Students as Partners and Students as Mentors: An Educational Model for Quality Assurance in Global Software Development

Abstract

Abstract. Since 2005, Pace University in New York City has been collaborating with the Institute of Technology of Cambodia and the University of Delhi in India to bring students together to work on globally distributed software development projects. Over this period, we have been exploring models through which graduates and undergraduates from the three countries can work together, with pedagogical value to all sides. In 2007, we converged on using Software Quality Assurance as a focal point around which to establish a partnering and mentoring relationship. We included seven graduate students, as internal mentors and external auditors, to help assure the quality of what was to be a single distributed project involving twenty-seven students from across the three global locations. To focus further on quality, requirements and testing activities were emphasized. The motivation, logistics and experiences from this project are reported in this paper, and lessons of wider applicability are provided.

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“…In these cases, learners are put in contact with experienced colleagues; the greater availability of an experienced workforce makes the application of the concept of learning networks [17] possible. Learning networks consist of a way of teaching that takes advantage of the knowledge of workers in a company who can train learners in specific skills.…”

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“…The US graduate students acted as SQA/integration mentors and SQA auditors to help improve and assure the quality of the US undergraduate students' work. They provided coaching sessions on software engineering practices, and reviewed the artifacts delivered and the processes used to deliver them [4]. One US graduate student was assigned to each US sub-team to act as a mentor.…”

“…Three years ago, faculty at Pace University, Delhi University and the Institute of Technology of Cambodia started collaborating to introduce global software development projects in their courses [4,5,6,7]. The setting of the projects was such that Cambodian students acted as clients and testers, US students acted as developers and lead contractors, and Indian students were sub-contractors for a well-defined component of a larger project (for the Cambodian context).…”

“…The setting of the projects was such that Cambodian students acted as clients and testers, US students acted as developers and lead contractors, and Indian students were sub-contractors for a well-defined component of a larger project (for the Cambodian context). During this period, the innovative collaborative model evolved to explore the use and perception of using different mashups of technologies for development and communication [5], and to include a quality assurance focus through mentoring and auditing [4]. In 2007, the thirty-four students distributed across the three countries worked together on a single software development project to be deployed in Cambodia.…”

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“…This was to encourage the students to work more closely together, learn about integration, and to think about the whole-life issues of deployment and maintenance [10]. Secondly, graduate students from Pace University acted as quality mentors and auditors, to help to assure the quality of the software development process and product [13]. The students therefore worked in small, extended teams on component pieces of a larger software system that needed to fit together.…”