Toward Industry Oriented Software Engineering Project...

TowardIndustryOrientedSoftwareEngineeringProjectCourse:APilotStudy

YuLiuECEDepartment

ClarksonUniversityPotsdam,NY,[email protected]

JuYanPublicSafetyProduct

MotorolaInc.Plantation,FL,U.S.33322

[email protected]

DaqingHouECEDepartment

ClarksonUniversityPotsdam,NY,[email protected]

AbstractSoftwareengineeringhasbecomeaprosperousindustrysectorduetothewidespread and successful applications of software products. Industryorientedsoftwareengineeringeducationisnecessarytobridgeacademictraining and industryneeds.To this end, this paper reports on a recentpilot studyatClarksonUniversitywhereaprofessional industryadvisorfrom a CMMI level 5 certified software institution was systematicallyinvolved in an undergraduate software engineering project course. Thegoalofthispracticeistomakeasolidsteptowardprovidingstudentswitha formal introduction to industrial soft-ware engineering processes andauthenticprofessionalexperienceinanacademicenvironment.Informedbyapre-course surveyof studentneeds, theadvisorparticipated in theentiredevelopmentcycleof theopensourcecourseprojectsandofferedmultiple key lectures addressing industry needs. We describe thetextbook, the selection of course projects, and the workflow wherestudents interacted with the instructor and the industry advisor. Ouranalysisofresultsfromapost-coursesurveyindicatesthat91%students“agreed”with adding the industry advisor role and that they have builtenough confidence for future career through our course. Good practiceand the future improvement plan have been summarized to sharewiththebroadersoftwareengineeringeducationcommunity.

1 IntroductionNowadays, software engineering has emerged as a prosperous business due to the pervasive adoption of

softwareproductsinalmostallsectorsoftheeconomy.AccordingtotheUnitedStatesDepartmentofLabor,therewere1,256,200softwareengineeringjobsinUnitedStatesin2016,withanannualgrowthrateoutlookfrom2016through2026projected tobeat anamazing levelof24%,and themedianannual salaryof softwareengineers isreported to be $103,560 in 20171. Consequently, universities must educate enough highly qualified juniorprofessionalswhoarereadytotakeonthesewell-paidjobswithalltheessentialskills.It has been a long-term issue that in addition to the increase in demand for software engineers, software

companieshaverecognizedthatskillsprovidedbyexitingeducationdonotcompletelymeettheirrequirements

1 Bureauof LaborStatistics, U.S.Department ofLabor: https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm

Copyright © 2019 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). In: S. Chawla, B. Wadhwa, P. Muenchaisri (eds.): Proceedings of the 2nd Software Engineering Education Workshop (SEED 2019), Putrajaya, Malaysia, 02-Dec-2019, published at http://ceur-ws.org

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[Sai02].Garousi et. al. pointed that the software engineering shortage is not a lack of individual calling themselves

“engineers”,butoneofquality-alackofwell-studied,experiencedengineerswithaformalanddeepunderstandingofsoftwareengineering[GGT+18].Su,Jodis,andZhangfurtherpointedoutthatmanyofthechallengesassociatedwithsoftwareengineeringeducationareduetoourinabilitytoprovidestudentswiththe“realworld”, large-scalesoftware development experiences in an academic environment [SJZ07]. Thus, industry oriented softwareengineering educationhasbeen calledupon tobridge the gapbetweenacademic software engineering educationandexpectationandneedsofsoftwarecompanies.Clarkson University2, founded in 1896, is located in Potsdam, New York, United States,with an enrollment of

around4,300students,offeringdegreesranging fromBachelor’s toDoctorate’s.AClarksoneducationemphasisesthetightandwin-winrelationshipwiththeindustry,andtheuniversitywasranked#8among“TopSalary-BoostingColleges”nationwidein20153.Therefore,theindustryorientededucationpracticehasalwaysbeenhighlyvaluedatClarkson.Clarkson’ssoftwareengineeringprogram,acollaborativeeffortbetweenComputerScienceandElectricaland Computer Engineering, provides students with the technical competence, knowledge and skills in softwareprocessesandprojectmanagement, aswell as teamworkandprofessional skills fora successful career in today’ssoftwareindustry4.Thispaperdescribesour efforts inpiloting an industryoriented software engineering course in this relatively

youngprogram.Theprocess of an industryorientedproject coursemustbe characterizedby the involvementofindustryorientedstaffalongwithkeylearningoutcomes[MM14].Tomeetthisexpectation,weseektoinvestigateappropriateindustryorientedpracticeinasoftwareengineeringprojectcourseEE418intheFall2018semester,asfollows:

