A double comparative study: process models and student skills

We report on a recent experience in our Software Engineering laboratory course. More than one hundred students, from two different degrees, were divided in teams grouping diverse competences and skills, and had to develop four software products using a process model chosen among Waterfall, Spiral, and Extreme Programming. The two degrees involved were Computer Science and Informatics for Management. The former students have a standard, strong, background in programming, systems, and algorithms, while the latter students have a weaker training in programming compensated by some courses in Economics and Management. This situation allowed us to perform a double comparative study: on one hand, analyzing the laboratory results we obtained a comparison of the process models, which reproduced some results already known in literature. On the other hand we could compare "on the field" the different skills of students following different curricula, especially with respect to the requirements of the different process models. We discuss the results of this experience.