Teaching software quality and leadership: experiences and successes

Is it possible to teach software quality and leadership concepts and skills at the graduate level? Is it possible to give students a rich and rigorous experience, providing intellectual and hands-on experiences? Can this be done simultaneously within the nurturing environment of the classroom and the risky world of industry? Is it possible to provide students with enough skills and techniques to demonstrate immediate results and, at the same time, provide them with enough background and concepts that they become intelligent consumers and decision makers when it comes to software quality issues? The Software Process Practicum: Lessons in Software Quality and Leadership, taught at the Oregon Graduate Institute during fall 1994, provides a clear demonstration that the answer is an emphatic, “YES!”. This paper describes the background of the Software Process Practicum, enumerates the premises on which the Practicum is designed, presents the overall Practicum framework and modules taught, provides an overview of the Software Skills and Competency Model on which it is based, describes some of the course logistics, shares the impact the course has had on our students and on the organizations for which they work, and concludes with future directions. The Software Process Practicum has been nominated for the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference´s award for Software Quality Excellence. This process has been ardently supported by the Computer Science Department chairperson and by our students