1. A professional industry advisor from a CapabilityMaturityModel Integration (CMMI)5level 5 (top level)certified software institution provides authentic personal experience to our students regarding showcaseprojects,technicalskills,ethicsawareness,andinterviewsoftskillsinsoftwareengineering;

2. Closeinteractionamongstudents,theinstructor,andtheindustryadvisorincourseprojectsisrequiredforaformalintroductiontoauthenticindustrialsoftwareengineeringprocessesandpractice.

To thebest of ourknowledge, thispaper is the first to report a comprehensiveplan aswell as itspiloting tobridge the gap between software engineering education and industry needs through a course project basedapproach.Aseniorindustryadvisorwasheavilyinvolvedintheentiredevelopmentcycleofsoftwaremaintenance,aswellasofferinglecturesonimportantissuesinasoftwareengineeringcareer.This paper describes the course design, evaluation results, and an analysis for the practice of introducing an

industryadvisorroleintoEE418.Therestofthispaperisstructuredasfollows.Section2presentstherelatedwork.Section3describesourdesignandpracticeofEE418. Section4presents ananalysisof the students’ post-coursesurveyresults,andourfutureplantoaddressthefindings.Lastly,Section5concludesthispaper.

2 RelatedWorkIn recent years, software engineering educators started to realize the importance of connecting software

engineeringeducationwiththeindustryneeds.Saiedianemphasisedtheimportanceofbridgingacademicsoftwareengineeringeducationandindustryneeds,andlistedseveralkeyaspectsofeducatingsoftwareengineeringstudentsin order to build this bridge, including education in risk management, software maintenance skills, etc [Sai02].Recently,Garousipublishedresultsfromasurveyregardingclosingthegapbetweensoftwareengineeringeducationandindustrialneeds[GGT+18].Throughareviewandcomparisonofalargenumberofpaperspublishedin1995-2018 about the most important skills in the industry and the status of software engineering education, someknowledge gaps have been highlighted, which include software engineering professional practice, projectmanagement,softwareengineeringprocesses,etc.Liebenbergdiscussedtheindustry’sperceptionoftherelevanceofsoftwaredevelopmenteducationthroughamixedmethodsstudy,andthenproposedsomesolutions, includinginvolvingpeoplefromindustryintosoftwaredevelopmentclasses,hiringlecturerswithindustryexperience,project

2 ClarksonUniversity:https://www.clarkson.edu/3 https://money.cnn.com/2015/04/29/pf/college/college-biggest-salary-boost/index.html4 SoftwareEngineeringProgramofClarksonUniversity:https://www.clarkson.edu/undergraduate/software-engineering5 CMMIInstitute:https://cmmiinstitute.com/


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basededucation,etc[LHM3].LongillustratedthecriticalneedforsoftwareengineeringeducationespeciallyfortheUnitedStateshighereducationsystem,indicatingthatthissystemdidnotfollowthepaceofthesoftwareindustryevolution.Longemphasisedtheeducationinnovationregardingthismatter[Lon08].Mishrainvestigatedanindustryorientedadvancedsoftwareengineeringeducationcurriculum[MM14],ofwhich

thepurposeistorespondtotheindustrialskillexpectation.Unfortunately, none of these publications have practiced and implemented their conclusions and suggestions.

Maras is the first to report theirpracticeofperforminganempirical studyonstudentswithan industry-relevanttopic taughtbyan industryexpert in their softwareengineeringcourse inCroatia [MU15].However,during theirpractice, only a three-hour lecture has been offered by an industry expert from the Ericsson Corp6, which isobviouslynotenoughtobridgethesekeyknowledgegapsidentifiedbypriorwork.

