An industrial software project as a software engineering

An industrial software project as a software engineering module at HU Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05 Kay Schützler

Structure of this presentation l l 2 How the project started Organisation of the project and experience from winter semester 2004/2005 Organisation of the project and experience from summer semester 2005 Future Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

How the project started: The first meeting I need some cheap programmers and future employees. . . Prof. Bothe Do you know a good student who is interested in our new project? 3 Mr Kirsten (from industry) Kay Schützler me Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

How the project started: The first meeting Don‘t expect too much of cheap programmers that don‘t know your company! Students are not easy to find, but I‘ve got an idea: A seminar on. . . 4 Mr Kirsten (from industry) Kay Schützler Prof. Bothe me Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

How the project started: The first meeting Finally Kay will do something meaningful then. . . But how to manage. . . Requirements Engineering! Get them to learn about real life! 5 Mr Kirsten (from industry) Kay Schützler Prof. Bothe me Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

How the project started: The first meeting Better this way, than no way. . . 6 Mr Kirsten (from industry) Kay Schützler Perhaps we could do it like with XCTL: Student projects, Diploma theses, . . . Great idea! I could give you a short description of the project by next week Prof. Bothe me Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

How the project started: The first meeting Prof. Bothe 7 Mr Kirsten (from industry) Kay Schützler me Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Original aims of the project l l l 8 Introduction of students to a new domain Practice of requirements analysis methods Involvement in a real-life project Finding out good students Retrieving some interesting topics for diploma theses Establish a longer running cooperation Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Organisation of the project (winter semester 04/05) l Meetings every two or three weeks at the institute – – l Two meetings at the company‘s place – l 9 Discussing all kinds of issues Presenting documents from industry and students Introduction to real life software development circumstances Central web and (later) CVS repository Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Screenshot of project web site (1) Project: Requirements Engineering for development and production processes Overview Schedule 10 Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Screenshot of project web site (2) Project partner Literature 11 Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Project partner: AEG netcontrol “offers services and solutions for energy distribution and supply companies as well as for the industry” 12 Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Experience from project (after winter semester 04/05) l l Project aims changed significantly Results from three sub projects: – – – l l 13 one quite successful, one quite unsuccessful, and one far away from good or bad Nevertheless – cooperation considered a success Cooperation continued after joint analysis of project‘s goods and bads Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Change of project aims l Initial idea at HU: – l Industry: – – 14 Show students real life (but at first only by analysing requirements in a real life environment) Kay Schützler Showed students real life – unfortunately the hard way After short and rather incomplete requirements analysis a strong wish for implementation occurred Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Change of project aims l Students: – – – 15 Kay Schützler Learned about real life Tried to implement something Had not enough stable requirements Had not as much time as expected Started a rebellion a few times Somehow managed their way through Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

After this experience: How to proceed? (Proceed at all? ) l Despite all problems industry showed strong interest in continuing cooperation – – – 16 Kay Schützler Quote: "Only stupid ones make the same mistake more than once. Let‘s try to make some new mistakes next semester!" Another success: two students from project started practical work (student projects) at the company Industry donated 5. 000, - € to our group Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Organisation of the project (summer semester 05) l l This time: PURE requirements engineering Weekly meetings with the students – – 17 Kay Schützler Every first week with the customer for interviews on certain topics (use cases, test cases, non-functional requirements) Every second week without the customer to discuss students summaries of previous meeting Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Schedule in summer semester 05 Introduction Collecting and discussing use cases Collecting and discussing test cases Summary 18 Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Experience from project (after summer semester 05) l Everything went better – – l Developed several documents – – l 19 Stronger dedication of the project partner Students felt more comfortable in this more strictly organised form Put together ideas from each project participant Each document shows a different aspect of the software to be developed Cooperation considered a greater success Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05

Future l l l 20 Continue cooperation Find some interesting topics for diploma theses Getting more case studies from the industry Kay Schützler Baile Herculane, 28. 08. - 03. 09. 05