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Learning at a distance

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Quinn, Brendan; Barroca, Leonor; Nuseibeh, Bashar; Fernandez-Ramil, Juan; Rapanotti, Lucia; Thomas, Pete and Wermelinger, Michel (2006). Learning software engineering at a distance. IEEE Software, 23(6) pp. 36–43.

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Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1109/MS.2006.169

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Learning Software Engineering at a Distance

Brendan Quinn, Leonor Barroca, Bashar Nuseibeh, Juan Fernández-Ramil, Lucia Rapanotti, Pete Thomas, and Michel Wermelinger, The Open University

elivering a software engineering curriculum by distance learning The Open requires innovative and flexible approaches to presenting and University’s managing the learning materials. At the Open University, we’ve SE curriculum been offering a broadly based master’s degree in Computing for and delivery D Commerce and Industry by distance learning for over 20 years. mechanisms Recently, the OU’s Computing Department courses on new technological developments. Af- are shaped by (www.computing.open.ac.uk) has developed ter some years in a role like this, they want to its commitment more specialized master’s programs in software broaden their understanding of computing or development and in the management of software software engineering and to have the opportu- to offering projects. We characterize these professionally ac- nity to study one or more topics in some depth. professionally credited programs as part-time, open, and large- They also feel that additional formal qualifica- accredited scale distance learning primarily aimed at IT tions would help their career development. practitioners. In this article, we show how these However, many such professionals can’t af- part-time, open, characteristics have influenced our software en- ford to take time off from their jobs to study and large-scale gineering curriculum, drawing distinctions from full-time. They can study part-time at many more conventional programs. Although we dis- institutions, but not everyone lives near a suit- distance learning cuss our particular experience at the OU, we able institution. With busy jobs and often con- primarily aimed note broader lessons learned that might benefit siderable traveling, it can be hard to fit in even at IT practitioners. other institutions engaged in designing and de- the limited attendance required. Many such livering software engineering curricula to a geo- people find a solution to their dilemma in a graphically distributed student body. distance learning master’s program, such as that offered by the OU. Background The OU, based in the UK, has been a large- Many people working in the IT industry fit scale provider of higher education by distance the following profile: They have a university learning since its foundation in 1970. The OU education, possibly including some study of has become known worldwide for its many pio- computing or software development. They’re neering initiatives in opening up higher educa- well established in responsible jobs as develop- tion, its quality course materials, and its teach- ers, managers, database administrators, and so ing. Current enrollment is over 200,000 students on. They possess knowledge about their own in a range of programs from foundation (college specialist areas and attend occasional training preparatory) level to master’s and PhD.

36 IEEE SOFTWARE Published by the IEEE Computer Society 0740-7459/06/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: The Open University. Downloaded on March 09,2010 at 06:24:47 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. Curriculum structure Table 1 The postgraduate computing program con- sists of a number of courses, each of which has Program structure for the master’s a unique identifying code (such as M865 for in software development Project Management) and a points rating, indi- Course code Course title cating the amount of study and the weighting of Core for postgraduate —90 points its contribution to a program. (A course in the M882 Managing the Software Enterprise OU corresponds to a course in a US program of M883 Software Requirements for Business Systems study—that is, a unit of study making up part of a degree program; most UK universities use the M885 Analysis and Design of Enterprise Systems term module instead.) With one exception, M873 User Interface Design and Evaluation courses in the computing program are rated at M874 Software Development for Networked Applications Using Java 15 points, and each course is expected to require M876 Relational Database Systems about 150 hours of part-time study over a six- Optional courses for postgraduate diploma—select 30 points (two of the following) month period. Students need eight such courses M865 Project Management for the 120 points required for a postgraduate diploma. To complete the master’s program, M877 Advanced Database Technology they must also pass a 60-point research and dis- M879 Distributed Applications and e-Commerce sertation project, which takes just over a year M881 Architecture and Networks part-time. The total time to achieve a postgrad- M886 Information Security Management uate diploma can take from two years upwards, Compulsory for master’s degree—60 points with some programs having a maximum per- M801 Research Project and Dissertation mitted duration of four years to diploma. The OU offers four possible routes, each with a different title for the postgraduate di- ploma or master’s. For this article, we focus on overall marks. The final research project is differ- the master’s in software development (see http:// ent because we primarily use the dissertation to pgcomp.open.ac.uk). Table 1 shows the pro- assess it. Students submit all coursework elec- gram’s structure. tronically but take their examinations in person at examination centers located throughout the The student experience UK and in other countries. We call the OU’s approach to distance edu- Each course has learning outcomes that de- cation supported open learning, which has been fine the knowledge and understanding, cognitive refined over many years. Students in our mas- skills, and practical and professional skills that ter’s programs study using various media, in- students are expected to attain. We use a speci- cluding specially produced printed material, fied range of learning outcomes in designing each standard textbooks, online material, CDs, and assignment and exam and make sure that stu- DVDs. We also make all OU-produced printed dents know how the learning outcomes are as- material available online in the form of e-books, sessed. For example, in an assignment for course so students can easily store or search them on a M882 Managing the Software Enterprise, we computer or access them from anywhere with asked students to demonstrate their knowledge Internet access. Students each have an allocated and understanding of these learning outcomes: tutor, who marks assignments and provides ac- ademic support for groups of up to 18. Tutors ■ the management of human, technical, finan- are university academics or suitably qualified IT cial, timescale, and organizational resources; professionals employed by the OU on a part- ■ quality management for software develop- time basis. Students communicate with each ment, software evolution, and process im- other and with their tutors mainly via email and provement approaches, and electronic conferencing. ■ the risks involved in developing and evolv- We assess a student’s progress through course- ing software and how to identify, assess, work assignments—normally two or three in and manage them. each course—and a final examination. Typically, the exam and the coursework assignments are How we develop the curriculum equally weighted at 50 percent of the course’s A team of OU full-time academic staff, in

