Teaching software engineering with projects

The software engineering curriculum offered by the University of Stuttgart emphasizes project work from the first to the last semester. While some of the projects are similar to those in other programs, others are less common. In this paper, we describe an introductory course called “Program Understanding”, and the so called “Consulting Task”. We also give a short description of what we call the First Software Project and the Large Software Project. In the Program Understanding course, new students learn to understand a fairly large, complex program in order to implement some modifications. In the Large Software Project, some ten people work on a serious software development for one year. In the Consulting Task, a group of three students analyses a problem, usually one given by an industrial partner. The students investigate possible solutions, and finally deliver a recommendation. Both our experience and feedback from students, including feedback from alumni, prove that these projects are very successful and highly esteemed.