University/industry collaboration in developing a simulation based software project management training course

A significant factor in the success of a software project is the management skill of the project leader. The ability to effectively plan and track a software project utilizing appropriate techniques and tools requires training, mentoring and experience. This paper describes a collaborative effort between Arizona State University and Motorola University to develop a software project management training course. Although many such courses exist in academia and industry, this course incorporates a system dynamics simulator of the software development process. The use of this simulator to train future software project managers is analogous to the use of a flight simulator to train pilots. This paper describes the software project simulator and how it is utilized in the software project management training course. Feedback from the training course participants is also shared and discussed.