Activity Driven Teaching Model for Software Project Management Course

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to introduce a cognitive learning methodology for the course Software Project Management. The industry realizes every year the need to train its managers in software project management and invests in the training costs though it a known fact that almost all the managers have undergone a course on Software Project Management either at their graduate level or post graduate level. On the other hand the teachers who teach software project management in class find it extremely challenging in sustaining the interest of the students all through the coursework. One obvious reason for this is the lack of real time exposure to live environments in which the industry operates and of course lack of experience of students in the area of management. In an attempt to bridge this gap at least to a certain extent an activity driven teaching model has been proposed in this paper. This paper is aimed at stressing the importance of exposing the students to live case studies and thereby encouraging them in resolving some of the issues posed by the case study. The solutions can be discussed with the students thereof which would lead them realizing the standard practices explained theoretically in the prescribed text book. In this paper one such activity conducted to the students and their responses and how those responses could be traced back to the concepts
explained in the text book has been illustrated. An activity driven teaching model for SPM not only sustains the interest of the students with active interaction from them but also reduces the burden on the heavy training costs incurred by the industry in training the future managers.