partners to ensure that industry-relevant issues are authentically addressed in the students’ learning experiences. Therefore a postgraduate educational framework that encompasses a balance of core and elective subjects; provides authentic industry viewpoints; builds network relationships; fosters knowledge transfer across research, students, alumni, academia and industry; facilitates industry-relevant or industry-involved project work and internships in a blended-learning environment could further enhance expert-level graduate capabilities in a multidimensional and dynamic environment to ensure industry relevance and currency.
... Indeed, there are several reported benefits for the students as well as the teachers that go beyond external forces. Including external stakeholders in educational activities is thus driven by various motivations, such as: -to allow students to interact with industrial practice [Harrison 1997;Wohlin and Regnell 1999]; ...
... However, there is little work that actually provides criteria or guidelines to systematically plan and reflect on stakeholder interaction. Wohlin and Regnell present strategies to make a masters program more relevant to industry, such as guest lectures from industry and master's theses in industry [Wohlin and Regnell 1999]. The authors conclude that there is room to improve the collaboration between industry and academia. ...
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...
... Beyond how students build software to address functional requirements, it is important for educators to understand if and how students address non-functional requirements in their design and code, since the development of quality software is a frequent graduate outcome [27]. Non-functional requirements such as usability, flexibility, performance, security, scalability, maintainability and interoperability are equally important as functional requirements in determining the quality of a software [5]. ...
Understanding how final year students build complex software systems is critical for determining whether desired graduate outcomes have been met, for identifying curriculum gaps, and for designing scaffolding and support structures. A large body of work focuses on the programming strategies employed by novice programmers, with few existing research in understanding programming strategies and development focus of final year students, in particular with respect to non-functional requirements. In this paper, we analyse consecutive revisions of 77 students across two cohorts that implemented a large and complex Distributed Systems assignment with several non-functional requirements. To obtain a qualitative overview of the students' approach to software development, we manually read and tagged all sourcefiles in all assignment revisions with specific development focus categories. Our analysis identifies how the students' development focus evolves throughout the assignment timeline. We visualise the software development process and identify several areas that require further support.
... Morley et al. [7] and Lee [8] have explored the area of equality in PhD student supervision in terms of the professional expertise needed and how to improve it in time. 5. Cooperation, Co-production and Supervision. Recently, in computer science and other areas of researcher, PhD studentship has evolved to strengthen the collaboration between universities and industry [9] through industrial PhD student projects targeting collaborative researcher. Different funding agencies provide funding for such schemes. ...
With an increase of PhD students working in industry, there is a need to understand what factors are influencing supervision for industrial students. This paper aims at exploring the challenges and good approaches to supervision of industrial PhD students. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews of six PhD students and supervisors with experience in PhD studies at several organizations in the embedded software industry in Sweden. The data was anonymized and it was analyzed by means of thematic analysis. The results indicate that there are many challenges and opportunities to improve the supervision of industrial PhD students.
... Keeping in line with the principle that professional relevancy comprises of a progressive collaborative partnership with students, industry and universities (Ang & Aubrey, 2013), the authenticity and relevance of EIT students' education can be further strengthened through a close partnership of industry practitioners and educators (King, 2008;Wohlin & Regnell, 1999). Universities need to adopt a strategic approach that supports the individual and educator's capability to keep abreast with and adapt to industry and technological trends (Ang & Aubrey, 2013). ...
BACKGROUND
This paper discusses the formation of a stakeholder engagement framework for a Professional Advisory board (PAb). These collaborative undertakings were initially conducted to review postgraduate programs in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). This led to the realisation of a pragmatic and collaborative engagement process that benefits industry and the education sector whilst developing students that are able to deal with current and emergent challenges.
PURPOSE OR GOAL
The PAb is a network of academics, students, alumni and industry members that undertakes to engage, advice and review discipline-specific faculty programs from multiple perspectives to ensure that programs remain relevant and valuable to industry. As the faculty moves towards reengineering their approach to teaching and learning as part of a university-wide initiative known as ‘Learning 2014’ (L2014), this provides the opportunity to shape a more engaged and collaborative teaching and learning culture within its programs.
DESIGN/METHODS
The collaborative stakeholder process was built upon an intensive series of mixed methods and action research initiatives as engagement mechanisms. These pragmatic and emergent mechanisms involved quantitative surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, industry workshops and multiple rounds of academic consultations.
RESULTS
The PAb framework was piloted in June 2014. Initial results from a feedback survey are also reported. The collaborative framework, whilst promising, engaging and conceptually robust, has not yet reached a stable state. The framework will be extended to other EIT disciplines in order to evaluate its outcomes across various disciplinary contexts and to optimise the framework’s efficacy for future iterations. This paper suggests a pragmatic and robust framework to integrate industry and stakeholder expectations with faculty program deliverables in a way that is valuable, relevant and rewarding.
