a spiral approach to software engineering project management education
This paper describes the experiences of an instructor, experienced in management, teaching a software engineering project management course at a school that specializes in software education. A "spiral approach" was used to provide for the parallel acquisition of management knowledge and experience, while building on recently acquired skills in software technology and developing confidence through the successful development of a software product. This paper describes the reason for selecting the approach, the course content, the observation of the students and the instructor, the advantages and disadvantages of the approach as applied, and conclusions. Course objectives were met and course evaluations by students indicated a much higher level of acceptance than previous traditional approaches. The observations indicated that the approach may extend beyond the classroom to the industrial setting where on the job training, career path planning, and management development are of concern.
software engineering project management education