An Experimental Evaluation of a Teaching Approach for Statistical Process Control for Software Engineers: An Experimental Study

Julio Furtado, Sandro Oliveira

2019

Abstract

The purpose of this research study is to identify Statistical Process Control methods and their importance for the current software industry. Statistical Process Control is a set of techniques employed for achieving a stable and repeatable process. In organizations that are seeking a high degree of maturity, it is necessary to achieve a statistical control of software processes and to know their behavior and operational performance. However, the use of these techniques by software development organizations has proved to be complex. The approach adopted for the teaching approach involves reading articles and experience performance reports, practical cases, discussion, the use of games and simulators, practical projects and reflection by students on the knowledge learned and activities carried out. In this context, it is expected that the students will feel a greater degree of motivation and reach more advanced levels of learning by being involved in a more playful and practical class atmosphere that simulates the environments encountered in industry. The experiment was conducted with undergraduates enrolled in a Computer Science Bachelor's degree programe, who were divided into a “control group” and an “experimental group”. At the end, the two groups carried out a practical project to evaluate the level of learning reached by the students. The results of the study suggest that there was a difference in the effectiveness of the learning resulting from the teaching approach and traditional instruction. We observed a mean gain of 30.06% in the experimental group, which is evidence of this rise in the learning effectiveness.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Furtado J. and Oliveira S. (2019). An Experimental Evaluation of a Teaching Approach for Statistical Process Control for Software Engineers: An Experimental Study.In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT, ISBN 978-989-758-379-7, pages 153-161. DOI: 10.5220/0007772501530161

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icsoft19,
author={Julio Furtado and Sandro Oliveira},
title={An Experimental Evaluation of a Teaching Approach for Statistical Process Control for Software Engineers: An Experimental Study},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT,},
year={2019},
pages={153-161},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0007772501530161},
isbn={978-989-758-379-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Software Technologies - Volume 1: ICSOFT,
TI - An Experimental Evaluation of a Teaching Approach for Statistical Process Control for Software Engineers: An Experimental Study
SN - 978-989-758-379-7
AU - Furtado J.
AU - Oliveira S.
PY - 2019
SP - 153
EP - 161
DO - 10.5220/0007772501530161