Software Process Education Oriented to Software Industry Needs

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Software Process Education Oriented to Software Industry Needs Software Process Education Oriented to Software Industry Needs Carlos S. Portela Alexandre M. L. Vasconcelos Sandro R. B. Oliveira Federal University of Pernambuco Federal University of Pernambuco Federal University of Pará Recife, PE 50740-560 Recife, PE 50740-560 Belém, PA 66075-110 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract Process topics after undergraduate study because the necessary skills are not adequately addressed in Typically, software professionals are trained graduate [Wan09]. The Brazilian software industry in undergraduate courses as a way of presents a shortage of suitably qualified professionals preparing to the industry. However, there is a to work in professions that involve stages of the shortage of qualified professionals in relation software development process, encompassed by SE to Software Process field in the Brazilian [Abe14]. industry. Thus, software companies have to The root of the problem may be in the training of provide skills related to the Software Process these professionals, i.e., the approach adopted for the areas through training. To address this teaching of Software Process during undergraduate problem, this PhD research aims to analyze education. Several authors have reported difficulties the recommendations for the Software Process found in the teaching of SE, as Soares [Soa04], Castro, education in curriculum guidelines of Gimenes, and Maldonado [Cas00], and Hazzan and computer courses in Brazil. In addition, we Dubinsky [Haz03]: (i) too much content being given in will examine which of these recommendations a short time; (ii) low motivation that the students have are relevant to software professionals. to study the theoretical concepts of SE; (iii) difficulties Furthermore, we propose a teaching approach that aims to meet the goals of these curriculum in preparing students for professional practice within guidelines through models and quality academic environments. standards for the process and software product widely adopted in the Brazilian software 1.2 Research Scope industry. According to the ACM/IEEE [Acm13], SE is a discipline concerned with the application of theory, 1. Motivation knowledge and practice for the effective and efficient The Software Engineering (SE) teaching is one of the development of software systems that meet user’s topics of greatest importance in courses in the field of requirements. To fulfill the users' needs, SE computing [Iee14]. This arises from both the relevance professionals must to ensure deadlines, costs, and of the software itself, which has a strategic role in quality of the product developed. However, defining a modern society, and the challenges related to the software process is not a trivial activity, especially complete formation of a professional who will work in when the objective is to ensure high quality products companies that consume or produce information and a competitive level of productivity [Mac05]. technology resources. The result is an increase in In order to meet customer requirements, with demand well-qualified SE professionals in the software respect to the product generated, the industry has industry [Dul03]. It believed that, in the future, all adopted the ISO/IEC 25000 standard [Iso14], which general-purpose software will constructed by a specifies quality attributes that monitor throughout the software engineer [Nun10], because is a matter of software development process [Mac05]. Regarding the obtain quality and reliability of the developed software quality of the development process, the Brazilian product. software industry has followed several reference models, such as CMMI-DEV [Cmm10] and MR-MPS- 1.1 Gap Area SW [Sof12], which define processes areas that Bachelors of computer courses working as software comprise maturity and capacity profiles. professionals in Brazil learn more about Software Thus, this PhD research will examine the recommendations for the teaching of Software Process Copyright © by the paper’s authors. available in the curriculum guidelines of computer Proceedings of the International Workshop on Software Process courses in Brazil, more specifically with regard to the Education, Training and Professionalism, Gothenburg, Sweden software process area. This analysis aims to obtain 20015-06-15 published at http://ceur-ws.org qualitative data about: (i) teaching and learning of 70 software process from teaching approaches applied in in this country should not be different, given the undergraduate computer courses; and (ii) the scenario observed by the authors of this paper on knowledge about software process, considered numerous consulting assignments involving the necessary, for professionals in this area. The results of implementation of Software Process Improvement. this analysis will used to define a new teaching approach that aims to meet the goals of these 2.2 Limitations of Related Work curriculum guidelines through quality models and There are several works dealing with teaching SE standards widely adopted in the software industry to approaches [Nun10] [Cas00] [Kit07] [Kit08]. define and improve software process. However, these studies do not directly address RP-I. So far, all identified studies that relate to RP-I tend to 2 Problem Statement and Related Work perform a restricted analysis, focusing primarily on proposing teaching approaches for a particular We can classify the problems of this PhD research institution without examining the main curriculum (Research Problems - RP) in three groups. (RP-I) First, guidelines of the area. there is a need to analyze in detail the curriculum Unlike these works, this research will cover the guidelines of undergraduate computer courses in main curriculum guidelines of the computing area Brazil, in order to identify which the software process [Acm13] [Sbc05] [Mec03]. In addition, we will activities are contemplated. After that, there is the need conduct an empirical study about the teaching to analyze how these curricular recommendations are approaches adopted by teachers in applying the being implemented in Brazilian computer courses to Software Process topics proposed in these curriculum identify the teaching approaches adopted by teachers of guidelines. SE. (RP-II) Subsequently, there is a need to investigate Regarding the RP-II, there are few studies that what activities are actually relevant to SE professionals investigate the relevance of process activities to SE to define your software process. (RP-III) Furthermore, professionals [Wan09] [Soa04] [Let07]. From these we will investigate the correlation between activities of studies results, it is not possible to state if the problem process and quality characteristics of software product. is in the recommendations of curriculum guidelines, or The aim is to analyze what activities affect certain in the SE teaching approaches. characteristics of product quality. Differently from these works, besides consulting the SE professionals' opinions about the relevant topics of 2.1 Problems Area software process, this PhD research will consider the SE professionals working in the industry have teaching approaches used by the teachers and their dissatisfaction regarding the level of preparedness of effectiveness by consulting the students of these recently graduated students entering the job market disciplines. [Let07] [Hil07]. Software companies have to Finally, among the problems of RP-III, we intend to complement the knowledge of recent graduates with investigate the correlation between process activities training and have to provide technical and non- and quality characteristics of the software product. technical skills related to the software development Maciel [Mac05] does a mapping between the process process [Bes12]. activities contained in the ISO/IEC 12207 and ISO/IEC According to Lethbridge, Diaz-Herrera, LeBlanc, 15504 standards, and the product quality characteristics and Thompson [Let07], this deficiency in the formation from the ISO/IEC 9126. However, the ISO/IEC 9126 of graduates in the SE area is the result of an standard is outdated. This PhD research will consider inadequate education. This finding may be reinforced in its correlation analysis the product quality by the research done by Sargent [Sar04], which reveals characteristics from the predecessor of the ISO/IEC that: (i) only 40% of IT professionals in the United 9126 standard, the ISO/IEC 25000 [Iso14]. States have training in this area; (ii) 40% of those are aware of the main fields of SE, such as requirements, 3 Questions and Hypotheses architecture, testing, human factors, and project management. Our main goal is to propose an approach based on Although we did not find statistical data in relation quality standards widely adopted in the software to Brazil, it believe that the reality of SE professionals industry in order to support the teaching and learning 71 of Software Process in computer courses. In this efforts of the Brazilian software industry in obtaining context, we define our research questions as follows. quality in software development. For example, the Brazilian MR-MPS-SW model was officially RQ1. What are the Software Process topics covered in the 1 curriculum guidelines of the computer courses? deploying 593 companies in Brazil . In addition, the international CMMI-DEV model was officially RQ2. What are the Software Process topics covered in implanted in 203 Brazilian companies2. computer courses curricula? RQ3. What are the Software Process topics effectively 4.1 Identifying Process Activities Included
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