CONCLUSIONS
In this initial framework, industry stakeholders and academics are given a voice to share their priorities and interests. More than that, the PAb provides a forum where areas that are less common, untapped or unknown to the rest of the group can be shared, further explored and tested. While the group is new and still evolving, different EIT aspects that have not yet been undertaken in education that may be potentially powerful could be explored in the future to ensure that we are able to support long term value in the various facets of EIT education. The PAb is proving to be a robust and balanced group of professionals and academics that provide technical and practical perspectives to ensure EIT education remains relevant and current.
... It is now well known that software engineering professionals working in industry are generally unsatisfied with the level of real-world preparedness possessed by recent university graduates entering the workforce (Callahan and Pedigo, 2002; Conn, 2002; McMillan and Rajaprabhakaran, 1999; Wohlin and Regnell, 1999). ...
The typical software engineering course consists of lectures in which concepts and theories are conveyed, along with a small “toy” software engineering project which attempts to give students the opportunity to put this knowledge into practice. Although both of these components are essential, neither one provides students with adequate practical knowledge regarding the process of software engineering. Namely, lectures allow only passive learning and projects are so constrained by the time and scope requirements of the academic environment that they cannot be large enough to exhibit many of the phenomena occurring in real-world software engineering processes. To address this problem, we have developed Problems and Programmers, an educational card game that simulates the software engineering process and is designed to teach those process issues that are not sufficiently highlighted by lectures and projects. We describe how the game is designed, the mechanics of its game play, and the results of an experiment we conducted involving students playing the game.
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 between external stakeholders and students. Our empirical data reveals seven recurring risk themes that categorise the different risks appearing in the analysed courses. These themes can also be used to categorise mitigation strategies to address these risks proactively. Additionally, aspects not related to external stakeholders, e.g., about the interaction of the project with other courses in the study programme, have been revealed. The constructive use of the model for one course has proved helpful in identifying action alternatives and finally deciding to not include external stakeholders in the project due to the perceived cost-benefit-ratio.
Implications to Practice: Our evaluation shows that the model is a viable and useful tool that allows teachers to reason about and plan the involvement of external stakeholders in a variety of course settings, and in particular in capstone projects.
This paper discusses issues which arise when running a one semester Major Development Project (MDP) for postgraduates, and it identifies the industry relevant benefits gained by the students. In addition, it recommends solutions to the problems identified. Literature suggests that studies are undertaken to improve/enhance software engineering group projects for undergraduate courses. However, research indicates that limited studies are reported in major development projects offered to postgraduate courses. Major development project undertaken by a single student is not only a software development project but also focuses on applying Software Engineering practices. The main aim of this project is to prepare students for industry relevant development practices which they come across during their employment. MDP is equivalent to three units. To improve its delivery quality it requires full dedication and involvement from the student. In addition weekly supervision, consultations and feedback from academic lecturers should be provided.
Many educational institutions are developing graduate programs in software engineering targeted to working professionals. These educators face the dilemma of providing programs with both industrial relevance and academic excellence. This paper describes our experience and lessons learned in developing such a program, the Oregon Master of Software Engineering (OMSE). It describes a structured approach to curriculum design, curriculum design principles and methods that can be applied to develop a quality professional program
Interactivity and competition will give learners high motivation to play game and let learners interesting in game. Educational
game not only accommodates learner entertainment, but also plays a role of educational tools. In order to assist learners
in study system analysis and design, we create a card game about Rapid Application Development. Learners can gain some experience
from requirements planning, user designing, construction and implementation. This game assists learners remember and realize
the practical experience in system design. We expect that learners can obtain the ability to make decisions and method which
solve the problem mutually when they playing this game.
The current approaches to the software engineering education fall short to fulfill the industry demand for quality software engineering. A constant need to create and imbibe more effective learning environments is growing in order to manage this demand. This paper discusses the learning disabilities possessed by both the conventional and the non-conventional approaches for teaching software engineering. We propose that case studies can be used as effective teaching mediums and a case study centric learning environment can address these learning disabilities. A case study approach can help the students to gain and retain realistic exposure to concepts of software engineering as they are applied in the real world, and the students of today can be groomed as excellent professionals who have experienced the intricacies and complexities of the real world as well as tried their hands to manage these complexities.
Software plays an increasingly important role in new products of different kinds. Therefore, the need for engineers developing software is continuously increasing. However computer science education programmes are not enough to fulfil the industrial needs. Software engineering programmes are required with a holistic approach to the software life-cycle and its economics, as well as education in monitoring and managing the software process. At Lund University, Sweden, a new Bachelors software engineering programme was launched 1998. In this paper, the education programme's principles and structures are presented, as well as experiences from the first year. Software processes and methods play an important part in the education programme. It is concluded that the basic principles do function as expected, although the programme must be changed in the direction of requiring more programming skills before the introduction of systematic software processes.
First Page of the Article
Experimentation in software engineering supports the advancement of the field through an iterative learning process. In this paper, a framework for analyzing most of the experimental work performed in software engineering over the past several years is presented. A variety of experiments in the framework is described and their contribution to the software engineering discipline is discussed. Some useful recommendations for the application of the experimental process in software engineering are included.
