Web-based teaching in software engineering

The introduction of the new technologies of computer networks and hypermedia systems in education seems promising. However, only through experimentation can the effectiveness of these technologies be demonstrated. This was the main objective of the EONT project, in the process of which the National Technical University of Athens adapted an introductory course in Software Engineering to a novel enriched instructional delivery mode. The existing course material was supplemented by Web-based courseware, integrated into a Web-based novel networked learning environment. In this article we report on the results of our research and development, concerning this particular course, and discuss the results that were obtained from our evaluation study.     

Computer-aided software engineering and Ada -- The technological marriage of the decade

Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools and Ada language compilers are now available for both mainframes and Personal Computers (PCs). Although CASE methodologies have existed since the early 1970s and the use of Ada has been required by the Department of Defense since 1985, only recently have CASE and Ada become of serious interest to engineers.

This paper identifies the capabilities of PC-based CASE software, the reasons for combining CASE with Ada, and the impact of CASE and Ada on research and teaching in the areas of Industrial and Computer Engineering. Based on the authors' first-hand experience, the advantages and/or disadvantages of several CASE tools and Ada environments will be discussed. Other topics addressed include the meanings of related terminology (e.g., object-oriented programming, design methodologies) and the future ramifications of CASE and Ada on the software engineering community.     

Lessons learned in an industrial software lab [softwaredevelopment]

The author offers a personal account of the issues and challenges that have confronted the software developer over the last few decades. The failures and successes associated with formal methods, the realities of reuse, and the implementation of development process models and goals are discussed     

Knowledge-oriented software engineering process in a multi-cultural context

In software engineering, leading trends can be detected that will affect the characteristic features of a product and its development process. On a product level, the growth of size and complexity is apparent—but on the one hand only. On the other hand, there is also a growing demand for simple and reasonable small software products executed by handheld terminals and smartphones; these applications are in many cases expected to collaborate with databases over the Internet. In addition, different kinds of service concepts (ASP, SaaS) are becoming recognized alternatives to the traditional way of buying software. Increasingly, software products are also distributed in a wide geographical scope to users with different cultural backgrounds and expectations. In software engineering work, as a consequence of this growth in size and complexity, the development work is more and more often distributed. The software business itself is becoming global because of acquisitions, offshoring, and international subcontracting. The globalization of work sets new requirements to the engineering processes: in international teams the organisational and cultural differences of the development subteams have to be recognized. In this paper, the focus is on the software development and its global dimension—especially the roles of multi-cultural and cross-organizational issues in software engineering. Our paper presents the results of the first phase of our three phases research project related to “Culture-Aware Software Engineering.” The main result of the first phase is the multi-cultural software engineering working model introduced in our paper. Culture is seen as one example of the context, i.e. the situation at hand. The concept of culture has also different meanings, which have to be understood in well-organized software engineering. Software engineering work is analyzed as a knowledge creation process, in which both explicit and tacit knowledge are recognized and the transformation between these establishes baselines along the development life cycle.     

Applying empirical software engineering to software architecture: challenges and lessons learned

In the last 15 years, software architecture has emerged as an important software engineering field for managing the development and maintenance of large, software-intensive systems. Software architecture community has developed numerous methods, techniques, and tools to support the architecture process (analysis, design, and review). Historically, most advances in software architecture have been driven by talented people and industrial experience, but there is now a growing need to systematically gather empirical evidence about the advantages or otherwise of tools and methods rather than just rely on promotional anecdotes or rhetoric. The aim of this paper is to promote and facilitate the application of the empirical paradigm to software architecture. To this end, we describe the challenges and lessons learned when assessing software architecture research that used controlled experiments, replications, expert opinion, systematic literature reviews, observational studies, and surveys. Our research will support the emergence of a body of knowledge consisting of the more widely-accepted and well-formed software architecture theories.     

Error density and size in Ada software

The author and her colleagues have completed the development of a large project written in Ada. The project team kept error reports, and the many modules ranged greatly in size. They analyzed module size to see if there was a relationship with module quality. They used error density-defects per thousand lines-as an inverse measure of quality: the lower the error density, the higher the quality. The author presents and discusses the results, which lend support to the hypothesis that there is an optimal, intermediate module size     

A market-driven approach to teaching software components engineering

The emergence of software component standards and tools for creating software components is leading to an increasing number of software component developers. Traditional software engineering education, however, emphasizes methods for developing large software packages. It is not clear whether such methods are appropriate for developing components. New techniques may be needed to teach the skills necessary for component development. We identify two skills software developers need to successfully develop components, which are not emphasized in traditional software engineering education: (a) uncovering multiple-customer domain semantics; and (b) making explicit multiple-customer framework semantics. Both skills are multiple constraint satisfaction problems. We further argue that training students to produce and market components in a simulated software components marketplace – rather than the more conventional classroom teaching + component homework assignments/projects – is an effective way of teaching such skills. We then describe an environment we created called SofTrade that simulates a components market and allows students to acquire the necessary skills. We provide a detailed case study of how a student component-producer team used market feedback to determine domain and framework semantics. We end by discussing the importance of market-driven approaches for teaching software components engineering and how such approaches fit into existing software engineering curricula.     

项目驱动的启发式教学在软件工程课程中的应用

针对目前软件工程教学中重理论轻实践的现状,结合教学实践和软件研发的实际经验,提出项目驱动的启发式教学模式。实践表明,该教学模式的应用增强了课堂的互动性,激发了学员的积极性和主动性,提高了学员的软件研发能力,教学效果取得显著提高。     

Lessons learned from developing mbeddr: a case study in language engineering with MPS

Software and Systems Modeling - Language workbenches are touted as a promising technology to engineer languages for use in a wide range of domains, from programming to science to business. However,...     

