Version control usage in students' software development projects
Pekka Mäkiaho, Timo Poranen, Ari Seppi · 2014
The need for a version control system rises always when multiple developers work on the same project and is beneficial even for projects of one developer. The core tools of computer science curriculum also include version control systems; therefore it is essential to teach the usage of such tools to all computer science students in universities. In this paper we study the usage of version control in students' software development projects. Data was gathered from 13 different student project teams. We analysed challenges and main ways to use version control in training, development and management. We noted that the understanding of main principles of using version control is not always clear to students and this should be taken in account in teaching. There were also huge differences between teams in the number of commits (from 32 to 359). Low number of commits might be a warning signal of problems in tool usage and in project in general.