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Authorized licensed use limited to: The Open University. Downloaded on March 09,2010 at 06:24:47 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. Figure 1. Selected M882 Managing the Software Enterprise features of courses This wide-ranging course includes topics often neglected in traditional software engineering programs such as from the master’s in ethical issues, intellectual property rights, human motivation, risk assessment, and software evolution, many of software development. which are also required for professional accreditation. It’s aimed at people in or working toward a management role involving software. The course examines software’s role in organizations from human, social, knowledge, business, and software engineering perspectives. Students can explore software development processes and concepts by means of system dynamics simulations.

M883 Software Requirements for Business Systems This course highlights the importance of requirements in software engineering. Web and DVD resources keep students abreast of current research and practice, including videos of seminars by experts in the field. Students can also use a specially designed software application for requirements capture and as a case study of require- ments elicitation (by examining and extending the tool’s development).

M885 Analysis and Design of Enterprise Systems—An OO Approach This course iteratively and incrementally teaches object concepts and techniques, paralleling the iterative soft- ware development processes being introduced. The course particularly aims to develop students’ reflective skills about making the most appropriate modeling choices. For example, current topics include alternative ap- proaches to modeling such as agile modeling, Extreme Programming, and model-driven architecture. It also re- inforces a rigorous approach to UML modeling with consistent annotations using both natural language and the Object Constraint Language.

M886 Information Security Management This course takes a security management focus, focusing on skills appropriate for the master’s level. Based on UK and international standards (BS 7799/ISO 17799, see http://emea.bsi-global.com/InformationSecurity/ Overview/index.xalter), it lets students apply the course content to an organization they know. Completing the course gives students the knowledge and skills required to develop and plan the implementation of an organiza- tion’s information security management policy.

M801 Research Project and Dissertation This course lets students research, in detail, a topic of professional relevance to them or their organization through a 13-month period of supervised work, leading to a dissertation (10,000 to 15,000 words) and poster presentation. Students and tutors use specially designed online systems to manage the process as students sub- mit a series of gradually refined proposals and drafts leading to the final dissertation.

some cases with help from external specialist A program committee, composed of OU consultants, writes each course’s academic academic staff and external advisors, oversees content (see figure 1 for some course descrip- the program’s curriculum, again providing in- tions). Because most courses provide substan- dependent expertise from both academic and tial, specially designed printed material, the industrial perspectives. This committee aims course production process has much in com- to ensure the program’s coherence and pro- mon with conventional book publishing. The vides strategic vision to keep it current and rel- academic writers are supported by administra- evant in the longer term. tors, editors, graphic designers, and the whole To avoid offering out-of-date course mate- apparatus needed to print course books or rials, we provide more topical or ephemeral make them available in PDF format. material online in forms that we can easily up- Because of this production process, we place date, and we regularly renew the case studies great emphasis on the materials’ initial qual- and scenarios used in assessments. We also an- ity—correcting significant errors or improving nually review courses for minor changes and the teaching style later can be more difficult and have a major review normally every few years, costly than in a conventional university. We put according to a preset schedule. After a major all draft course material through detailed scru- review, we might update, delete, or replace the tiny by critical readers from academic and in- course. dustrial backgrounds. Additionally, we appoint The OU also investigates new approaches to one or more independent external assessors, course production, sometimes inspired by the from another university or from industry, to re- software development process. For example, view the course materials as a whole. when producing course M885, the academic

