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Humboldt University Berlin, University of Novi Sad, University of Plovdiv,

University of Skopje, University of Belgrade, University of Ni, University of Kragujevac

Version: Oct. 23, 2003 (D Sep. 22, 2003)

DAAD Project

Joint Course on Software Engineering

Project management course: experience

from the first year and second version

Mirjana Ivanovi, Zoran Putnik, University of Novi Sad

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DAAD project Joint Course on Software Engineering 2

SPMModification and improvement

2 Weeks (January 2006, DAAD support)

Prof. Klaus Bothe, Institut fr Informatik, Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin

Modification and improvements of existing material(presentations)

Additional sources Internet sources

Books- T. DeMarco, T. Lister, Waltzing with Bears, Managing Risk on

Software Projects, Dorset House Publishing, 1998, (for

additional, further topic)- P. Martin, K. Tate, Getting started in Project Management, JohnWiley & Sons,

Prof. Dr. Holger Schlingloff slides (Humboldt University, mostlyfor HR topics)

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Course Organization

IV year students of Business Informatics, 14 students+ significant number of voluntariesconcluded that

course could be useful for them based on experience ofprevious generation of students

VIII semester, 2 hrs lecture, 1 hr exercises

Exam and final mark: 1/5 of points obtained by regular class attendance

Practical assignment in MS Project Continual assessment (3 times during semester)

Questionnaire of 10-20 different kinds of questions (multiple-choice, short answers, )

Final questionnaire (improve results obtained during semester, for

those who missed some of questionnaires)

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Content of Course Lectures

Introduction + general overview of PMBOK (117 slidesnow 116+74)

IT management (59 +132)avoided this year, a lot of

overlapping subjects with other topics

CMM and process improvement (51now 56)Cost estimation and COCOMO (71now 84)

Software measurement and metrics (51now 55)

Planning (77)

Using tools - Microsoft project (65, Exercise)

Ethical issues (87now 90, + Exercise)

NEW - Human resources and management (students

opinion is that part is extremely interesting and useful)

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SPM - Introduction

Essential project properties

Classifications of projects

What is software, management

Tasks of management, Why projects failActivities of project management

Real world example

Project Management Body Of Knowledge,general overview

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Introduction + general overview of PMBOK (117slidesnow 116+74)

IT management (59 +132)avoided this year, alot of overlapping subjects with other topics

CMM and process improvement (51now 56)

Cost estimation and COCOMO (71now 84)


Planning (77)Using tools - Microsoft project (65, Exercise)


NEW - Human resources and management

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7/42DAAD project Joint Course on Software Engineering 7

SPMCMM and process improvement

Software Process, Improvement, Process

Improvement Frameworks Quagmire

Maturity Models, Improvement levels, Level

Requirements

CMM Integration andbenefits

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SPMCost estimation and COCOMO

Software cost estimation, general information and

some techniques, problems

Quality and productivity

COCOMO and COCOMO II model

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SPMSoftware measurement and metrics

Software Measurement, Classification

Project Metrics, Typical Metrics

Defects, Removal Efficiency

Software Metrics Classification

Personnel Metrics

Hardware Metrics

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SPMPlanning

Kinds of planning (Time, Capacity, Cost)

Net-planning (rules, steps, activity lists, critical paths)

Management of big software projects, PERT Technique,

MPM: Metra-Potential-Method

Gantt chart

Tools and algorithms

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SPMEthical issues

Ethics introduction

Software Engineering Ethics and Professional Conduct

Computer Ethics, Computer Crime, Privacy and Anonymity,Intellectual Property, Professional Responsibility

Case Study: 10 Big Myths about copyright

Case Study: EVoting

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Human resources and management

Managing conflicts (27)

Communication techniques (27)

Moderation (29)

Attitude theories (50)

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Organization of Exercises

Exercises are organized on-the-need bases.

During the first few weeks, students wereintroduced to the body-of-knowledge for the

subject, so there was nothing to practice on.

On some of the following weeks, professorneeded additional classes to manage all of the

material.

The first real exercises were held in connectionwith the Planning topic.

