Applying a maturity model during a software engineering course – How planning and task-solving processes influence the course performance

• Published in: The Journal of systems and software Vol. 144; pp. 397 - 408
• Main Authors: Bollin, Andreas, Reçi, Elisa, Szabó, Csaba, Szabóová, Veronika, Siebenhofer, Rudolf
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01.10.2018
• Subjects: Maturity model; Software Engineering Education; Teaching methodology; Teaching methodology; Maturity model; Software Engineering Education
• ISSN: 0164-1212; 1873-1228
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2018.07.009

•A simple maturity model (defining maturity factors) can be used to assess the quality of student’s task solving strategies.•The maturity factors are correlated to the overall course performance of students.•A minimal regression model is able to describe the overall course performance of students.•The quality of task preparation and the maturity factors are not proxies.•Individual task preparation influences the overall course performance to the same extent as the maturity factors. In industry, the benefit of maturity models is uncontested, and models like CMMI are normally taught in at least advanced software engineering courses. However, when not being part of real-world projects, the added values are difficult to be experienced on first hand by our students. In this paper we report on a study and teaching approach where, in three successive semesters and at two different institutions, we started rating the process-maturity of students solving tasks in our software engineering courses and transparently related the maturity levels to the task performances. It turned out that not only the quality of the students’ task preparation plays a crucial role, but that there is also a non-negligible correlation between the individual process maturity and performances. Considering this finding, the approach might yield to students’ process-improvement steps during our courses, help in fostering the understanding of the term process maturity, and finally, also might help in improving the overall students’ performances.