Assessing the software process maturity of software engineering courses

ABSTRACT

Since its introduction by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in 1987, the SEI Software Process Maturity Model has gained wide visibility and acceptance by industry. Its overall goal is to enable an organization to assess its software process maturity in order that it might be able to improve its software development process. Inspired by the success of the SEI model, this paper describes an attempt to develop an analogous, but highly simplified and unvalidated process maturity framework applicable to software engineering project courses. Our goal is to enable an instructor of a software engineering project course to assess the software development processes utilized in the course and to improve these processes leading to better managed and more successful projects.

REFERENCES

• Baumert91: John Baumert, "New SEI Maturity Model Targets Key Practices", IEEE Software, Nov 1991, pp78-79.
• Deimel90: Proceedings of the SEI conference on Software engineering education, April 1990
• Fairley87: Richard Faidey and Peter Freeman, ed., Issues in Software En~ineemm Education: Proceedings of the 1987 SEI Conference., Springer-Verlag, 1987.
• Ford88: Gard Ford, ed., Software Enginee~g Education: SEI Conferenc~ 1988, Springer-Verlag, 1988.
• Gibbs89: on Software Engineering Education SEI Conference 1989, July 1989
• Humphrey89: Watts S. Humphrey, Managing the software process, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1989

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Curriculum

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Computer science education

General Terms:
Human Factors