Collaborative course project for practicing component-based software engineering

Empirical studies revealed that computer science and engineering students have difficulty in mastering concepts such as interfaces and information hiding. These concepts are central to component-based software engineering (CBSE), a challenging subject to address in a university course, given that some degree of software development complexity is necessary for effectively practicing it. This paper describes an experiment carried in an advanced programming course offered at our institution, consisting of having a collaborative course project targeting the practice of CBSE. In this collaborative project, different student teams developed parts of an IDE whose designs were tested by other teams in terms of component interoperability and extensibility. Although students were able to practice the CBSE-related concepts in approximate real settings, the necessary technical supervision from instructors might consist of a pitfall.