3 CourseDesignandPractice3.1 CourseandIndustrialAdvisor

EE418 is a software engineering project course at Clarkson University where junior and senior students willparticipateinmanagingandexecutingtheprocessofcarryingoutasignificantsoftwaredevelopmenteffortfromaconceptual idea through integration and testing of thenewproposed features into an open source software. Thefocus of the particular EE418 offering in Fall 2018 was software maintenance rather than new softwaredevelopment, a topic that has been often inadequately covered in software engineering education. For example,basedonpersonalobservationinhisteachingcareer,Pierepointedouttheeducationaldifficultieswithtraditionalgreenfieldprojectsisthattheyoftenproducepoorprojectresults[Pie92].Buchtaet.al.pointedoutthatdevelopingsmall programs from scratch in the traditional software engineering course does not match industrial practice[BPPR06].Saiedianalsopointedoutthattrainingsoftwaremaintenanceskillsisawaytobuildthebridgebetweenacademiceducationandindustryneeds[Sai02].Theindustryadvisor,whoisaco-authorofthispaper, is fromMotorolaSolutionsInc.7withovertwentyyears’

experienceofsoftwaredevelopingandmanagement.Moreimportantly,theauthorandco-authorwereco-workersinMotorolasoftwaredesigncenterformanyyears,andtheyonceworkedtogethertohelpMotorolatoobtaintheCMMI level5 certification [GGK06] througha showcase softwaremaintenanceproject.Thus, the industryadvisorhadgreatenthusiasmandcapabilityforimprovingSTEMeducationandwasfullyengagedinourcourseprojects.

3.2 TextbookandLectures

Rajlich’s software maintenance textbook [Raj12] has been adopted as an ideal supplementary to our courseprojects.ThechaptersselectedforEE418lecturesareasfollows:(1).HistoryofSoftwareEngineering;(2).SoftwareLifespan Model; (3). Software Technologies; (4). Software Models; (5). Introduction to Software Changes; (6).Concepts and Concept Location; (7). Impact Analysis; (8). Actualization; (9). Refactoring; (10). Verification; (11).ConclusionofSoftwareChanges;(12).IntroductiontoSoftwareProcesses;(13).FinalStage.Inaddition,theindustryadvisorhasgiventwolectures,oneonsoftwarejobinterviewsandtheotheronethicsin

softwareengineering.Hehasalsocontributedtothedevelopmentofthecoursesyllabus.

3.3 CourseProjectsandGrading

To determine the best practice for running this industry oriented project course, the instructor conducted acourseexpectationsurveyinthefirstclass,wherethestudents’expectationontheindustryadvisorweresolicited.Theresultsshowedthatourstudentsexpectedtheadvisortoprovidemoreindustryinsights(45%),feedbacktothecourseproject(30%),andinterviewtips(25%).The instructor designed the following process for selecting the course projects. First, students attending this

courseweregroupedintothreeteams,andeachteamchoseanopen-sourcesoftwarefromtheGithubintheareasofmachinelearningandartificialintelligence.Then,eachteamproposedthreenewfeatures,andproposedonefeatureforeachofotherteams.Theindustryadvisorworkingwiththeinstructorproposedoneadditionalfeaturetoeachteam.Healsogavefeedbacktotheothernewfeaturesbasedonhisindustrialview.Therefore,eachteamworkedonsixnew features in theirproject.Therequirementsofeach featurewerenegotiable in therequirementphase.Allnewfeaturesproposedwerevotedforacceptancebyallstakeholdersincludingallteamleaders,theinstructorandtheindustryadvisor.OpensourcesoftwareselectedandsamplefeaturesproposedbystakeholdersareshowninTable1.

6 EricssonInc.:https://www.ericsson.com/en 7 MotorolaSolutionsInc.:https://www.motorolasolutions.com/


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Figure1:TheinteractionworkflowamongEE418students,theinstructor,andtheindustryadvisor.

Thejustificationforourchoiceofopensourceprojectsonthethemeofmachinelearningandartificialintelligenceisasfollows.Recently,open-sourceprojectsareincreasinglybeingusedinsoftwareengineeringeducationfortheirbenefits of easy and free source codes accessing and active development community [CK03, PBOP07, NGHL08].Teambased software engineering course projects are believed to be important for facilitating learning, fosteringstudentmotivationaswellasobtainingasuccessfulprojectoutcome[DAHB18].Inaddition,machinelearningandartificialintelligencearethefutureoftheindustry,andareevencalled“thefourthindustrialrevolution”[Theil].

Table1:CourseProjectsandSampleNewFeatures.

