A Platform for Software Engineering Course Projects

Birol AYGÜN

Article Details

A Platform for Software Engineering Course Projects

Authors:

Birol AYGÜN

Publisher:

TUBITAK

Journal:

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 2004 Vol.12 Issue 2, pp.107-116

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

1/2004

Document Language:

Turkish

Document ID (Org No.):

2000744253

Frequency:

Bimonthly

eISSN:

1303-6203

pISSN:

1300-0632

Abstract:

 

The importance of projects in software engineering courses  is well known.  Both synthetic and real-life projects have various  advantages and disadvantages.  Our aim was to create a framework where  students can develop projects which reflect some of the complexities  of real-life, involving many concurrent, interacting, asynchronous  processes, each in a different stage of development, with wide  temporal differences among them - some occurring within millisconds of  each other and others executing sporadically over much longer periods.   In this project, which was carried out in different arrangements in  several software engineering courses in three universities, the  students developed both the sub- and super-structures required, with  varying degrees of success.  The projects were performed in parallel  with and subsequent to one-semester courses in software engineering.   The development was performed in accordance with the principles  established in the lectures.  The sub-structure consists of a  discrete-time event simulator and a message passing mechanism.  It can  support many different super-structures.  The super-structure we  created was an e-business community simulator where a manufacturer,  its trading partners and the transactions among them were simulated.   In this paper we summarize the project and our experiences during the  development.  A literature search for similar projects for software  engineering education did not yield any hits.  However several  reported industrial projects for virtual supply chain management were  examined.  Our project on the other hand was tailored for  implementation by student groups in one semester with the primary  purpose of getting experience in complex, multi-group software  development rather than immediate industrial use of the software.

 

The importance of projects in software engineering courses  is well known.  Both synthetic and real-life projects have various  advantages and disadvantages.  Our aim was to create a framework where  students can develop projects which reflect some of the complexities  of real-life, involving many concurrent, interacting, asynchronous  processes, each in a different stage of development, with wide  temporal differences among them - some occurring within millisconds of  each other and others executing sporadically over much longer periods.   In this project, which was carried out in different arrangements in  several software engineering courses in three universities, the  students developed both the sub- and super-structures required, with  varying degrees of success.  The projects were performed in parallel  with and subsequent to one-semester courses in software engineering.   The development was performed in accordance with the principles  established in the lectures.  The sub-structure consists of a  discrete-time event simulator and a message passing mechanism.  It can  support many different super-structures.  The super-structure we  created was an e-business community simulator where a manufacturer,  its trading partners and the transactions among them were simulated.   In this paper we summarize the project and our experiences during the  development.  A literature search for similar projects for software  engineering education did not yield any hits.  However several  reported industrial projects for virtual supply chain management were  examined.  Our project on the other hand was tailored for  implementation by student groups in one semester with the primary  purpose of getting experience in complex, multi-group software  development rather than immediate industrial use of the software.

Article Details

A Platform for Software Engineering Course Projects

Authors: Birol AYGÜN

Publisher: TUBITAK

Journal: Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 2004 Vol.12 Issue 2, pp.107-116

Document Type: Article

Publication Date: 1/2004

Document Language: Turkish

Document ID (Org No.): 2000744253

Frequency: Bimonthly

eISSN: 1303-6203

pISSN: 1300-0632

Issues

Authors:

Birol AYGÜN

Publisher:

TUBITAK

Journal:

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science 2004 Vol.12 Issue 2, pp.107-116

Document Type:

Article

Publication Date:

1/2004

Document Language:

Turkish

Document ID (Org No.):

2000744253

Frequency:

Bimonthly

eISSN:

1303-6203

pISSN:

1300-0632