Testing and deployment of software systems (in practice)

Since September 2008, DTU’s B.Eng. study programs have been based on the CDIO concept. For most of the study programs, this change has called for significant revisions. The CDIO standards form the basis for the new study plans. It was decided to introduce four cross-disciplinary ‘CDIO’ projects on each of the first four semesters. For the B.Eng. IT study plan, these four cross-disciplinary projects have replaced 11 smaller, course-specific projects in the old study plan.

All the B.Eng. study programs follow a common structure: On the first four semesters, all courses are compulsory. With some variation, this is followed by a semester with elective courses, a semester with industry internship and a semester with the final B.Eng. thesis.

Each semester consists of a lecture period (13 weeks) and a lab-period (three weeks). All the courses involving CDIO semester projects are worth 10 ECTS points for both the lecture period and the lab period.

On the first three semesters, the projects are design-build projects. The projects are attached to a 10-ECTS-point course with contributions from one or more supporting courses. On fourth semester, the project is a stand-alone project that also covers the ‘C’ and briefly touches the ‘O’ part.

The focus on all semesters is thus on the ‘DI’ part of CDIO. The 'O' part of CDIO has in our opinion been very little in focus in the CDIO-based curriculum. The simple reason for this is that there is not enough time in the semester projects. Moreover the right environment may not be present in universities for exploring this phase.

The outcomes of the semester projects are prototypes, which in almost all cases are not ready for deployment at the end-user. Because of this observation, in 2011 we decided to launch a new elective course, ‘Testing and deployment of software systems (in practice)’, focusing entirely on the ‘O’ part in CDIO. The course has now run twice and is the first course of its kind at DTU Compute.

The prerequisite for participation in the course is the presence of a tangible system (a prototype). This may originate from one of the CDIO projects mentioned above. This was the original reason for developing the course.

Before students can be admitted to the course, they must have a completed project. Furthermore the students are asked to identify a customer or an organization outside the university which may act as a customer in a more realistic environment

The course is now open to all students at DTU who have a completed project. We now have projects from other study directions, often projects that have been done in collaboration with industry.

The aim of this paper is to describe:

● the activities covering the ‘O’ part in software engineering ● the course structure and schedule ● the evaluations and comments received from the students

Finally, we make recommendations and draw conclusions based on our experience.

Proceedings of the 10th International CDIO Conference, Barcelona, Spain, June 15-19 2014