Teaching Software Process Improvement and Assessment

In order to prepare students for careers as software process engineers, software engineering education needs to adopt innovative instructional designs to support effectively the learning of required knowledge and skills. In this paper, we propose a cross-course design for teaching software process improvement and assessment in a graduate course in combination with an undergraduate capstone project course adopting a constructivist approach. We applied the proposed course design and investigated its impact on learning effects, its adequacy and strengths and weaknesses by administering a pre-and post-test and applying a questionnaire at the end of the course. First evaluation results indicate a positive learning effect on students to develop competencies required for software process engineers as well as it successfully engaged both graduate and undergraduate students while providing a beneficial experience through their interactions.