Improving Software Engineers' Skills through the Simulation of Distributed Software Development in Academic Environments

摘要

The software industry needs practitioners with communication and collaboration skills. By stimulating the improvement of these skills. By stimulating the software engineers can be better equipped for the software development market. The use of Distributed Software Development (DSD) in academic environments can lead students to improve their skills. However, implementing a DSD course can be costly. A cost-effective alternative to include DSD is to simulate it. In this paper, we present an empirical study aiming to verify the use of DSD simulation in academic environments as a way of improving communication and collaboration skills. In our controlled experiment we encountered similar results to the ones of studies in which the subjects were distributed. Therefore, the simulation was efficient in the context of this experiment. By showing indicators of its efficiency, we intend to stimulate the use of DSD simulation as a cost effective way to prepare software engineers so that they can meet the needs of the software develipment industry.