An experiential learning framework for software project management education

Abstract

According to the body of knowledge of several Computing degree programs, Software Project Management (SPM) is one of the units of the Software Engineering area that must be addressed in computing programs. However, often there is no specific course to teach SPM, so its concepts are taught along with the other concepts of Software Engineering. Even when there is a course dedicated to the subject, in its traditional format, project management is essentially approached in a theoretical way. Despite the importance of the theory, the challenges found in practice that make project management complex and extremely relevant in organizations, requiring technical and soft skills that recent graduates not always present. In this scenario, experiential learning can be considered an interesting method for addressing existing challenges and, despite it has already been investigated in project management education, the studies found in the literature presented specific approaches for specific scenarios. Therefore, a learning design framework based on experiential learning could help educators to make design decisions that are pedagogically effective and make appropriate use of digital technologies, adapting the learning to their context. Therefore, this PhD project aims to propose a learning design framework for Software Project Management education based on experiential learning. The hypothesis is that such framework will guide educators when designing their courses to provide a learning experience closer to the practice of Software Project Management in the IT industry. The main idea is to provide more attractive Software Project Management courses derived from the framework, besides improving important technical and soft skills for a project manager. An approach based on experiential learning is interesting in the sense that any instance of the framework will cover the structural dimensions of experiential teaching, i.e., the courses designed will address industry practices for learners to have this experience in class. However, this framework is a step forward in the direction of addressing both the technical and soft skills that the industry currently misses in the graduates. The proposed framework will be evaluated according to research strategies and methods suitable to the research conducted in this work. Thus, experimental studies, case studies, field evaluation and experts' review can be adopted as strategies to evaluate the proposed framework. (AU)