Michael Herold

Connecting reality with theory — An approach for creating integrative industry case studies in the software engineering curriculum

Case studies have been successfully integrated into a wide variety of educational contexts and disciplines. Today, case studies are increasingly accepted as valuable teaching tools in science and engineering curriculums to complement the underlying theory of the field. Well-articulated cases can reinforce abstract concepts, demonstrate the nature of real client interactions, and showcase the relevance of soft skills to students that lack significant practical experience. However, assembling and delivering quality case studies to students requires a great deal of practical disciplinary knowledge, and a careful alignment of the case content and delivery style with curricular objectives, course learning outcomes, and the overarching institutional format. In this paper, we summarize our experience with an approach for constructing case study teaching materials that are integrative and deep in content, but also carefully aligned to the core principles and format of a senior-level software engineering course. Our approach ensures that the cases are complex enough to retain their realism and intrinsic appeal, while mirroring the format and objectives of the course such that the cases reinforce key points in a familiar and consistent fashion to the students.

Teaching object-oriented software design within the context of software frameworks

Object-oriented software design and programming is an essential part of a computer science curriculum. We have observed that novice software developers, such as fresh college graduates who have been taught object-oriented design, are able to apply good design principles in theory. However, this rarely extends into their professional practice, when they are asked to design software intended to run inside a software framework. In fact, we observe that even advanced software developers abandon good design practices when developing software while using a framework, and focus on simply “making it work.” This paper presents and discusses a methodology developed for designing software in the context of frameworks to overcome these issues. We show how design patterns can serve as the bridge between the paradigms imposed by the framework and the ideal, unconstrained design of the system. We also suggest an evaluation method for observing the results of using this methodology when used by the students.

Work in progress — Computer science perspectives on integration with human-centered design

Capstone courses in many disciplines often fall into a single paradigm: they allow students to practice the skills they should have gathered through their progress in the department curriculum in a real-world or near-real venue. However, these courses often fail the real-world test by one important factor: they are not interdisciplinary projects, which is not indicative of industry experiences. We are attempting to create an interdisciplinary environment for capstone courses, involving both design and computer science students, to more adequately prepare students for industry work. This work-in-progress paper describes our experiences and plans for bettering the interdisciplinary capstone experience. The experiences show that there is a fundamental miscommunication between students of different disciplines that hinders their ability to collaborate. By analyzing qualitative questionnaires from thirty-three computer science students, we have affirmed the existence of this rift in inter-departmental understanding. This realization has formed our basis for creating educational modules to ease the collaboration between computer science and design students.

Teaching students software engineering practices for micro-teams

Standard methodologies, which have been developed for large software development teams, and Agile practices, developed for small teams, make up the software engineering practices taught in the Computer Science classroom. However, we have found that there is a significant prevalence of “micro” teams doing business-critical software development in the field. Thus, software development best practices for micro teams must be incorporated into the software curriculum. Towards this end, we created a multiple-case case study (comprising five micro team projects) showing how micro teams handle the software development process. Through each of these projects, we seek to showcase what practices from existing software development methodologies are undertaken by the developers of the projects, to achieve similar ends as developers in larger teams. Specifically, the case study highlights how existing software development methodologies need to be modified, adapted or extended for micro teams. The case study and micro team guidelines were presented to students in a software engineering class within the Computer Science department at a large R1 university. The teaching was assessed using a mix of surveys and structured interviews. Initial evaluations showed promise. Students were positively inclined to accept the lessons, and showed good recall of the concepts taught in tests.