38 IEEE SOFTWARE www.computer.org/software

Authorized licensed use limited to: The Open University. Downloaded on March 09,2010 at 06:24:47 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. Table 2 Student numbers for 2005 Course (points) No. of students Pass (%) Fail (%) M801 Research Project and Dissertation (60) 88 73.9 25.0 M865 Project Management (15) 579 80.3 19.7 M873 User Interface Design and Evaluation (15) 218 85.5 14.5 M874 Software Development for Networked Apps (15) 230 93.9 6.1 M876 Relational Database Systems (15) 264 84.5 15.1 M877 Advanced Database Technology (15) 141 84.4 15.6 M885 Analysis and Design of Enterprise Systems (15) 215 89.6 10.4 M879 Distributed Applications and e-Commerce (15) 157 93.0 7.0 M880 Software Engineering (30) 261 90.0 10.0 M881 Architectures of Computing Systems (15) 94 84.0 16.0 M886 Information Security Management (15) 143 93.0 7.0 Total 2,360 86.6 13.3 team adopted various agile development prac- programs. Students undertake the courses for tices, including short, time-boxed, and incre- various reasons, and this is reflected in their mental production cycles (material was pro- exit points. In recognition of this, we’ve re- duced and revised on a weekly basis) and pair cently added a postgraduate certificate award authoring.1 that will be available to students after complet- ing 60 points. Program characteristics Because some students only take one or sev- We have characterized the OU master’s pro- eral courses, we need to make each individual gram in software development as part-time, course attractive enough to students so that it’s open, and large-scale distance learning, profes- economically viable to produce. We normally sionally accredited at the master’s level and withdraw or substantially rewrite courses with mainly aimed at IT practitioners. In the fol- persistently low student populations (in our case, lowing sections, we consider each of these about 100 students or fewer). See table 2 for a characteristics and discuss their influence on snapshot of student numbers. In 2006, we offer the curriculum’s design and delivery. two new courses, M882 Managing the Software Enterprise and M883 Software Requirements for Part-time Business Systems; they replace the 30-point Students have considerable choice about the M880 Software Engineering course. timing of their study and the associated work- load. They can take one course at a time or sev- Open eral at once. They can vary the order of study The OU’s founding mission was to open up (relatively few interdependencies exist among higher education to people who previously the courses), although we also recommend might have been denied access for lack of prior pathways, and they can take breaks from study. formal qualifications. We keep entry to our mas- This lets them continue with their careers and ter’s program in software development open in helps them fit in the demands of study with that we have no compulsory entrance require- competing pressures from work or home life. ments. In practice, we give strong advice to po- Some students stop after one or several tential students about the appropriate back- courses or after obtaining the postgraduate ground and study pathways—we normally diploma (154 students completed the diploma expect a university degree or diploma and at in software development in 2005)—only a mi- least several years’ experience in IT. Most stu- nority continue to the master’s dissertation. We dents in the program have this background— consider this early exit as normal and in no way some have much more. a failure, as is sometimes the case in full-time For the minority without a strong back-

