Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Soft and Hard Skills Gained by Students through Real Projects Developed at a University Software Company

  • Published:
Programming and Computer Software Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper shows quantitative research regarding knowledge, soft and hard skills, and experience acquired by students hired by a University Software Development Company (USDC). Additionally, suggestions regarding how to set up a USDC in an academic environment, facing real customers, are shown. There have been good and bad experiences, both will be presented in this paper. Furthermore, students' perceptions will be discussed. To identify students’ perceptions a questionnaire (survey) was applied. Its reliability was calculated through Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α = 89). Additionally, the Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated (r) in order to identify questions that should be deleted to increase the questionnaire’s reliability. Outcomes could be useful when a software engineering faculty wishes to set up a USDC.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 5.

Notes

  1. These questions were deleted in order to increase questionnaire reliability

REFERENCES

  1. Gurcan, F. and Sevik, S., Expertise roles and skills required by the software development industry, Proc. 1st Int. Informatics and Software Engineering Conf. (UBMYK), Ankara, 2019, pp. 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1109/UBMYK48245.2019.8965571

  2. Juárez-Ramírez, R., Navarro, C.X., Licea, G., Jiménez, S., Tapia-Ibarra, V., Guerra-García, C., and Perez-Gonzalez, H.G., How COVID-19 pandemic affects software developers’ wellbeing, and the necessity to strengthen soft skills, Program. Comput. Software, 2022, vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 614–631.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Kunttu, L., Huttu, E., and Neuvo, Y., How doctoral students and graduates can facilitate boundary spanning between academia and industry, Technol. Innovation Manag. Rev., 2018, vol. 8, no. 6, pp. 48–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Chillas, S., Marks, A., and Galloway, L., Learning to labour: An evaluation of internships and employability in the ICT sector, New Technol., Work Employment, 2015, vol. 30, no. 1, pp. 1–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Liu, Q., Kovalchuk, S., Rottmann, C., and Reeve, D., Engineering Co-Op and internship experiences and outcomes: the roles of workplaces, academic institutions and students, Proc. Annu. Conf. of the Canadian Engineering Education Association, Vancouver, June 3–6, 2018.

  6. Khakurel, J. and Porras, J., The effect of real-world capstone project in an acquisition of soft skills among software engineering students, Proc. 32nd IEEE Conf. on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), Munich, Nov. 2020, pp. 1–9.

  7. Pinto, G., Ferreira, C., Souza, C., Steinmacher, I., and Meirelles, P., Training software engineers using open-source software: the students’ perspective, Proc. 41st IEEE/ACM Int. Conf. on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training (ICSE-SEET), Montreal, May 2019, pp. 147–157.

  8. Akdur, D., A survey on bridging the gap between software industry and academia: preliminary results, Proc. 13th Turkish National Software Engineering Symp., Izmir, 2019.

  9. Garousi, V., Petersen, K., and Ozkan, B., Challenges and best practices in industry-academia collaborations in software engineering: A systematic literature review, Inf. Software Technol., 2016, vol. 79, pp. 106–127. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2016.07.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Alkuwaiti, A., Alkhamis, A.A., Alshahrani, M.S., Alkhayal, L.A., and Abdurahman, N.B., A critical appraisal study on how medical schools differ from teaching hospitals, Acad. Strategic Manag. J., 2021, vol. 20, no. 25.

  11. Ahmad, M.O. and Liukkunen, K., Software factory project for enhancement of student experimential learning, Proc. Int. Conf. Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age, Cagliari, 2019.

  12. Cico, O., Jaccheri, L., Nguyen-duc, A., and Zhang,H., Exploring the intersection between software industry and software engineering education–A systematic mapping of software engineering trends, J. Syst. Software, 2021, vol. 172, p. 110736. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2020.110736

  13. Vives, L., Melendez, K., and Dávila, A., ISO/IEC 29110 and software engineering education: A systematic mapping study, Program. Comput. Software, 2022, vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 745–755.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Saliou, P. and Ribaud, V., Learning by doing software engineering, Proc. Conf. Informatics Education Europe, Montpellier, 2006.

  15. Meawad, F., The virtual agile enterprise: Making the most of a software engineering course, Proc. 24th IEEE-CS Conf. on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T), Honolulu, 2011, pp. 324–332.

  16. Olayinka, O. and Stannett, M., Experiencing the sheffield team software project: A project-based learning approach to teaching Agile, Proc. IEEE Global Engineering Education Conf. (EDUCON), Porto, 2020, pp. 1299–1305.

  17. Rusu, A. and Swenson, M., An industry-academia team-teaching case study for software engineering capstone courses, Proc. 38th Annu. Frontiers in Education Conf., Saratoga Springs, NY, 2008, p. F4C-18.

  18. Bruhn, R.E. and Camp, J., Capstone course creates useful business products and corporate-ready students, ACM SIGCSE Bull., 2004, vol. 36, no. 2.

  19. Bernstein, M., FitzGerald, K.M., Macdonell, J.P., and Concepcion, A.I., Algorithma project: the ten-week mock software company, Proc. 36th SIGCSE Technical Symp. on Computer Science Education, St. Louis, 2005, pp. 142–146.

  20. Bell, S., Project-based learning for the 21st century: Skills for the future, Clearing House: J. Edu. Strategies, Issues Ideas, 2010, vol. 83, issue 2, pp. 39–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00098650903505415

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Faisal, A.M., Students’ perception and attitude towards computer laboratory learning environment, Int. Res. J., 2012, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 402–411.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Jhurree, V., Bessoondyal, H., and Mohamudally, N., Primary oriental language teachers’ attitudes towards the computer and its perceived usefulness in their teaching profession–A case study, Proc. Computer Science and IT Education Conf., 2007.

Download references

Funding

This work was supported by ongoing institutional funding. No additional grants to carry out or direct this particular research were obtained.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UPAEP Engineering Department, Puebla, México

    J. R. Aguilar Cisneros

  2. UTM Computer Science Institute, Oaxaca, México

    C. A. Fernández-y-Fernández

Authors
  1. J. R. Aguilar Cisneros
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. C. A. Fernández-y-Fernández
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to J. R. Aguilar Cisneros or C. A. Fernández-y-Fernández.

Ethics declarations

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note.

Pleiades Publishing remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Aguilar Cisneros, J.R., Fernández-y-Fernández, C.A. Soft and Hard Skills Gained by Students through Real Projects Developed at a University Software Company. Program Comput Soft 49, 599–609 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0361768823080029

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0361768823080029

Search

Navigation