Software development studio — Bringing industrial environment to a classroom

Educating future software engineers requires simultaneously to teach them theoretical aspects of software development and to develop their practical skills. A software development studio is a frequently used method that provides the environment where students can try different practices in the conditions similar to those observed in real software projects. The critical questions related to the organization of such studio are to what extent studio projects should be alike to projects developed by software development companies, and how to combine the goal of teaching students to deliver business value to a customer with the goal of trying out new methods without focusing on the risk of project failure? In the paper we share our experience and observations regarding implementation of software development studio at the university, in the way that it supports practicing some typical roles defined in software development methodologies, i.e., project manager, analyst, architect, and software developers.