Abstract:

At the department of Applied Informatics at Comenius University, we have been teaching introduction to Software Engineering in form of a team project for more than 12 years. Students in the 5th semester of their study in groups of 4 first learn about the available project proposals, then submit their preferences for selection process for all listed projects projects. The projects are matched with the groups automatically while maximizing their satisfaction and matching skills score. In each project, they work for a client who has a need for a new software to be developed. Students make interviews, collect the requirements, and produce an IEEE-compliant Software Requirements Specification document that serves also as an agreement with the client. Later, students work on the design, implement, test and deliver the final product. Students pass the course if the client is satisfied with the result: it works according to the specification and it is stable. Teams have two kinds of weekly meetings: 1) for their own coordination and 2) with the teacher. They write minutes from the meetings, use kanban-style project organization tool, and Github for collaboration and source-code repository. As a consequence of this effort, our Faculty has signed agreements with industrial partners who are benefiting from using the software developed in the projects, while also software students produced for other clients is still in daily use. In the article we summarize our experiences, challenges, feedback, and results.

Keywords:

Software engineering, team project, university-industry collaboration.