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Authorized licensed use limited to: The Open University. Downloaded on March 09,2010 at 06:24:47 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. ground, there is an element of self-selection. of study for students. Many students use time They or their employers pay significant fees, and spent traveling or waiting at airports to study The program’s if they’re not sufficiently motivated to catch up, the course materials, which are specially de- they won’t continue with the program. The pro- signed for self-study (for example, the courses part-time gram’s part-time nature lets students spread have no lectures and few tutorials). Some find nature lets their study over time if necessary to gradually the printed materials most convenient for students spread acquire the necessary higher-level skills—the this—others access our online materials. OU also offers numerous study skills resources. Because students don’t normally have close their study Actual completion rates on courses are normally contact with academic staff or fellow students, over time 80 percent or higher—many of those who drop the course materials must have particular out do so for nonacademic reasons, such as characteristics. The materials must be fairly to gradually work or home pressure, and might return later self-contained. They must also facilitate active acquire higher- to resume their studies. learning by means of activities, self-assessment level skills. Unlike many conventional universities, we questions, simulations, and so on. rely on output standards rather than on selec- Some issues apply particularly to using dis- tion by input standards. We guarantee these tance learning for software engineering. We’ve output standards through independent exter- observed two main aspects to this—one techni- nal examiners and professional and academic cal, relating to the potential diversity of student accreditation. hardware and software platforms—the other being the need for software engineering to be a Large scale social activity as well as a technical discipline. An OU course can have many hundreds of Students must provide their own personal students enrolled in it at any one time. This computers and arrange for Internet access. It has advantages—it provides the financial re- can be challenging to find software engineer- sources to fund high-quality materials. The ing tools that are compatible with a wide many students and their tutors bring a wealth range of platforms, have stable versions, and of experience in IT and other fields, which are affordable enough to distribute as course they can share to some extent, although this is material. Sometimes we distribute a standard currently perhaps an underused resource. software tool but permit students to use dif- The large scale (together with the distance ferent tools. At other times, we develop tools learning) could make some students feel rather especially for a course. isolated and anonymous. We address this by al- Software engineering is rarely an individual locating students in small groups to tutors, by activity—teamwork is the norm. Many of our online conferencing, and by a limited amount students, being practitioners, will have team- of optional face-to-face teaching. work experience in their employment. However, A key issue is ensuring consistency in the stu- it can be difficult to provide opportunities for dent experience, in particular in standards of teamwork in a distance-learning environment. marking and feedback on assignments. We mon- At the moment, the master’s programs don’t itor a sample of marked assignments for every have a provision for teamwork—all assessment tutor and feed the outcome back to the tutor. is individual. Students can communicate using This takes place electronically—from student the OU online-conferencing systems, but this is- submission through assignment monitoring and n’t normally used for working in teams. We’ve tutor feedback. We also perform statistical mon- recently had encouraging experiences using the itoring to identify any potential cases of exces- online-conferencing system for teamwork in un- sively lenient or harsh marking. Again, we in- dergraduate courses. The OU has also adopted form tutors so that they can adjust their marking Moodle (http://moodle.org) as its virtual learning if necessary. We use the same sort of statistical environment to provide an integrated, high-qual- approaches in examination marking to prevent ity online learning experience for students. We’re or rectify any potential inconsistencies between working to adapt, extend, and integrate Moodle markers. with existing systems (including online confer- encing). Soon, this will let us make full and inte- Distance learning grated use of newer technologies, such as wikis One of the major attractions of distance and blogs. learning is the flexibility in the place and time Similarly, students normally present the out-