Providing end-to-end perspectives in software engineering

In order to better prepare students for professional practice, we have created a software engineering curriculum that provides an end-to-end perspective that begins with the business context of software, and goes all the way to the ongoing management of software services after deployment. This paper examines how the theoretical aspects of this broad-based curriculum may be effectively delivered through a single course within a traditional computer science program. This curriculum is under a diverse set of constraints and requirements, such as the need for pedagogical consistency, faculty development, consideration of the learning style of computer science students, and a need for an effective continuous improvement process. Our approach uses “engineering-oriented” analysis frameworks such as Porters Five Forces model for the business aspects, and attribute-driven design for software architectures, an “inverted” classroom mode of teaching where lectures are delivered on line with interactions and exercises that promote active learning reserved for the classroom, case studies developed from real projects to serve as concrete examples, open discussion boards and weekly short quizzes for concept refinement and retention, and a paper-based project where students apply the concepts learned. Faculty development and replication outside the current site are also discussed.

An Agile Translation Process for complex innovations: An Industry/University Cooperative Research Center case study

The National Science Foundation Industry & University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) program is intended to foster productive collaboration between industry organizations and academia. The focus of the I/UCRC research site herein is on the application of technology within the complex extended enterprise. The centers goal is to conduct research that is of interest to both the industry sponsor and the university partner, with the provision that the industry organization must provide major support to the center. In this paper, we describe the Agile Translation Process (ATP) for complex innovations that was developed at the center. The process meets the constraints of the academic calendar, the knowledge needs and the typical length of stay for a masters student, and the availability constraints of the students. At the same time, the process is designed to provide value to the industry sponsor. Specifically, it describes how the process meets the needs of technology consumers in industry seeking to derive tactical value through the funding of the center. In addition, we demonstrate how to derive research results for technology providers through subsequent activities. We also provide metrics from the center for a period of five years, which show, in particular, the benefit of using the ATP method over the last three years. These metrics provide insights on how to reconcile tactical industry needs with the long-term research and funding goals of academia, while understanding the innovations needed within complex contexts. This case study also provides insights on concurrently meeting the needs of all stakeholders - including industry clients, translational faculty members, adjunct faculty from partner companies, graduate students, and the centers affiliated research faculty - within the constraints of the academic calendar. By using an agile translation process and a set of expanded performance metrics, the center effectively applies research to bring innovation to its industry partners.

Innovation-directed experiential learning using service blueprints

An analysis of hiring patterns showed emerging trends: the complexity of information technology (IT) is shifting from development to post-deployment and integration needed for services. Given the complexity of deployed service systems, generated big data, and the national dialogue on educating engineers, we asked ourselves related questions. Do our graduate students have evaluation skills needed to work at the most advanced level of Blooms taxonomy? Can they learn to frame and solve the problems within complex industry environments while applying the current research? How do we structure a graduate curriculum and an environment that provides experiences in innovation within the constraints of the academic calendar? Here we present an interdisciplinary curriculum comprised of three components: a service interaction blueprint for framing the industry problem, agile principles focusing on aspects of the solution, and Christensens theory-building to frame the next iteration of research. The environment for industry problems was created through an National Science Funded Industry & University Cooperative Research Center. The feedback from a pilot graduate-level class is positive and provides insights for further research. We show through feedback discussions that it is possible to have translational activity at the industry-university enterprise boundary resourced in by advanced experiential learning.

Enabling scalability, richer experiences and ABET-accreditable learning outcomes in computer science Capstone courses through inversion of control

Capstone courses are expected to prepare students for the “real world” by putting them into a microcosm of the real world. In these courses, students are given a problem of some complexity, and are expected to exercise and develop problem-solving skills as they address the problem. Within our Computer Science and Engineering program we have, over the past eight years, successfully scaled up the Capstone courses. Doing so has required innovative thinking about the roles of the students, faculty, and project sponsors. In this paper, we discuss issues with scaling up the components that have made this program successful. These include housing the courses in an NSF IUCRC that enable the cultivation of highly-committed industry partners, the creation of strong pre-requisite courses, careful development of faculty resources through the selective hiring and mentoring of clinical faculty, a commitment of the faculty to give up close management and control, strong partnerships with other organizations within the university to provide students greater access to resources, an emphasis on cross-team knowledge sharing and learning, and the development of unique assessment and evaluation tools so as to be able to monitor, measure and fairly assess a wide-spectrum of projects.