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Experience in Teaching Software Quality Management at the Graduate Level

Abstract Relatively little has been published on the issue of teaching software quality management. This paper reports a case study in teaching a graduate-level software quality management course using industry assessments as a learning vehicle. We explain the contents of the course, describe the process assessments the students perform at local software organizations as their term project, and summarize the outcome and lessons learned during six years offering this course. The issues discussed in this paper might help educational institutions and college professors in designing and implementing software engineering courses at the graduate level.

1. Introduction

Software quality management (SQM) is defined as the set of activities to direct and control a software organization with regard to the quality of its processes, products, and services. SQM encompasses the planning, control, assurance, and improvement of the organizational quality system, defined as the collection of policies, objectives, procedures, measurements, methods, and tools that are established and maintained by the organization to fulfill the requirements of the customer14.

A good SQM system is an essential ingredient for software organizations to be competitive in today’s global information technology market, but at the same time SQM is certainly one of the most complicated subjects to teach at any level for the following reasons:

1. The huge size of the topic in terms of the number of software quality management models and standards available today (see Figure 2 below).

2. The lack of any substantial job experience in the subject from most of the students.

3. The difficulty of designing a term project the students can do in a real-world environment.

4. The difficulty of learning something that, unless it is observed and lived in a real environment, the students will not get a good understanding of the concepts underlying the theory and begin appreciate its benefits.

This paper reports a case study in teaching a graduate-level software quality management course using industry assessments as a learning vehicle. The issues discussed in this paper might help educational institutions and college professors in designing and implementing software engineering courses at the graduate level.

2. Related work

Relatively little has been published on the issue of teaching software quality management. Deane et al.1 describe a classroom exercise in which the firing of a roman catapult is used to teach

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Jenkins, M. (2007, June), Experience In Teaching Software Quality Management At The Graduate Level Paper presented at 2007 Annual Conference & Exposition, Honolulu, Hawaii. 10.18260/1-2--1852