4.7 Job application

It is unnecessarily artificial to allocate students to projects on a "skills-blind" basis.

---ooOoo---

This bundle provides a mechanism for allocating students to the best job for them, using a job application process.

The way it works is that students have to fill out job applications before entering the course (in its original form this was a course which ran over three-quarters of a year). If their application is accepted, they may register for the course and start out as a fledgling worker; they can potentially work their way up to project manager. As they work, they focus on a specific portion of the project.

Even over three-quarters of a year, they may not see the software to completion, so others continue the project after them. In order for others to continue, they need the thinking and reasoning of past team members recorded in the form of requirements, design, software, and test documents. These documents mature as the project progresses, but cannot be rewritten every term or progress on the project will not be maintained.

It doesn't work if your project is constrained (by Professional Body requirements, or the like) so that every student must experience every part of the project life-cycle.

---ooOoo---

So: respect and reflect the differences in student ability in the same way that industry does.

References: This bundle is based on original practice developed in Real-World Lab, started by Melody Moore when she was at Georgia Tech. A variant was reported in the FASE newsletter (Forum for Advancing Software engineering Education (FASE) Volume 9 Number 08 (115th Issue) - August 15, 1999) by Susan Mengel of Texas Tech and further details can be found at: http://www.se.cs.ttu.edu/