Teaching software engineering practices with Extreme Programming
2006; Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges; Volume: 21; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1937-4771
Autores Tópico(s)Teaching and Learning Programming
ResumoExtreme Programming (XP), one of many models for software development, has challenged some traditional software engineering practices while taking others to the extreme. The controversial practices raise questions about the role of XP in teaching undergraduate software engineering courses, especially capstone project courses. Can an XP model for software development be successfully used in teaching software engineering practices? Specific educational goals for the course are that 1) students recognize the strengths and weaknesses of XP as a model for software development and 2) that students evaluate XP practices in the larger context of other software engineering practices. Students should also complete a software development project while following a defined set of processes and practices.Students in a 4 credit, one-semester software engineering practices course used XP for their project. A survey of fifteen practices representing both XP and more traditional software engineering practices was given to students upon completion of the course to determine the students' perceptions and experiences.Overall, students were successful in using XP for their projects. Students liked pair programming, automated testing, and test-first and believed it contributed to their success. The XP practices of simple design and refactoring did not work well. XP's practices for embracing change accommodates changing requirements, design, and code but do not manage change well for the overall goals of the product. Survey results and anecdotal evidence suggests that students were aware of the strengths and weaknesses of XP and its relationship to more traditional software engineering practices.
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