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Software quality: a curriculum postscript?

Authors:

Thomas B. Hilburn,

Massood TownhidnejadAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 32, Issue 1

Pages 167 - 171

https://doi.org/10.1145/331795.331848

Published: 01 March 2000 Publication History

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Abstract

This paper addresses a central and critical issue in the development of computer software - its quality. The main thesis of the paper is that computer science faculty, in their design and implementation of curricula, do not devote sufficient attention to teaching their students how to develop high-quality software. As in industry, the most common and popular way of assuring the quality of programs is through software testing. In other words, quality is treated as an afterthought or as postscript in program development. The paper presents and discusses a quality model that can be used to incorporate a wide variety of quality assurance techniques within a curriculum. The model also presents a structured approach for introducing software testing into the educational environment. Finally, there is a discussion of how the model has been implemented using two current software process technologies, the PSP and the TSP.

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Cited By

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Delgado-Pérez PMedina-Bulo IÁlvarez-García MValle-Gómez KErdogmus HMoreno A(2021)Mutation testing and self/peer assessmentProceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering: Joint Track on Software Engineering Education and Training10.1109/ICSE-SEET52601.2021.00033(231-240)Online publication date: 25-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ICSE-SEET52601.2021.00033
Aniche MHermans Fvan Deursen AHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones MHeckman SZhang J(2019)Pragmatic Software Testing EducationProceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3287324.3287461(414-420)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3287324.3287461
Smith RTang TWarren JRixner SDavoli RGoldweber MRößling GPolycarpou I(2017)An Automated System for Interactively Learning Software TestingProceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3059009.3059022(98-103)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3059009.3059022
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Software quality: a curriculum postscript?
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Model curricula
    2. Management of computing and information systems
      1. System management
        Quality assurance

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Software quality: a curriculum postscript?
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Information

Published In

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 32, Issue 1

Mar. 2000

429 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/331795

Editor:
John Impagliazzo
Hofstra Univ., Hemstead, NY

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '00: Proceedings of the thirty-first SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
May 2000
429 pages
ISBN:1581132131
DOI:10.1145/330908
Chairmen:
Boots Cassel,
Nell Dale,
Henry Walker,
Editor:
Susan Haller

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 ACM 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]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2000

Published in SIGCSE Volume 32, Issue 1

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Cited By

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Delgado-Pérez PMedina-Bulo IÁlvarez-García MValle-Gómez KErdogmus HMoreno A(2021)Mutation testing and self/peer assessmentProceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Software Engineering: Joint Track on Software Engineering Education and Training10.1109/ICSE-SEET52601.2021.00033(231-240)Online publication date: 25-May-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/ICSE-SEET52601.2021.00033
Aniche MHermans Fvan Deursen AHawthorne EPérez-Quiñones MHeckman SZhang J(2019)Pragmatic Software Testing EducationProceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3287324.3287461(414-420)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2019
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3287324.3287461
Smith RTang TWarren JRixner SDavoli RGoldweber MRößling GPolycarpou I(2017)An Automated System for Interactively Learning Software TestingProceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3059009.3059022(98-103)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3059009.3059022
Hooshangi SWeiss RCappos JDecker AEiselt KAlphonce CTims J(2015)Can the Security Mindset Make Students Better Testers?Proceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/2676723.2677268(404-409)Online publication date: 24-Feb-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2676723.2677268
Pears A(2010)Conveying Conceptions of Quality through InstructionProceedings of the 2010 Seventh International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology10.1109/QUATIC.2010.10(7-14)Online publication date: 29-Sep-2010
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/QUATIC.2010.10
Kreeger M(2009)Security testingACM SIGCSE Bulletin10.1145/1595453.159548441:2(99-102)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1595453.1595484
Chenoweth S(2008)Undergraduate Software Engineering Students in Startup BusinessesProceedings of the 2008 21st Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training10.1109/CSEET.2008.27(118-125)Online publication date: 14-Apr-2008
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/CSEET.2008.27
Leska C(2004)Testing across the curriculumJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/1060081.106010319:5(163-169)Online publication date: 1-May-2004
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/1060081.1060103
Jang YLee G(2002)An Empirical Study on Quality Evaluation & Improvement of Component Development DocumentsThe KIPS Transactions:PartD10.3745/KIPSTD.2002.9D.3.4359D:3(435-446)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2002
https://doi.org/10.3745/KIPSTD.2002.9D.3.435
Maletic JHowald AMarcus A(2001)Incorporating PSP into a traditional software engineering course: an experience reportProceedings 14th Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training. 'In search of a software engineering profession' (Cat. No.PR01059)10.1109/CSEE.2001.913825(89-97)Online publication date: 2001
https://doi.org/10.1109/CSEE.2001.913825
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