Conference Session

Software Engineering Topics

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Valentin Razmov, University of Washington

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

-longprojects in teams of 5-8 (typically), following the incremental delivery approach5 with a shortiteration cycle – we set intermediate project deliveries roughly once every 2.5 weeks. After eachdelivery, instructors facilitate in-class retrospectives. Instructors also meet separately with eachproject team to provide feedback, address questions, and “take the pulse” of the team. 2-3 timesduring the term, usually shortly after some of the project deliveries, students completeanonymous peer evaluations for their teammates, offering constructive feedback. Each studentalso completes 2-3 individual reflective writing assignments during the term, to which instructorsprovide extensive written feedback and follow-up questions, engaging students in

Conference Session

Software Engineering Topics

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Steve Chenoweth, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; Mark Ardis, Rochester Institute of Technology; Cheryl Dugas, Rochester Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Software Engineering Constituent Committee

different projects, thus experiencing greaterdiversity of architectural challenges than would have otherwise been possible.Some changes to the traditional classroom setting are necessary in order to practice this newmethod. Students need to work in small teams, 3 or 4 students at most, during regularly-scheduled classroom hours. The roles of individual teams must be scheduled so that sufficienttime is available for each team to play each role. Fortunately, software architecture lends itself toshort periods of intense team activity, with reporting and peer review of results later. We believethat this active learning style is an effective approach for most subjects, but especially forsoftware architecture.IntroductionThe methods described here are