ProjectName Description SampleFeatureDeepLeague8 Adeeplearningandcomputervisionapplication

toanalyzeminimaprecordingsfromLeagueofLegendsThesystemshalltake.csvfileasinputtotheUIportion

DeepXplore9 Awhite-boxtestingframeworkofdeeplearningsystemsbyintroducingvisualaugmentationsinimages

Aheatmapfeatureshallbeadded totracktheareasaugmentationplaced

Magenta10 Atooltomakemusicandart throughmachinelearningbasedonTensorflow

Classical,modern,androckspecificoutputshallbegenerateddependingonpre-traineddatasets

Tobestmeetstudents’expectation,theinstructordesignedtheworkflowamongstudents,theinstructor,andtheindustryadvisor(Figure1).Asadvisedbytheindustryadvisor,eachteammemberwasassignedaroleintheteamin theproject kick-offmeeting, includingproject leader, configurationmanager, test leader, quality engineer, andprojectwebsiteadministrator.ThesearethecommonrolesinthesoftwaredevelopmentteaminMotorolaSoftwareCenters.Besidestheseroles,allteammemberswerebothdevelopersandtesters.Theprojectleaderwasresponsibleforprojectmanagementplanandrequirementbook,theconfigurationmanagersetuptheversioncontrolsystemtomanage the source codes, the test leader finished the test plan and test report, and the quality engineerwas toensure quality, providing the quality data in the test report and maintaining traceability matrix betweenrequirements,design, coding,and testing.The industryadvisoralsoparticipated in thereviewactivitiesofall thedeliverables, includingrequirementbook,designdocument, testplan, test casesandreport, and the finalproductdemonstration, providing feedback from the perspective of industry needs. At the end, all stakeholders (teamleaders,theinstructor,andtheindustryadvisor)workedtogethertogradeeachnewfeature.Althoughthebenefitsofgroupprojectsarewellknown,gradingteamprojectsisnotaneasyundertaking,withmanyinherentchallenges[HLP03].Toachievefairnessandconsistence,wefollowedHayes’bestpracticeofgradinghaye.First, theprojects

8 DeepLeague:https://github.com/farzaa/DeepLeague/ 9 DeepXplore:https://github.com/peikexin9/deepxplore 10 Magenta: https://github.com/tensorflow/magent


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were graded as a team base, and then each teammember got the same score based on the team performance.Second,weallowedteammemberstoevaluatethecontributionofeachothertoacertainpercentageoftheentireprojectgrades.Third, theattendanceofgroupactivities in classwascheckedand it tooksomepointsof the finalgrading.

4 EvaluationandAnalysisA post-course survey with eight questions was conducted in the last class. These questions and their key

measuresareshowninTable2.ThesurveyresultsandrelevantanalysisarepresentedinTable3.Onaverage,85%studentsweresatisfiedwiththisindustryorientedteachinginnovation,and70%studentswereverysatisfied.Thus,basedonthesurveyresults,wecanconcludethatthebasicgoalofthiseducationinnovationhasbeenachieved.Also,theanalysisshowsthatitistherightdecisiontoinvolvetheindustryadvisorintothesoftwareengineeringcourse(Q1),andthatstudentsbelievethattheirinterviewskills(Q5),knowledgeandconfidenceforsoftwareengineerjobs(Q2-Q4,Q6),andteamworkskillshaveimproved(Q8).

Table2:SurveyQuestionsandtheirKeyMeasures.

Questions KeyMeasuresQ1:Howisyourunderstandingabouttheindustryadvisorrolevalue IndustryadvisorawarenessandvalueQ2:Howdoyouthinkthevalueofindustryknowledgeandpracticesforyourjobinterview IndustryknowledgevalueQ3:Howisyourpreparingforyourjobhunting PreparationforjobhuntingQ4:WhatisyourconfidenceinITjobinterview Confidenceforjob interviewQ5:DoyouthinkyouhaveenoughtechnicalcompetenceandsoftskillsinITjobinterview EnoughtechnicalcompetenceandsoftskillQ6:Howdoyoufeelwhatyouwilllearnfromthiscourseisusefulinthereal-world ValueofthiscourseinrealworldQ7: Howdoyoufeelyourcourseprojectcanbeusedasashowcaseinyourjobinterview CoursecanbeashowcaseQ8:Howisyourcommitmenttoworkinginateamtodevelopthesoftwareproject Commitmentofworkingina team

Table3:ResultsandAnalysisofthePost-courseSurvey.

