Re: Software Engineering Education

[cis.ohio-state.edu!udecc.engr.udayton.edu!blackbird.afit.af.mil!galaxy.af it.af.mil!jcardow@uunet.uu.net (James E. Cardow)]

Well, I'm not teaching University students beginning programing.  But, I am
teaching Software Engineering to professionals as part of skills improvement.
I have a large project in the two-week Software Generation and Maintenance
course that we offer.  In that course the student team can get a max of 
15 points from correctly working (8 points) and correct styles etc (7 points).
Now this is out of a possible 100 points for the project which is 50% of the
grade for the class.  The rest of the 100 points for the project are awarded
for thinking through, defining, and implementing the strategy (process) for 
the project.

To be honest, the students have a very hard time with this.  They can easily 
see the solution to the project.  In fact, some of the student could sit 
down in one day and complete the project and have it work (these again are
two week courses).  Having them describe the approach and manage it is much,
much more difficult.

I strongly agree with the original poster.  My students would have a much 
easier time if the end goal were well engineered systems versus getting it 
to work and moving on the the next task.

Jim Cardow