Ivica  Crnković,  Mälardalen  University,  Sweden  Ivana  Bosnić  and  Mario  Žagar  University  of  Zagreb,  Croa?a  

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Distributed  SoHware  Development  Course  

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MDH  Students  

FER students  

Project  group  

MDH  

FER  

Supervisors  

Mälardalen  U.    Sweden  

U.  of  Zagreb  Croa?a  

Project  organiza?on  

Ten  years  of  experience    

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Year  #  st.  #pr.  Origina/ng  students’  countries  2003    28  5  2004   20  4      2005    38  6    

2007   16  2      2008    37  6    2009   56  10      

2010   65    9                    2011      35    5      

Source  of  Evidence  •  Staff  Experience  

•  Students’  experience    –  Ini/al  Ques/onnaire  

•  Student  background,  skills,  expecta?ons,  wishes  –  Weekly  Summary  Reports    

•  project  current  state  –  “Happiness”  poll    

•  I  feel  good/I  don’t  feel  good  this  week  –  Minutes  of  mee/ngs  

•  Technical  and  organiza?onal  issues  –  Final    Ques/onnaire  

•  Comprehensive  descrip?on  about  the  projects  –  Technical,  organiza?onal,  project  management,  cultural,  knowledge,  workload,…  

–  Anonymous  Evalua/on  

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•  Problem – “Start projects with face-to-face meeting” – There is no “natural force” to start the comminication

•  Solution – Force the communication start BY ANY MEANS

•  Give the assignments from the very first day!  

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C.  B.  Šmite  D  A  Wohlin,  “A  Whisper  of  Evidence  in  Global  SoHware  Engineering,”  IEEE  So&ware,  vol.  28,  no.  4,  2011    

Tip1: Example-­‐  Project  Schedule  •  Start  with  the  project  from  the  first  lecture  •  Intensive    communica?on  forced  in  the  start  

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1 Oct 1

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Jan 15

Waterfall  model  

Itera?ons  

Prototype  I   Prototype  II   Final  Results  

Itera?ons  Itera?ons  

Itera?ons  

Lectures  

P   P  P  P  

P  =  presenta?on    

Weeks

•  Problem – Lack of the informal communication

•  Lower loyalty, trust, commmon responsibility

•  Solution – Let (force) students to talk about themselves

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N.  B.  Moe  and  D.  Smite,  “Understanding  Lacking  Trust  in  Global  SoHware  Teams:   A  Mul?-­‐case  Study,”  So&ware  Process:  Improvement  and  Prac5ce,  vol.  4589,  no.  3,  pp.  20-­‐34,  2007    

Tip2: Example  Start  with  the  project  from  the  first  lecture  •  Project  plan  in  an  early  

stage  of  the  project  •  Define  means  of  

communica?ons  •  Students’  presenta?ons  of  

themselves  

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•  Problem –  The communication is the most important part in GSE –  The communcation often lack required quality

•  Possible missunderstaning, incomplete information

•  Solution –  A detailed plan for communication is required –  Minutes of meetings required –  Communication experience is dicussed

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Tip3: Example  

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Site 1 Site 2

Project members

Project Manager

Project supervisor

Team Leader

Customer

Continuous communication Dedicated communication

Steering group

Communica/on  type    •  Con?nous  (predefined)  •  Dedicated  (specific)  

•  Problem  –  Awareness  of  the  current  state  of  other  site  

•  Decision  issues  (implicit  and  explicit  decisions)  •  Local  communica?on  with  external  customers  •  SCM  issues  

•  Solu?on  –  Require  extensive  use  of  SCM    

•  measure  and  comment  commits,    frequency,  users  –  Keep  in  focus  communica?on  between  project  and  local  leader  

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Sarma,  D.  Redmiles,  and  A.  Van  Der  Hoek,  “Empirical  evidence  of  the  benefits  of  workspace  awareness  ���in  soHware  configura?on  management,”  Interna5onal  Symposium  on  Founda5ons  of  so&ware  engineering,  2008.    

Tip4: Example – students’  opinions  

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different educational

backgrounds

understanding, communicating

ideas and changes

planning, coordination, leadership,

decison making

other (trust, team spirit, incomplete process phases, timeliness etc)

communication effort,

synchronization, availability

0,0

5,0

10,0

15,0

20,0

25,0

30,0

35,0

40,0

45,0

Awareness  problems  

 Synchroniza?on,  Availability     Communica?on    

of  new  ideas    

   Planning        Decision    

 Other  (trust,  ?ming)  

 Educa?onal  background  

•  Problem  –  Higher  tendency  of  loosing  mo?va?on    &  higher  consequences  –  Different  mo?va?ons  on  different  sites  (grading,  “fun”,  working  habits,  challenges)  

•  Solu?on  –  Give  the  students  enough  flexibility  to  develop  their  crea?vity  –  Give  the  students  the  opportunity  to  express  themselves  –  Awards  and  posi?ve  compe??on  

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D.  H.  Schunk  and  P.  R.  Pintrich,  Mo5va5on  in  educa5on:  Theory,  research,  and  applica5ons,  3rd  ed.  Pren?ce  Hall,  2007    

Bosnić,  I.  Čavrak,  M.  Orlić,  M.  Žagar,  and  I.  Crnković,  “Student  Mo?va?on  in  Distributed  SoHware  Development  Projects,”    (CTGDSD  2011),  2011,  pp.  31-­‐35    