Questions Analysis Satisfied/Agreed StrongSatisfied/AgreedQ1 Rightdecisiontointroduceindustryadvisorroleintothiscourse 91% 64%Q2 Averygoodstart,andalsoanopportunitytoadjustthefuturepractice 91% 82%Q3 Studentshaveobtainedknowledgetodobetterpreparation 91% 82%Q4 Studentshavebuiltmoreconfidencefortheirfuturecareer 91% 55%Q5 Studentshavegainedstrongercompetenceandskills 100% 82%Q6 Roomtorefinethecoursetobemorepractical 82% 64%Q7 Needdrilldownmoretopreparebettershowcasewithproperscope 55% 45%Q8 Goodteamworkhasbeendone,anditisveryusefulfortheirfuturecareer 82% 82%

Although55%ofstudentsthoughtthattheircourseprojectcanbeusedasagoodshowcasefortheirfuturecareerinsoftwareengineering,wedidobservethatoneof thethreeteamshadunsatisfyingperformance intheircourseprojectandtheirprojectwasnotgoodenoughforashowcase(Q7).Inaddition,theevaluationindicatesthatwehaveagoodstart(91%students“agreed”withtheindustryadvisorroleandtheyhavebuiltenoughconfidenceforfuturecareer),butwealsohavetheopportunitiestoimproveourpracticeinfuturesemesters(only64%students“stronglyagreed”withthisrole(Q1),and55%ofthem“stronglyagreed”thattheyhadbuiltenoughconfidence(Q4)).Ourplannedfutureactionsarelistedasfollows:

1. Courseprojectswillbeprovidedby the industrial advisor to reflect the realneedsof industrial softwareproductdevelopment(Q7);

2. Alllectureswillberevisedbytheindustryadvisortofollowthetechnicaltrendsinthereal-world(Q4&Q6);

3. Multipleguestlectureswillbeofferedtosharemoreauthenticindustryexperience,andthetopicsspantheentiresoftwaredevelopmentcycles,suchasriskmanagementandbudgetplanning(Q4&Q6).5 Conclusion

We report on a preliminary practice and an analysis of an industry oriented software engineering educationinnovation at ClarksonUniversity. A senior professional industry advisor from a CMMI level 5 certified softwareinstitutionhasbeendeeplyinvolvedinasoftwareengineeringprojectcoursetointroduceourstudentstoauthenticindustrial software engineering processes and practice. Our analysis of a post-course survey indicates that


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91% students have “agreed” with adding the industry advisor role and believed that they have built enoughconfidenceforfuturecareerthroughsuchacourse.Wehavealsoidentifiedtheopportunitiesandactionsforfutureimprovement.

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open-sourceprojectsinsoftwareengineeringcourses.In22ndIEEEInternationalConferenceonSoftwareMaintenance.IEEE,2006.

[CK03]DavidCarringtonandSoon-KyeongKim.Teachingsoftwaredesignwithopensourcesoftware.In33rdAnnualFrontiersinEducation.ACM,2003.

[DAHB18]DoraDzvonyar,LukasAlperowitz,DominicHenze,andBerndBruegge.Teamcompositioninsoftwareengineeringprojectcourses.In2ndInternationalWorkshoponSoftwareEngineeringEducationforMillennials.ACM,2018.

[GGK06]DianeL.Gibson,DennisR.Goldenson,andKeithKost.Performanceresultsofcmmi-basedprocessimprovement.CMUTechnicalReport:CMU/SEI-2006-TR-004,August2006.

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[Lon08]LyleNormanLong.Thecriticalneedforsoftwareengineeringeducation. TheJournalofDefenseSoftwareEngineering,2008.

[MM14]AlokMishraandDeeptiMishra.Industryorientedadvancedsoftwareengineeringeducationcurriculum.CroatianJournalofEducation,2012,Vol.14.

[MU15]JosipMaras,Ljiljanaeri,Majatula,andNenadUki.Combiningeducation,industry,andempiricalstudiesinsoftwareengineering:anexperiencereport.Inthe2015EuropeanConferenceonSoftwareArchitectureWorkshops.ACM,2015.

[NGHL08]JagadeeshNandigam,VenkatNGudivada,andAbdelwahabHamou-Lhadj.Learningsoftwareengi-neeringprinciplesusingopensourcesoftware.In38thASEE/IEEEFrontiersinEducationConfer-ence.IEEE,2008.

[PBOP07]MichelaPedroni,TillBay,ManuelOriol,andAndreasPedroni.Opensourceprojectsinprogrammingcourses.InSIGCSE.ACM,2007.

[Pie92] KeithR.Piere.Thebenefitsofmaintenanceexercisesinproject-basedcoursesinsoftware.InIEEEConferenceonSoftwareMaintenance.IEEE,1992.

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