Enhancing the Student Perception on Software Project Management in Computer Science

Contribution: This article presents a research for enhancing the computer science students' perception on the software project management subject. The main objective of this article is double. The first one is to redesign the current course by including new teaching and new learning methods that encourage students to learn the project management competences and skills. The second one is to analyze the satisfaction of the students regarding the new software project management course. The design of the new course has been based on the improvement proposals from the students, which were collected throughout a grounded theory (GT) study during two academic years. Background: Students must be motivated with both the technical and other transversal competencies provided by the different subjects in the computer science curricula. It is not easy to teach a management subject because students do not clearly find the relationship with their studies. However, it is widely accepted that computer science students need to be trained in project management to be able to work at full capacity in the industry. There is not much literature on how to increase the motivation of students in management subjects. Research Question: Which are the causes and consequences of a low level of interest for software project management in computer science studies? Methodology: Two different experiments were carried out. The first one consisted of determining, during two academic years, the main reasons why computer science students do not get to comprehend the need for such this subject in the curricula. From the GT results, a set of innovative actions were introduced in order to redesign the subject. In the second experiment, during the following two academic years, the satisfaction of the students regarding the changes introduced in the course was analyzed. Findings: The first finding was obtained from the GT study conducted. Four causes influencing students to do not give enough importance to software project management, two consequences derived from these causes and three contingencies to potentially mitigate the consequences were identified. The second finding was the corroboration that the new course design contributes to student motivation and engagement. Through the evaluation of the new course, students can better understand project management techniques and their application to projects. Data collected show that students are aware of the importance of these skills and competencies for their background and professional profile.