Challenges and Recommendations for the Design and Conduct of Global Software Engineering Courses
Tony Clear, Sarah Beecham, John Barr, Mats Daniels, Roger McDermott, Michael J. Oudshoorn, Airina Savickaitė, John O. Noll · 2015
Context: Global Software Engineering (GSE) has become the predominant form of software development for global companies and has given rise to a demand for students trained in GSE. In response, universities are developing courses and curricula around GSE and researchers have begun to disseminate studies of these new approaches. Problem: GSE differs from most other computer science fields, however, in that practice is inseparable from theory. As a result, educators looking to create GSE courses face a daunting task: integrating global practice into the local classroom. Aim: This study aims to ameliorate the very difficult task of teaching GSE by delineating the challenges and providing some recommendations for overcoming them. Method: To meet our aims we pose two research questions ("When teaching GSE to students in Higher Education, what are the (a) challenges, and (b) recommendations for addressing them") and then conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) to determine the answers to these questions. Our SLR follows a carefully designed and validated protocol.