Evaluating Code Improvements in Software Quality Course
Projects

D 2022

Evaluating Code Improvements in Software Quality Course Projects

CHREN, Stanislav, Martin MACÁK, Bruno ROSSI and Barbora BÜHNOVÁ

Basic information

Original name

Evaluating Code Improvements in Software Quality Course Projects

Authors

CHREN, Stanislav (703 Slovakia, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Martin MACÁK (703 Slovakia, belonging to the institution), Bruno ROSSI (380 Italy, belonging to the institution) and Barbora BÜHNOVÁ (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution)

Edition

New York, NY, USA, Proceedings of The 25th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering, p. 160-169, 10 pp. 2022

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Stať ve sborníku

Field of Study

10200 1.2 Computer and information sciences

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

Publication form

electronic version available online

RIV identification code

RIV/00216224:14330/22:00125535

Organization unit

Faculty of Informatics

ISBN

978-1-4503-9613-4

DOI

http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3530019.3530036

Keywords in English

Software Engineering; Software Engineering Education; Software Quality; Static Code Analysis; Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

V originále

Software quality sits at the core of software engineering as a discipline. Yet, although each university software-engineering and the software-development course covers software quality to some extent, practitioners still lament on graduates’ readiness for practise for this very reason—poor quality of their code. As a result, we have engaged university industrial partners in designing a master-degree Software Quality course that puts the key software quality topics in one place. In this paper, we report on the effects of the course on the quality of students’ coding projects. To this end, we have analysed a total of 54 project submissions from 27 students, with both manual and automated quality assessment methods. We have employed 30 manual and 22 automated quality characteristics related to coding style, architecture design and general development practices. In particular, we examine which characteristics of the code have improved the most and what were the most common issues. Additionally, we investigate how the code quality improvement is related to external aspects such as students’ prior coding experience, interest and their time spent on the assignments. We use the results to formulate a set of lessons learned in order to improve the design of the course and to inspire educators who consider introducing a similar type of course.

Links

CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000822, interní kód MU
(CEP code: EF16_019/0000822)

Name: Centrum excelence pro kyberkriminalitu, kyberbezpečnost a ochranu kritických informačních infrastruktur (Acronym: C4e)

Investor: Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the CR, CyberSecurity, CyberCrime and Critical Information Infrastructures Center of Excellence, Priority axis 1: Strengthening capacities for high-quality research

EF16_019/0000822, research and development project

Name: Centrum excelence pro kyberkriminalitu, kyberbezpečnost a ochranu kritických informačních infrastruktur

MUNI/A/1230/2021, interní kód MU

Name: Zapojení studentů Fakulty informatiky do mezinárodní vědecké komunity 22 (Acronym: SKOMU)

Investor: Masaryk University

Citovat

CHREN, Stanislav, Martin MACÁK, Bruno ROSSI and Barbora BÜHNOVÁ. Evaluating Code Improvements in Software Quality Course Projects. Online. In Proceedings of The 25th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2022, p. 160-169. ISBN 978-1-4503-9613-4. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3530019.3530036.

@inproceedings{1841477,
   author = {Chren, Stanislav and Macák, Martin and Rossi, Bruno and Bühnová, Barbora},
   address = {New York, NY, USA},
   booktitle = {Proceedings of The 25th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering},
   doi = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3530019.3530036},
   keywords = {Software Engineering; Software Engineering Education; Software Quality; Static Code Analysis; Qualitative Analysis},
   howpublished = {elektronická verze "online"},
   language = {eng},
   location = {New York, NY, USA},
   isbn = {978-1-4503-9613-4},
   pages = {160-169},
   publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)},
   title = {Evaluating Code Improvements in Software Quality Course Projects},
   year = {2022}
}

TY  - JOUR
ID  - 1841477
AU  - Chren, Stanislav - Macák, Martin - Rossi, Bruno - Bühnová, Barbora
PY  - 2022
TI  - Evaluating Code Improvements in Software Quality Course Projects
PB  - Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
CY  - New York, NY, USA
SN  - 9781450396134
KW  - Software Engineering
KW  - Software Engineering Education
KW  - Software Quality
KW  - Static Code Analysis
KW  - Qualitative Analysis
N2  - Software quality sits at the core of software engineering as a discipline. Yet, although each university software-engineering and the software-development course covers software quality to some extent, practitioners still lament on graduates’ readiness for practise for this very reason—poor quality of their code. As a result, we have engaged university industrial partners in designing a master-degree Software Quality course that puts the key software quality topics in one place. In this paper, we report on the effects of the course on the quality of students’ coding projects. To this end, we have analysed a total of 54 project submissions from 27 students, with both manual and automated quality assessment methods. We have employed 30 manual and 22 automated quality characteristics related to coding style, architecture design and general development practices. In particular, we examine which characteristics of the code have improved the most and what were the most common issues. Additionally, we investigate how the code quality improvement is related to external aspects such as students’ prior coding experience, interest and their time spent on the assignments. We use the results to formulate a set of lessons learned in order to improve the design of the course and to inspire educators who consider introducing a similar type of course.
ER  -

CHREN, Stanislav, Martin MACÁK, Bruno ROSSI and Barbora BÜHNOVÁ. Evaluating Code Improvements in Software Quality Course Projects. Online. In \textit{Proceedings of The 25th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering}. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 2022, p.~160-169. ISBN~978-1-4503-9613-4. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3530019.3530036.

Detailed Information on Publication Record