40 IEEE SOFTWARE www.computer.org/software

Authorized licensed use limited to: The Open University. Downloaded on March 09,2010 at 06:24:47 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. come of their research projects to other students Each level in the QAA framework has asso- and to colleagues. Because this isn’t feasible in a ciated qualification descriptors. These give ex- distance-learning context, students must pre- amples of each level’s expected outcomes and Many students pare an online presentation as part of their final demonstrate the progression between levels. submission in the master’s research project. Flexibility is possible, as the outcomes are meant use time spent to serve as a framework, not a rigid set of re- traveling Master’s level quirements. Here, we summarize the expected or waiting The Quality Assurance Agency is an independ- outcomes for a master’s program: ent body that oversees UK universities such as the at airports OU. The QAA defines a qualifications framework ■ Much of the study undertaken at the mas- to study (www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/FHEQ) ter’s level will have been at, or informed by, specifying appropriate levels and approaches for the “forefront” of an academic or profes- the course all higher-education qualifications, such as sional discipline. Students will have shown materials. bachelor’s and master’s degrees. The OU uses originality in the application of knowledge, this framework when developing the curriculum and they will understand how the bound- for its programs. aries of knowledge are advanced through The QAA also sponsors work on bench- research. They will be able to deal with marks for all major subjects, including com- complex issues both systematically and cre- puting, which more closely specify the key re- atively, and they will show originality in quirements and expected standards for each tackling and solving problems. academic discipline. According to the QAA, ■ They will have the qualities needed for em- subject benchmarks “describe what gives a dis- ployment in circumstances requiring sound cipline its coherence and identity and define judgment, personal responsibility, and ini- what can be expected of a graduate in terms of tiative, in complex and unpredictable pro- the techniques and skills needed to develop un- fessional environments. derstanding in the subject” (www.qaa.ac.uk/ academicinfrastructure/benchmark). The QAA Many courses in the OU’s master’s in soft- has approved a benchmark for bachelor’s pro- ware development use the assessment either in grams in computing subjects and has drafted coursework or exams to explicitly encourage the benchmark for master’s programs. students to engage in current research and Subject benchmarks don’t prescribe the practice in the field. Some might also supply a curriculum’s detailed content, unlike, say, the reader, a booklet, or an online folder of key ACM curriculum (see www.acm.org/education/ academic or industry papers, and the OU of- curricula.html). The benchmarks do include a fers extensive online library facilities. Students list of appropriate topics, rather like that set typically use the reader for their assessment, out for software engineering by the Software which is geared toward the development of re- Engineering Body of Knowledge (www.swebok. flective skills2 and critical awareness of differ- org/home.html). However, the QAA benchmark ent points of view and perspectives, as re- covers a wide spectrum of possible computing quired at the master’s level. topics and no feasible program could cover all For example, in course M882 Managing the of it—rather, it indicates currently appropriate Software Enterprise, we base the assignments on topics that program designers might choose to industrial case studies and academic papers. We use. ask students to consider how the companies Regular inspections and reviews, both in- portrayed in the case studies addressed issues ternal and external, ensure that universities such as ethics, software procurement processes, comply with these academic requirements. All and so on. We use the academic papers to form UK universities have their courses scrutinized an essay-based question that seeks to engage by external examiners. The QAA defines an students in a deeper reflection about major top- examiner’s role as follows: to verify that aca- ics (such as the role of human motivation in demic awards are appropriate and to help in- software development). We follow this up in the stitutions maintain and assure academic stan- exam’s second part, which is a long essay on a dards and ensure that assessment processes are given theme based on two or three papers se- sound (www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/ lected by the students with guidance from their codeOfPractice/section4). tutors.

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Authorized licensed use limited to: The Open University. Downloaded on March 09,2010 at 06:24:47 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. Professionally accredited of a course, to being dropped completely. How- It’s very important to our main constituency ever, we must cover topics at an appropriate ac- Students can of IT practitioners and to their employers that ademic depth—we’re not offering pure train- our courses have professional recognition. The ing. We maintain an appropriate degree of rigor build some main UK professional body for computing is the in the way we teach software development. For coursework British Computer Society (www.bcs.org). The example, M885 Analysis and Design of Enter- assignments, BCS accredits programs at universities so that prise Systems reinforces a rigorous approach to graduates can more easily become full members modeling with consistent annotations using both and potentially of the professional body after an appropriate pe- natural language and the Object Constraint Lan- projects, riod of experience. This can also lead to the pres- guage. We base our approach to the develop- tigious status of (CEng). This ment of modeling skills on the practical applica- around their status is fully equivalent to chartered engineers in tion of an iterative and incremental process to work long-standing engineering professions such as case studies, with well-defined modeling perspec- experience. mechanical or civil engineering. In these more es- tives and an emphasis on rigor and precision. tablished fields of engineering, you need char- Students can build some coursework assign- tered status for appointment to any senior job or ments, and potentially projects, around their to leadership of a major project—this isn’t nor- work experience. For example, M865 Project mally the case in the UK IT industry at present. Management asks students to apply the princi- The BCS accreditation process is based on the ples and techniques taught in the course to a QAA requirements for master’s programs, but it real project that they’ve worked on. Similarly, makes further demands to ensure programs have the M886 Information Security Management appropriate content for the IT profession. These coursework incrementally builds up an infor- include specific teaching of legal, social, ethical, mation security policy for an organization cho- and professional issues applied to IT and the need sen by the student. This tends to work well ex- for students to complete a practical, problem- cept in the few cases where students aren’t solving individual project. Accreditation involves working in the appropriate field or role to have a visit to the university by a team of academics a suitable project or organization. In such cases, and industrial practitioners who scrutinize pro- we offer alternatives. gram documentation and meet staff and students This practitioner orientation also makes cer- for detailed interviews. Accreditation normally tain courses attractive to organizations seeking lasts for five years, after which time a further visit professional development for their staff. For ex- is required for renewal. ample, a large multinational company recently After the most recent BCS visit in May 2005, selected M882 Managing the Software Enter- the OU computing programs, including the mas- prise to be adapted for continuing professional ter’s programs, were fully accredited by the BCS development of some of its staff, and we’re dis- for five years. The BCS accredited our master’s cussing similar arrangements for other courses programs as specialist awards, which is the higher with this and other companies. of the two accreditation levels (generalist and spe- cialist) available. The Institution of Engineering and Technology (www.theiet.org), another im- uided by its educational mission and portant UK professional institution, also recog- key characteristics, the OU’s research nizes our master’s programs. G program in computing continues to in- novate in the creation of learning materials and Aimed at IT practitioners their delivery. Areas for further improvement Our curriculum is constantly exposed to in- include the automatic assessment of student as- dustrial scrutiny and external academic oversight, signments, agile development processes, social including that provided by our students, their and collaborative software, and privacy re- employers, our course developers, and tutors. quirements management. The topics we teach and the ways we present Future directions for the program will likely them must navigate between two extremes. We involve responding to the increasing globaliza- generally don’t consider primarily theoretical tion of IT development and the consequent topics as appropriate for a whole course. For movement toward more strategic and business- example, mathematical formal methods have in oriented skills. We also anticipate increasing recent years gone from a whole course, to part our use of online methods to appeal to a more

