Guoping Rong, He Zhang, Dong Shao

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Applying Competitive Bidding Games in Software
Process Education

• Guoping Rong, He Zhang, Dong Shao
• Nanjing University, China
• ronggp_at_software.nju.edu.cn

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Content

• Challenges in software process-specific project
  practicing
• The bidding game course design
• Lecture phase
• Practice phase
• Preliminary results of the course
• Conclusion
• Seeking for collaborations

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Challenges in software process-specific project
practicing

• difficult to find suitable projects for
  practicing software processes, technical details
  VS. process awareness.
• a developers perspective may limit students
  capability to meet expectations of senior
  management and customers.
• time limits for implementing these projects is
  highly constrained.

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Course Design -Lecture phase

• two phases, i.e., the lecture phase and practice
  phase
• Lecture phase
• 6-8 hours
• Topics including estimation, planning, quality
  management, risk management and team dynamics.

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Course Design -Practice phase

• Practice phase
• Role-play bidding game
• Scenario
• , every team should develop a project plan,
  and present the plan in public, and the best team
  will win the project (determined by the senior
  management).The marketing department has finished
  the draft version of the requirements
  specification of the online exam supporting
  system. Meanwhile one person in the marketing
  department mentioned that four weeks later, there
  would be a certification exam in local region. If
  we could seize this opportunity, the influence of
  the online exam supporting system can expand
  rapidly. So the management really expected that
  the project could be finished in four weeks. Your
  team (four people include you) has three days to
  make a project plan and then present the project
  plan on the 4th day. You should put all the
  useful materials into the project plan and
  support your team to win the project.

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Course Design -Practice phase

• Project kick-off meeting
• Teacher could brief the tasks and requirements
• Students could inquire necessary information,
  e.g., requirements, expectations, etc.
• Project planning
• Students develop a solution(plan) to meet
  expectations from stakeholders, in this case, the
  teacher.
• Plan presentation
• Students present their plans
• Teachers and TAs could ask questions about the
  plan

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Suggested materials included in the project plan
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Questions for the team

• Typical work products
• Size and time estimation
• Tasks and schedules
• Efforts and resource
• Alternative solutions
• Quality issues
• Risks
• Reuse

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Evaluation Criteria -1
C1 The overall performance of the team
C2 Confidence and persistence for the plan
C3 Deep understanding of the project context
C4 Team-working of the team leader
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Evaluation Criteria -2
C5 Thinking highly of quality
C6 Being thoughtful about the project
C7 Trying hard to meet expectations from the senior management
C8 Requirements for senior management
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Three classes
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Course results -1
Criteria Team One (Part-time Students) Team Two (Full-time Students)
C1 One team member was absent. However, the rest team members had been very supportive during the presentation. All the team members were present. However, some students did not concentrate well during the presentation.
C2 quite confident about the estimation results and insistent on the schedule. Not quite confident about the estimation results Quite optimistic about the resource hours each week.
C3 alternative feasible plans were provided Only provided one aggressive alternative plan.
C4 Not well, the team leader made some team commitments in a personal way. Not well, the team leader made many team commitments in a personal way.
C5 achieving quality objectives through process, yet they still relied heavily on testing to remove defects. At first, the team only put resource in testing activities. After some discussion, they seemed to understand that review and inspection could also improve quality.
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Course results -2
Criteria Team One (Part-time Students) Team Two (Full-time Students)
C6 Identified 8 risks. However, they did not consider the reuse strategy. They mentioned that it was too early to consider the reuse strategy. This team identified no risks, and also they did not consider the reuse strategy.
C7 quite confident about the estimation They showed greatest efforts to meet expectations from the senior management. They also showed greatest efforts to meet expectations from the senior management.
C8 This team raised some requirements for senior management. For example, no staff changes, suitable team working places, no requirement changes, etc. No requirements for the senior management.
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Conclusion

• could force students to focus on management
  aspects rather than technical details.
• Could help students think from a more
  comprehensive perspective.
• the duration of the course is usually within one
  week, which provides flexibility to find suitable
  slots in regular semesters.
• to fosters communication among different roles

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Future work

• To make comprehensive analysis on the difference
  of the performance between experienced students
  from the industry and inexperienced students from
  school.
• To replicate the course in different context,
  e.g., industrial, different culture, etc.

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QA