软件工程专业双语教学模式研究与实践

本文以福建师范大学双语教学立项为背景,首先分析软件工程专业双语教学模式研究的主要内容,给出通过双语教学实践的教学成果。其次阐述双语教学实施过程中存在的问题及改革措施。最后提出需进一步探讨的课题。     

基于Workshop的《软件工程》课程教学模式初探

针对专业特点,运用Workshop的课程教育模式,对《软件工程》课程的教学目标和内容、教学模式、教学方法和考核方式进行了研究与设计。通过课程教学模式的改革激发了同学们的主动学习的热情,为今后步入工作岗位奠定基础。     

Lessons learned in managing object-oriented development

The author relates experience gained in developing tightly constrained, custom object-oriented systems, in which success depends on delivering a functional system on time and on budget, often for a fixed price. Many of the systems developed had the additional constraint of real-time requirements, and most had some kind of reuse goals. The organization, planning, and progress tracking of an object-oriented project are discussed. The management model and resources used in such a project are described     

Safety verification of Ada programs using software fault trees

The software fault-tree analysis technique is explained. It is then extended to allow its use on a more complex language involving such features as concurrency and exception handling. Ada is used as the example language because many safety-critical projects are using or planning to use Ada. It also contains complex, real-time programming facilities found in other languages used in these types of projects. Software fault-tree analysis uses failure-mode templates to generate the fault tree. The templates provided can be used to define the procedures for applying the technique to programs written in most other declarative languages. To explain the use of the templates an example Ada program, for a traffic-light-control system, is analyzed. The cost and practicality of the method and its implications for software reuse are assessed. The application of the safety analysis procedures to requirements modeling and specification languages is considered     

构建多方协同育人机制的软件工程实践教学体系

以构建基于多方协同育人、产教融合的软件工程实践教学体系为目的,结合新工科建设的趋势,分析了新经济环境下软件人才的需求和培养目标.以动态适应社会需求为驱动,以学生为中心,以产出为导向,以持续改进为保障,将学科知识、专业能力、非专业能力、综合素质作为人才培养的核心任务.通过提升学科交叉、创新创业和多学科团队协同合作能力,形成以创新支持创业,以创业带动就业的模式,增强了学生的创新意识和创新能力.     

基于Web开发的软件工程课程实践教学互动平台

将软件工程课件放到网上让学生通过计算机来学习,可以使学生更好地理解软件工程这门课程的真谛,以此培养学生开发计算机应用系统的实际能力.为此设计了一个软件工程课程实践教学互动平台,给出了其各功能的详细设计.该平台结合了Java、HTML语言与Struts2框架,提供了一种软件工程新的学习方法.案例提供者将案例传到网上,学生即可对其进行模拟实践,并对实践的分析结果进行记录,以便再次学习或者提供给他人学习.学生还可以在平台上互相交流,互相帮助.     

Remote sensing in BOREAS: Lessons learned

The Boreal Ecosystem Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) was a large, multiyear internationally supported study designed to improve our understanding of the boreal forest biome and its interactions with the atmosphere, biosphere, and the carbon cycle in the face of global climate change. In the initial phase of this study (early 1990s), remote sensing played a key role by providing products needed for planning and modeling. During and after the main BOREAS field campaigns (1994 and 1996), innovative remote sensing approaches and analyses expanded our understanding of the boreal forest in four key areas: (1) definition of vegetation structure, (2) land-cover classification, (3) assessment of the carbon balance, and (4) links between surface properties, weather, and climate. In addition to six BOREAS special issues and over 500 journal papers, a principal legacy of BOREAS is its well-documented and publicly available database, which provides a lasting scientific resource and opportunity to further advance our understanding of this critical northern biome.     

The use of Ada for the specification of automata in civil engineering

The systems we are dealing with are not restricted to data processing systems, but are material testing or inspection devices and automated work sites engines. These civil engineering systems usually comprise various distributed real processes such as test benches, machines, embeded computers, that are all interacting. Because the number of various processes being independently produced and further embeded in the same system is increasing,the designer needs tools ensuring coherence, reliability and facilitating system development and maintenance. This paper summarizes a method based upon two requirements :

• 1.1.) to define a theoretical method for system modelling,
• 2.2.) to define a specification language, its semantic being based upon the former method and its syntax being adapted from that of Ada.

     

Using formal methods for teaching software engineering: a tool-based approach

In this paper we describe and review the course plan and syllabus we use in a course on formal methods in software engineering currently included in the degree in Informatics of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Bologna. The course matches the theory of formal methods with their practice based on actual tool usage. In fact, the course is centered upon a project whose main goal is to let students learn some formal specification techniques, all supported by specific tools. The students use well-known notations for both requirements specification and formal design. The formal methods we use are based on the Z notation for requirements specification and on the Larch family of languages for design specifications.     

基于Event-B和Rodin开展形式化软件工程教学

形式化软件工程是软件工程的重要组成部分。Event-B方法是一种软件形式化开发方法,Rodin是支持Event-B方法的开放工具集。基于Event-B方法和Rodin开展形式化软件工程教学,有益于学生正确理解精化等重要的软件工程概念,理解并掌握开发可信软件的方法,是软件工程教学的重要补充。