A legacy game for project management in software engineering courses
2018 (English)In: ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, Association for Computing Machinery , 2018, p. 72-76Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Background: Software project management courses are becoming popular for teaching software engineering process models and methods. However, in order to be effective, this approach should be properly aligned to the learning outcomes. Common misalignments are caused by using a correct degree of realism or an appropriate instruction level. Objective: To foster students to acquire knowledge (theoretical and practical) that enables them solving similar challenges to the ones they will face in real-world software projects. Methods: We prototype and validate a legacy game that simulates the software development process. Students are required to plan and manage a software project according to its specification provided by the teachers. Teachers act as both customers and moderators, presenting the challenges and guiding the students' teamwork. Results: Both students' and teachers' perception suggest that the proposed game has potential to motivate the knowledge acquisition through problem-solving. The feedback also suggests that some measures must be taken to ensure the pedagogical alignment and a fair game. Conclusion: The lessons learned provide suggestions for adopting this or similar games in the context of project courses. As further work, we plan to describe and extend the game rules based on the results of this application. © 2018 Association for Computing Machinery.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Association for Computing Machinery , 2018. p. 72-76
Keywords [en]
Education, Gaming, Project Management Course, Software Development Process, Curricula, Education computing, Engineering education, Problem solving, Project management, Software design, Software prototyping, Students, Instruction-level, Learning outcome, Software engineering course, Software project management, Teachers' perceptions, Teaching software, Teaching
National Category
Software Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:bth-16891DOI: 10.1145/3209087.3209094ISI: 000478670000011Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85049870717ISBN: 9781450363839 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:bth-16891DiVA, id: diva2:1239986
Conference
3rd European Conference of Software Engineering Education, ECSEE, Seeon Monastery, Seeon, Germany
2018-08-202018-08-202022-10-03Bibliographically approved