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After theoretical lesson about planning, exercises were held using MSProject software. It was first presented theoretically at a 3-hour class

On another 3-hour class, it is presented practically (using representativeexamples)

After that, students had 4 hours of practical work, to gain experience withMS Project

Additionally, this year our e-Learning favourite Moodle was used to helpwith MS Project too.

Elements from MS Project help system were translated, adjusted, andsituated as an e-Lesson in Moodle system.

Lucky usthose are the same students that have usernames, passwords,

and knowledge of Moodle from the SE course.

Finally, students were given a software project that they have tomanage using MS Project, in a classroom, or at home

This project served as a part of the exam

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Students had to manage a project: Organization of a

scientific conference (new example, but similar to

previous one)

Students were given a written material, and one lecture

about how conferences are organized in a real life.

They were also given a use-case type of a document for

all of the activities in connection with the conference

organization.

Assistant for this subject was a working member of 12

conferences so far. Real-life.

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This allowed us to present a lot of possibilities of MS

Project.

One additional possibility is to torture students until they

create a satisfactory project.

This possibility was not over-used, there was only one

student that completely missed the point (or tried to

manage this part of the exam as-easy-as-possible).

He had to do it all over again, this time almost perfectly.

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Practical exercises were also held on a topic of

ethical aspects!

10 situations from a programmers real orimaginary life were presented to the students.

Stories were read and discussed during a class,each new one receiving bigger and betterreception (maybe because a choice of order of

stories?)

This part of exercises had a very good receptionlast year, so we were looking forward to thisyears happening.

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Unfortunately for us, the exercises were held during the week while alot of students went to a final-year 7-days excursion.

This IS something NO exercise could compete with!

All of the students who were presentyet, only about 1/3 of a groupactively participated in a discussion, all of them had an idea, anopinion, a thought, and were willingto share it with the others

Actually, there WERE some of them not too willing to participate atfirst, but in such a small group, with others presenting their thoughts,with the assistant asking them for their opinions directly, they became

involved in a short time!

Another theme students were willing to participate in was a case studyon e-mail etiquette. They were adding their suggestions to thepresented material throughout the whole lesson!

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Final Exam Results

Of 14 students, 12 successfully finished their

practical assignment last year.

This year11 (out of 14) students solved the

practical assignment so far. (Additional 2 arecurrently in USA).

Marks:

7once, 8eight times, 9three times

This year

7once, 8twice, 9five times, 10three times

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Final Exam Results

Of 12 students eligible for exam, 11 showed up,

each one passing both tests, marks 610. (last

year)

After that, they accepted offered marks.

This year9 out of 11 showed up, and accepted

marks. (The last 2 finished their project during this

summer. Through e-mail conversation they

agreed to their marks and will approach the exam

in September.)

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Students OpinionQuestionnaire

Effort:

Attendance 5 - 100% 1 - 20%

Post-processing [lectures] Hours

Post-processing [assignments] Hours

Students attended 50% of the lectures on the average,

and it took them 1.7 hour post-processing time for lecturesand the assignments. (2005)

.. more than 80% . 2.7 hours! (2006)

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Needed pre-knowledge?:

SE + English (5x)

Experience.

Not too much - just basics of everything

Needed pre-knowledge was assessed usually as:

nothing, a little bit of everything, experience, and

with 40% of students as Software Engineering + English

language (2005).

Almost the same! (2006) (percent a bit higher!)

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Which topics in Serbian?: Lectures in Serbian slides in English (1x)

All (11 x)

None (1x)

Percent of students thinking that they need slides

in Serbian was even higher.

This wasnt possible till now, because slides are

still changing, yet we are seriously considering

this option.

