Working Group: Software Engineering Course Modules
October 24 - 26, 2008 - Beijing
Working group convener: Michal Young, University of Oregon
Internationalization impacts both technical and managerial aspects of software engineering, and illustrates the interplay between technical and non-technical issues in software development.
The aim of this working group is to produce a set of course modules suitable for incorporation into a typical undergraduate course in software engineering (as versus a course dedicated to internationalization or global software engineering). Courses incorporating these modules should be valuable preparation for a (distinct) capstone project course involving a distributed international team.
We envision producing 2 to 4 course modules of 1 to 6 instruction hours each (that is, ranging from a single lecture to two weeks). Each course module would consist of
- Recommended reading, for instructor background and/or for student assignments.
- Succinct lecture notes regarding main topics and points to be covered.
- Presentation materials (“slides”) in a widely used format (most likely Microsoft PowerPoint).
- Questions for discussion, and sample exam questions based on the material.
Pre-Beijing Workshop Assignment
Read and be prepared to discuss the following paper:
J. D. Herbsleb. Global software engineering: The future of socio-technical coordination. In FOSE '07: 2007 Future of Software Engineering, pages 188-198, Washington, DC, USA, 2007. IEEE Computer Society. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/FOSE.2007.11, also available from ACM digital library
Be prepared to discuss:
- Which topics from the paper belong in a software engineering course? Why?
- Are there other topics (besides those in the paper) that software engineering course modules should cover? What, and why?
- Many software engineering courses are project-centered. How does that affect the kinds of course modules we should develop?
- Should we produce course modules that are ueful outside the U.S.? What are the main challenges and opportunities in producing software engineering course modules for instructors in many countries?
Bring
- Ideas for course modules (preferably with a brief outline of each) Useful source materials for module developers and instructors
Beijing workshop goals
- Produce a list of 2-4 modules to be developed
- Outline one module in sufficient detail to serve as a model for developing others.
- Select 1 to 3 modules of high priority, with one volunteer to serve as editor/contributor and, preferably, 2-3 volunteers to serve as contributors and reviewers.
- Set a schedule with milestones for completing a usable draft of the module(s) to be distributed for comment in March 2009 and completed by May 2009.