Like other sciences and engineering disciplines, software engineering requires a cycle of model building, experimentation, and learning. Experiments are valuable tools for all software engineers who are involved in evaluating and choosing between different methods, techniques, languages and tools. The purpose of Experimentation in Software Engineering is to introduce students, teachers, researchers, and practitioners to empirical studies in software engineering, using controlled experiments. The introduction to experimentation is provided through a process perspective, and the focus is on the steps that we have to go through to perform an experiment. The book is divided into three parts. The first part provides a background of theories and methods used in experimentation. Part II then devotes one chapter to each of the five experiment steps: scoping, planning, execution, analysis, and result presentation. Part III completes the presentation with two examples. Assignments and statistical material are provided in appendixes. Overall the book provides indispensable information regarding empirical studies in particular for experiments, but also for case studies, systematic literature reviews, and surveys. It is a revision of the authors' book, which was published in 2000. In addition, substantial new material, e.g. concerning systematic literature reviews and case study research, is introduced. The book is self-contained and it is suitable as a course book in undergraduate or graduate studies where the need for empirical studies in software engineering is stressed. Exercises and assignments are included to combine the more theoretical material with practical aspects. Researchers will also benefit from the book, learning more about how to conduct empirical studies, and likewise practitioners may use it as a "cookbook" when evaluating new methods or techniques before implementing them in their organization. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012. All rights are reserved.
A new software engineering educational model is proposed in order
to more efficiently close the gap between industry software engineering
needs and academic software engineering education. The model is
analogous to the medical school/teaching hospital curriculum model; it
is based on academic/industry collaboration using a “Software
Center” as the implementation mechanism. The Software Center will
provide experiential learning for students, research opportunities for
faculty, and cost effective software solutions for industry. The Center
was established in the Computer Science Department of Embry-Riddle
University, Daytona Beach, Florida in Spring, 1996, the first industrial
project is underway. This paper elaborates on the new curriculum model,
past experiences with the model and the first industrial project. The
project is described in terms of its goals, industry partnership, team
organization, procedures and standards and project deliverables
In this experience report we present our recently introduced
software engineering curriculum, which focuses on multi-semester,
interlaced projects. Our curriculum aims at a very application-oriented
education in order to bridge the gap between studentship and
professional employeeship. We explain our structure of the curriculum
and its support of real, external projects. Sample projects are
discussed and our conclusions are presented showing how software
engineering as a science and as a profession can benefit from teaching
it by real-life projects. One interesting aspect might be the comparison
of our Austrian (and European) situation and results with the situation
in Canada and the U.S.A
Many computer science departments offer a course that features a software development project where students work as part of a team. An objective of this type of course is to simulate an industrial development environment thereby allowing students to experience some of the dynamics that they will encounter after completion of their study. The accuracy of the simulation can be improved, and hence the educational experienced enhanced, by the incorporation of industry participation directly into the course. Difficulties in organising and administering the project in the context of industry participation can occur in practice, which serve to deter the incorporation. This paper motivates industry participation in a team project course by identifying the potential benefits for the students, some of which are implicit, and also those for the industry sponsor, lecturer and host academic institution. A methodology for incorporating industry participation, which can be employed to overcome the difficulties in achieving these benefits, is presented. A model for administering a team project course in the context of industrial participation, which includes the use of an intranet as an enabling technology, is also described. The methodology and model, which have been employed successfully, can be utilised to improve the quality of the educational experience resulting from team project software development courses
This paper describes a final-year Master's course in large-scale software development. A number of issues such as closeness to an application domain and executing the software on a real target system are stressed in order to imitate an industrial environment. The experience gained from the course is discussed. In particular, effort data (in terms of man-hours) from the course are presented, both from the plan devised by the students, and the actual outcome. Furthermore, it is discussed how the data can be used to create an experience base for the future. The objective for next year's course is to let the students plan their projects based on the experience base. The experience base will also form the basis to complement the course with a complete experience factory
Case studies help industry evaluate the benefits of methods and
tools and provide a cost-effective way to ensure that process changes
provide the desired results. However, unlike formal experiments and
surveys, case studies do not have a well-understood theoretical basis.
This article provides guidelines for organizing and analyzing case
studies so that they produce meaningful results
Although software engineering is not yet a true engineering discipline, it has the potential to become one. Older engineering fields are examined to ascertain the character that software engineering might have. The current state of software technology is discussed, covering information processing as an economic force, the growing role of software in critical applications, the maturity of development techniques, and the scientific basis for software engineering practice. Five basic steps that the software engineering profession must take to become a true engineering discipline are described. They are: understanding the nature of expertise, recognizing different ways to get information, encouraging routine practice, expecting professional specializations, and improving the coupling between science and commercial practice.< >
Software Engineering
- I Sommerville
Sommerville, I., "Software Engineering", Addison-Wesley, 1996.