A General Framework for Teaching Software Engineering and Improving Collaboration Skills in Multidisciplinary Teams

Abstract

International Engineering Accreditation (IEA) organization measure and improve the quality of the engineering education in universities. This paper presents a framework for Software Engineering Education in line with the IEA criteria. A multidisciplinary project between computer engineers and designers is presented aiming to improve students’ understanding of software processes and increase their communication skills in multidisciplinary teams. Computer engineering students follow specific software engineering processes, attend meetings and communicate via web-based project management tools. Their evaluation is made according to the IEA outcomes. As the results show, a multidisciplinary project structured according to specific IEA outcomes ensures students’ skills in software processes and give them an overall satisfaction. The methods and procedures for developing collaboration skills in multidisciplinary projects are necessary. The creation of a profession-learning seminar improved student’s communication skills thus showing that additional methods towards this direction need to be further designed and tested.

Keywords

• software engineering
• multidisciplinary projects
• education