research-article

Engaging software estimation education using LEGOs: a case study

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Ye YangAuthors Info & Claims

ICSE '16: Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering Companion

Pages 511 - 517

https://doi.org/10.1145/2889160.2889205

Published: 14 May 2016 Publication History

Abstract

Software Estimation is an important part of every Software Engineers' skill set. At Stevens Institute of Technology, we have taught Estimation as part of our Software Engineering Masters Program since 2001. Over the past few years, we have evolved our teaching style to be more experiential and engaging. This case study describes an evolving software engineering pedagogical method using LEGOs, which allows students to get hands-on practice and feedback on their estimation skills and techniques, as well as testing some of the commonly held estimation heuristics. The results of the classroom exercises are positive; the students are very involved and the estimation processes and results are consistent with other software engineering estimation heuristics and models. Student experience Wide-band Delphi, custom models using historical data, the "wisdom of the crowds," estimation model factors (e.g., complexity, motivation, expertise level) and the impact of team size. This teaching technique, since it appears to reinforce software engineering estimation heuristics and models, has the potential to be extended for other software estimation experiential education and experimentation, such as demonstrating the impact of anchoring on estimations. In addition, the students have fun doing these exercises, and become totally engaged in the subject.

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Cited By

L-Messerle KMalachowsky SKrutz D(2023)Open Questions for Empathy-Building Interventions for Inclusive Software DevelopmentJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3606402.360642438:8(201-213)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3606402.3606424
Khan SMoses HMalachowsky SKrutz D(2023)Experiential Learning in Undergraduate Accessibility Education: Instructor ObservationsJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3606402.360641238:8(54-68)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3606402.3606412
Shi WMoses HYu QMalachowsky SKrutz D(2023)ALL: Supporting Experiential Accessibility Education and Inclusive Software DevelopmentACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/362529233:2(1-30)Online publication date: 26-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3625292
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Engaging software estimation education using LEGOs: a case study
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Implementation management
        Pricing and resource allocation
      2. Project and people management
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software development techniques
      1. Reusability
        Software product lines
    2. Software verification and validation
      1. Empirical software validation
  2. Software organization and properties
    1. Software functional properties
      1. Formal methods

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ICSE '16: Proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Software Engineering Companion

May 2016

946 pages

ISBN:9781450342056

DOI:10.1145/2889160

General Chair:
Laura Dillon
Michigan State University
,
Program Chairs:
Willem Visser
Stellenbosch University, South Africa
,
Laurie Williams
North Carolina State University

Copyright © 2016 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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ACM: Association for Computing Machinery
SIGSOFT: ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering
IEEE-CS\TCSE: TC on Software Engineering
IEEE-CS\DATC: IEEE Computer Society

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 14 May 2016

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ICSE '16

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ACM
SIGSOFT
IEEE-CS\TCSE
IEEE-CS\DATC

ICSE '16: 38th International Conference on Software Engineering

May 14 - 22, 2016

Texas, Austin

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Overall Acceptance Rate 276 of 1,856 submissions, 15%

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Cited By

L-Messerle KMalachowsky SKrutz D(2023)Open Questions for Empathy-Building Interventions for Inclusive Software DevelopmentJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3606402.360642438:8(201-213)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3606402.3606424
Khan SMoses HMalachowsky SKrutz D(2023)Experiential Learning in Undergraduate Accessibility Education: Instructor ObservationsJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3606402.360641238:8(54-68)Online publication date: 1-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/3606402.3606412
Shi WMoses HYu QMalachowsky SKrutz D(2023)ALL: Supporting Experiential Accessibility Education and Inclusive Software DevelopmentACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology10.1145/362529233:2(1-30)Online publication date: 26-Sep-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3625292
Morales-Trujillo MErdogmus HMoreno A(2021)Learning software quality assurance with bricksProceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering: Joint Track on Software Engineering Education and Training10.1109/ICSE-SEET52601.2021.00010(11-19)Online publication date: 25-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ICSE-SEET52601.2021.00010
El-Glaly YShi WMalachowsky SYu QKrutz DRothermel GBae D(2020)Presenting and evaluating the impact of experiential learning in computing accessibility educationProceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training10.1145/3377814.3381710(49-60)Online publication date: 27-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3377814.3381710
Jenkins MQuesada-Lopez C(2019)A Case Study on Teaching a Software Estimation CourseInnovation in Information Systems and Technologies to Support Learning Research10.1007/978-3-030-36778-7_11(92-101)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2019
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36778-7_11
Peruma AMalachowsky SKrutz DMirakhorli MGalster M(2018)Providing an experiential cybersecurity learning experience through mobile security labsProceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Security Awareness from Design to Deployment10.1145/3194707.3194712(51-54)Online publication date: 27-May-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3194707.3194712

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