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Authorized licensed use limited to: The Open University. Downloaded on March 09,2010 at 06:24:47 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply. global audience. The OU has several active re- About the Authors search projects in online education, including the use of virtual learning environments, and Brendan Quinn is the Director of Postgraduate Computing at the Open University. His we hope to take advantage of some of these in research interests include software engineering, particularly embedded systems, bioinformatics, and curriculum design. He received his MSc in software systems from Sheffield University. He is the near future. a chartered engineer and a member of the BCS. Contact him at the Computing Dept., The Open Univ., Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK; [email protected].

References 1. Agile Manifesto, www.agilemanifesto.org. 2. D. Schön, The Reflective Practitioner, Basic Books, 1983. Leonor Barroca is a senior lecturer in computing at the Open University. She was the Director of Postgraduate Computing at the Open University between 2002 and 2005. Her re- search interests include architectural approaches to software engineering, object-oriented devel- opment, component-based development, and state-based specifications of temporal behavior. She received her PhD in computing from Southampton University. She’s a member of the BCS. For more information on this or any other computing topic, please visit our Contact her at the Computing Dept., The Open Univ., Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK; Digital Library at www.computer.org/publications/dlib. [email protected].

Bashar Nuseibeh is a professor of computing and the Director of Research in the Com- puting Department at the Open University. His interests include systems requirements engineer- ing and design, software process modeling and technology, and technology transfer. He re- ceived his PhD in software engineering from Imperial College London. He is a chartered engineer, a fellow of the BCS, and a member of the IET and holds the Royal Academy of Engineering/ Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship. Contact him at the Computing Dept., The Open Univ., Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK; [email protected]. UPCOMING ISSUES: Juan Fernández-Ramil is a lecturer in computing at the Open University. His re- search interests include software evolution, effort estimation, system dynamics models of the SE Challenges in Small software process, empirical studies of software-related work, and software management educa- tion. He received his PhD in computing from Imperial College London. Contact him at the Com- Software Companies puting Dept., The Open Univ., Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK; [email protected]. Test-Driven Development

Lucia Rapanotti is a senior lecturer in computing at the Open University. Her research Software Patterns interests include requirements engineering, software architectures, and groupware systems. She received her PhD in computing science from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Con- tact her at the Computing Dept., The Open Univ., Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK; [email protected].

Pete Thomas is a senior lecturer in computing at the Open University. His research inter- ests include e-learning, online assessment in computing, and automatic diagram recognition. He received his PhD in computing from the University of Dundee. Contact him at the Computing Dept., The Open Univ., Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK; [email protected].

Michel Wermelinger is a senior lecturer in computing at the Open University. His re- search interests include software architecture and software evolution. He received his PhD in computer science from the New University of Lisbon. Contact him at the Computing Dept., The Open Univ., Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK; [email protected].

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Authorized licensed use limited to: The Open University. Downloaded on March 09,2010 at 06:24:47 EST from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.