Teams in Software Engineering Education

1 Judith E. Sims-Knight, Psychology Department, U. of Massachusetts Dartmouth, N. Dartmouth, MA 02747, [email protected] 2 Richard L. Upchurch, CIS Department, U. of Massachusetts Dartmouth, N. Dartmouth, MA 02747, [email protected] 3 T. A. Powers, Psychology Department, U. of Massachusetts Dartmouth, N. Dartmouth, MA 02747, [email protected] 4 Sara Haden, Psychology Department, U. of Massachusetts Dartmouth, N. Dartmouth, MA 02747, [email protected] 5 Raluca Topciu, Psychology Department, U. of Massachusetts Dartmouth, N. Dartmouth, MA 02747, [email protected] Abstract—The ability to work as an effective member of a development team is a primary goal of engineering education and one of the ABET student learning outcomes. As such, teaming has received increased attention in both the classroom and the literature over the past several years. Instructors of software engineering courses typically organize students into teams, but expect, erroneously, that students learn the skills they need and learn to avoid dysfunctional patterns simply by working in teams. This paper describes the development of tools that can incorporate an assessment-based continuous improvement process on team skills into engineering classes. The primary focus is on the development of 1) a self-report assessment tool that would provide pointers toward improvement and 2) a test of students' knowledge of best teaming practices. The paper also describes a first pass at embedding these assessment tools into a continuous improvement process.