Tip5: Example – students’  mo?va?ons  

•  Mo/va/on  to  start  -­‐  “Why  did  you  choose  this  course?”  –  I  like  to  work  in  a  team  –  I  like  to  work  with  real  projects  –  I  have  heard  from  other  students  that  this  is  a  great  course  –  I  like  to  learn  about  students  from  other  countries  

•  Mo/va/on  at  the  end  (“What  did  you  like  most?”)  –  The  project  work  –  The  distributed  environment  – Mee?ng  other  cultures  –  New  technologies  

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Tip5:    SCORE  compe??ons  @ICSE  (2009,  2011)  

15  

Semifinal   10  teams,  4  MDH/FER  

Final   6  teams,  3  MDH/FER  

~60  teams,  7  MDH/FER  

Semifinal   18  teams,  6  MDH/FER  

Final   5  teams,  2  MDH/FER  

•  Challenges  –  Language  differences,  Technical  background,  Openness  in  communica?ons,  Percep?on  of  ?me,  Commitment,  Teamwork  

•  Solu?on  –  indicate  for:  diversity  tolerance  and  difference  tolerance  –  Lectures  about  cultural  differences  –  Important  observa?ons  from  supervisors  

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E.  Langman,  “Rethinking  the  place  of  tolerance  in  -­‐educa?on  -­‐  Encountering  otherness  between  acceptance  and  rejec?on,”    Nordic  Studies  in  Educa?on,  2011.    

Tip5:  Example  –  students’  views  

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groupwork

educational differences

working hours

proactivenesswork style

timeliness

in-group relations

working hours

comm. style

0

5

10

15

20

25

The  most  important  elements  of  cultural  differences  

•  Challenges  –  How  to  make  it  easier  with  differences  

•  How  to  avoid  possible  conflicts?  

•  Solu?on  –  Flexible  groups  and  flexible  goals  for  students  –  Changes  in  requirements  if  necessary  

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•  Problems  –  Different  rules  valid  for  different  university  sites  

•  Grading  system  (grades,  credits)  •  Start/end  of  the  semester  •  Required  elements  in  the  course  •  Course  evalua?ons  

–  The  university  support  using  local  language  –  Low  local  understanding  for  distributed  course  specific  needs  

•  Solu?on  – Aaaah,…  keep  going….,  be  flexible,  be  crea?ve…  

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•  Problems  –  nothing  is  default    –  Local  changes  (at  the  universi?es)  to  not  consider  other  site  

•  Changes  in  start/end  of  semester  •  New  rules,  new  laws  –  for  local  op?miza?on  

–  Technical  surprises  •  Changes  in  technologies    

•  Solu?on  –  Be  prepared  for  changes  –  Check  all  elements  in  the  course  before  the  work  –  Risk  analysis  important  (what  if,  what  if  not…)    

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Indiana  Jones:  “Nothing  shocks  me.  I'm  a  scien?st.”,  Indiana  Jones  and  the  Temple  of  Doom  

•  Challenges  –  Unpredictable  changes  –  More  efforts  required  –  Not  recognized  form  the  local  ins?tu?ons  

•  Payoff  –  giving  students  a  (unique)  opportunity  to  gain  knowledge  they  will  very  likely  need  in  their  future  professional  life.    

–  the  enthusiasm  of  students  during  their  involvement  in  the  project  –  increasing  interest  in  communica?on  with  other,  unknown,  people,  and,  finally,  in  their  success.    

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Issues  Important  to  Students  vs.  Tips  

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Issue                %      Related  /ps  Communica?on            55      Tip  1,  2,  3  Task  assignment/work  distribu?on      37      Tip  4    Responsibility/trust          27      Tip  4,  6  Punctuality  –  respec?ng  schedules      22      Tip  4,  6  Team  spirit              21      Tip  5,  10  Coopera?veness            20      Tip  5,  7,  10  Leadership              20      (Tip  1,  3)  Planning  and  coordina?on        17      (Tip  1,  3)  Honesty  and  openness          15      Tip  6,  7  Tolerance              14      Tip  6,  7  Goal  awareness            14      (Tip  1,  3,  4)  Awareness  of  individual  tasks      10      Tip  4  Proac?veness/aytude        10      Tip  5,  6  

(Tips  8,9,10  related  to  the  teaching  staff)  

Conclusion  –  the  Ten  Tips  •  Communica)on  and  awareness  

–  Tip  1:    Start  communica?on  by  brute  force;  –  Tip  2:    Get  the  students  to  be  familiar  with  each  other  as  soon  as  possible;  –  Tip  3:    Keep  communica?on  levels  consistently  high;  –  Tip  4:    Ensure  that  students  keep  the  other  site  in  mind;  

•  Issues  of  diversity  and  difference  –  Tip  6:    Remember:  we  are  different;  –  Tip  7:    Be  flexible  –  overcome  the  differences;  

•  Mo)va)on  and  socio-­‐psychological  issues  –  Tip  5:    Keep  the  students  highly  mo?vated;  –  Tip  10:  Be  enthusias?c;  

•  Prac)cal  issues  –  Tip  8:    Be  flexible  –  beat  the  administra?on:  –  Tip  9:    Be  alert.  

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THANKS  FOR  THE  ATTENTION  Ques?ons?