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Style of the lectures:According to the questionnaire, we improved on almost every issue:

Mark (last year) Wanted mark

Lecturer familiar 4.10 (4.00) 5

Lectures well prepared 4.10 (3.50) 5

Lecturer engaged 4.10 (3.64) 5

Willingness to answer

students' questions 4.50 (4.92) 5

Presentation 4.50 (4.70) 3

Presentation style encourageto follow the lecture 3.00 (2.90) 5

Remarks:This year, we had one interesting idea: some of the lecturesshould be given to studentsthat would be more interesting and engaging

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Using media Amount of info on 5 - Very well 1 - Not so much

slides adequate

Slides well structured 5 - Very well 1 - Not so much

and clearly organized

Average marks last year: amount of info adequate 3.14

slides well structured and clearly organized 3.29

This year, after some improvements, marks weresignificantly higher: amount of info adequate 4.50

slides well structured and clearly organized 3.90

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Assignments: Difficulty 5 -Too high 1 -Too low

Motivating 5 -Very much 1 -Not so much

Similar with the assignments: difficulty to solve 2.36

motivating 3.14

In 2006. season: difficulty to solve 3.14

motivating 3.29

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Benefit of the course: New things learned 5Much 1 -Not so much

Contents useful 5Completely 1 -Not so much

Overall rank of the course 5 - Very well 1 - Bad

Average marks for a course improved: New things learned 3.25 (2005) 4.00

Contents useful 3.75 (2005) 3.70

Overall rank 3.83 (2005) 4.10

This year, we asked students how important for them is that the course isinternationally supported.

On a scale of 5 (very) to 1 (not at all), the mark was 4!!!

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Remarks:

Overall comments of the course, for the last year (2005)were:

Everything OK. Everything according to curriculum. Good anduseful. Very usefulbut also:

Pure theory, not connected to real life. Lack of practical lessonsevident. Not connected to students experiences (?)

This year (2006), comments were: Ethical issues and Human resources interesting and very

important

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Lecturers Opinion

Positive

Good and representative material (topics)Prepared slides, acceptable quality, coverage to final version

Acceptable level of familiarity, preparation of additionaltopics (Risk management, Agile project management,

Methodologies of Software Project Management)

Negative

A lot of different sourcesmaybe further refinement isneeded

Static structure of slides, too much text, introduction ofanimation and graphics

Further readings and deeper involvement in whole material,introduction of other software tools for project management

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Conclusion

Additional support to upgrade the course on SPM

Further improvement is (needed) expected

Questionnaire results are satisfied (better then

obtained last year)

Better and more student-oriented organization of

practical work and exercises (work in real

environment)permanent problem

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1 year project for modification of existing course

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Additional support to upgrade the course on SPMThe course will cover the following topics (the order will be

influenced by the order of practical assignments):

Introduction to project management

Communications management

Software process models

Deeper coverage of some software process models

Quality of software development process and itsstandardization

Project management processes according to PMBOK and

life-cycle processes (primary, supporting, organizational)Assessment procedures: ISO, SPICE, PSP (Personal

Software Process), TSP (Team Software Process), CMM(Capability Maturity Model), SPICE,

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The course will cover the following topics (the order will be

influenced by the order of practical assignments):

Project management

Feasibility study, the role in requirements engineering,

Cost estimation and COCOMO model

Risk analysis

Tracking (tools, metrics, )

Methodologies of Software Project Management: RUP,

Prince, ...

Software process metrics

Maintenance and maintenance metrics

Advanced topics in Professional Responsibilities and

Computer Ethics

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Teaching Methodology

Lectures will be supported by animated, multimediapower-point' slides. Handouts for these slides will bedelivered to students after the lecture.

We also plan to write and publish a textbook for the

course. During practical exercises students (divided into teams)

will 'simulate' the real-world process of managing thesoftware project.

During the life of the project teams would exchange rolesin order to better appreciate:a) the role of proper documentation throughout the life of project and

b) the difference between managing and 'doing'.

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Teaching Methodology

Complete teaching material

copies of presented slides,

text of practical assignments,

documents produced by students groups

will be available on the web-site (afterthe

presentation of certain lectures).

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Examining Methodology

Constant review of practical work done during practical

exercises (work on the project.) This will be conducted

continuously during the semester.

Short tests on theoretical aspects taught during the

lectures.

Discussion on documents and solutions produced during

the work on the project.

Oral exam covering topics taught during lectures, at the

end of the semester - for the students unsatisfied with a

grade acquired throughout the semester.

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