Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

European Conference on Software Quality

ECSQ 2002: Software Quality — ECSQ 2002 pp 175–185Cite as

Personal Software Process: Classroom Experiences from Finland

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 2349))

Abstract

The personal software process (PSPsm) method was introduced a little less than a decade ago with high expectations. Still, only a limited number of experience reports have been published. This paper reports results from the University of Oulu in Finland, where PSP is a mandatory course for students majoring in software engineering. The results do not indicate a significant improvement in size or effort estimation skills, but the defects found in the unit test phase were decreased by a factor of 4.2. Students however did not plan on using the PSP skills in industry. It is suggested that course assignments are tailored to local context, and a stronger emphasis is placed on the concept and classification of defects. Software industry should in turn develop capabilities for using the PSP trained engineers. These and other implications are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Zahran, S., Software process improvement: practical guidelines for business success. SEI series in software engineering. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Runeson, P. Experience from Teaching PSP for Freshmen, in 14th Conference on Software Engineering Education & Training (CSEE&T). Charlotte, NC: IEEE Comput. Soc, Los Alamitos, CA, USA (2001) 98–107

    Google Scholar 

  3. El Emam, K., B. Shostak, and N.H. Madhavji. Implementing concepts from the personal software process in an industrial setting. in Fourth International Conference on the Software Process (ICSP’ 96). Brighton, UK (1996) 117–130

    Google Scholar 

  4. Morisio, M., Applying the PSP in industry. IEEE Software 17 (2000) 90–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Kamatar, J. and W. Hayes, An experience report on the personal software process. IEEE Software 17 (2000) 85–89

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Lisack, S.K. The Personal Software Process in the Classroom: Student Reactions (an Experience Report). in Thirteenth Conference on Software Engineering Education & Training (CSEE&T). Austin, Texas (2000)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Hayes, W. and J.W. Over, The Personal Software Process (PSP): An Empirical Study of the Impact of PSP on Individual Engineers. Software Engineering Institute. (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Zhong, X., N.H. Madhavji, and K.E. Emam, Critical factors affecting personal software processes. IEEE Software 17 (2000) 76–83

    Google Scholar 

  9. Carrington, D., B. McEniery, and D. Johnston, PSP in the large class. Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education (FASE) 11 (2001) 81–88

    Google Scholar 

  10. Höst, M., B. Regnell, and C. Wohlin, Using students as subjects-a comparative study of student and professionals in lead-time impact assessment. Empirical Software Engineering 5 (2000) 201–214

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Jørgensen, M. and D.I.K. Sjøberg, Software process improvement and human judgement heurestics. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems 13 (2001) 99–122

    Google Scholar 

  12. Humphrey, W.S., A discipline for software engineering: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Disney, A. and P. Johnson. Investigating data quality problems in the PSP. in SIGSOFT’98 (1998) 143–152

    Google Scholar 

  14. Johnson, P.M., The personal software process: A cautionary case study. IEEE Software 15 (1998) 85–88

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Hayes, W. Using a personal software process to improve performance. in 5th International Symposium on Software Metrics. Bethesda, Maryland (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Wohlin, C. and A. Wesslén. Understanding Software Defect Detection in the Personal Software Process. in Proceedings IEEE 9th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering. Paderborn, Germany (1998) 49–58

    Google Scholar 

  17. Cannon, R.L. Putting the Personal Software Process Into Practice. in Proceedings of the 12th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (1998) 34–37

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. VTT Electronics, P.O.Box 1100, FIN-90571, Oulu, Finland

    Pekka Abrahamsson

  2. Department of Informatics, Copenhagen Business School, Howitzvej 60, 3., DK-2000, Frederiksberg, Denmark

    Karlheinz Kautz

Authors
  1. Pekka Abrahamsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Karlheinz Kautz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nokia Research Center, Nokia Group, Nokia Group, P. O. Box 407, 00045, Finland

    Jyrki Kontio

  2. Department of Computer and Information Science (IDI), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Gloeshaugen, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Reidar Conradi

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2002 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Abrahamsson, P., Kautz, K. (2002). Personal Software Process: Classroom Experiences from Finland. In: Kontio, J., Conradi, R. (eds) Software Quality — ECSQ 2002. ECSQ 2002. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2349. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47984-8_21

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-47984-8_21

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43749-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-47984-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation