Experience with a Project-Based Approach to Teaching Software Engineering

This paper reviews the experiences of teaching software engineering at the University of Adelaide using a group-based project over the course of one semester (15 weeks). Students are required to design, prototype, implement, maintain and document the software to satisfy the requirements defined by the lecturing staff who endeavour to simulate a customer as closely as possible. This paper focuses on the project and the benefits it offers rather than the content of the lectures. 1 Introduction Software engineering is an integral part of the computer science course at the University of Adelaide. Software engineering -in-the-small is emphasised in a variety of subjects throughout the undergraduate curriculum, however software engineering-in-the-large was only introduced into the undergraduate curriculum in 1992 by way of a distinct final year subject. This subject, Software Engineering and Project, is a one semester course (15 weeks) and it focuses on the issues associated with the lifec..