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Session 3460

Using a Product Line Approach to Develop Course Projects£ Gerald C. GannodÝÞ and John J. Doherty Dept. of Computer Science & Engineering, Arizona State University Box 875406, Tempe, AZ 85287-5406 E-mail: gannod,doherty.j @asu.edu

Abstract

Product Line and Product Family approaches are development techniques that take advantage of common- alities that exist among a set of current or planned products. The use of a product line approach allows for speedier integration of new requirements and capabilities to account for product variation without the timely process of reorganizing and reengineering an entire product. While the product line approach is an emerging paradigm in the software development research and industrial communities, little attention has been placed on its use as a methodology for developing and maintaining course projects in an engineering curriculum. As part of an Embedded Systems concentration at Arizona State University we are creating a course in Embedded Systems Engineering that focuses on systems integration and applications develop- ment. For this course we are developing a home automation product line. By using a product line approach, students can gain exposure to new technologies in successive offerings while still receiving instruction on core concepts. Furthermore, instructors can easily provide a wide variety of experiences for students with a minimal amount of incremental course refinements. 1 Introduction One of the many challenges facing engineering educators today is the need to keep pace with technological advancements. Many factors must be considered before integrating new technology into a curriculum. Traditionally, if the technology varies widely from technology in current course offerings, a new course is considered. Otherwise, an existing course is modified or updated. In either case, the process of integrating the new technology into a curriculum can be both expensive and time consuming. Product Line and Product Family approaches are development techniques that take advantage of commonalities that exist among a set of current or planned products. These shared features, or assets, may include artifacts such as software and hardware reference architectures, software and hardware components, processes used to develop and integrate components, and test plans. The use of a product line approach allows for speedier integration of new requirements and capabilities to account for product variation without the timely process of reorganizing and reengineering an entire product. While the product line approach is an emerging paradigm in the software develop- ment research and industrial communities, little attention has been placed on its use as a method- ology for developing and maintaining course projects in an engineering curriculum. In treating a course as a targeted product market domain we have been able to apply the same techniques used in software product line development to course development. At Arizona State University we are currently developing a concentration track in embedded systems1. As part of the curriculum we are creating a course in Embedded Systems Engineering

£ This research supported in part by NSF Experimental and Integrative Activities Grant EIA-0122600. Ý This author supported in part by NSF CAREER Grant CCR-0133956. Þ Contact Author.

Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition ­ Copyright c 2003, American Society for Engineering Education

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Doherty, J., & Gannod, G. (2003, June), Using A Product Line Approach To Develop Course Projects Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--12504