SW development projects in academia

A significant amount of current software engineering research is conducted within the context of computer science and computing departments or colleges. Similarly, software engineering degree programs are being developed by such academic units as well as within engineering colleges 1. However, every computer or computing department has its own experiences, successes or pitfalls in software engineering (SE) and software development (SD) teaching, which would be useful to share and discuss with the education community. In this paper we discuss the experiences and results from four years of teaching "Projects in Computer Science" in Computer Information Systems (CIS) Diploma and "Software Engineering" in Bachelor of Computer Information Systems (BCIS) Degree programs 2 at Okanagan College. Also we provide analysis and evaluation for several already finished and current projects. The class teaching in both programs was organized into two parts. The learning of SD in the CIS as well as SE in the BCIS programs were synchronized with the practical SD and SE projects with real sponsors from industry and academia in small and medium size groups of students (3--6 members in SD and 5--11 members in SE projects). Students developed their final projects incorporating four main Rational Unified Process phases 3 and 4--7 short iterations typical to the Agile SD process. Additionally, in the SE projects students learned and used Extreme Programming (XP) iterative process 4. In several projects students successfully combined Software prototyping 5 with Agile SD and Rapid Application Development (RAD) tools 6. Instructors supervised and supported students in the role of sponsors or mediators. Many student groups were able to develop impressive, high quality final project applications and systems. The sponsors provided very positive feedback and references for most of the projects.