Experiences with group projects in software engineering

Computer science graduates are often accused of having no experience of the real-world problems of large software systems. In general, the practical work is said to be too small scale, and too individually oriented. The paper describes the introduction of a major group project into the degree syllabus at Heriot-Watt University. The project is designed to give the students experience of the problems involved in writing multi-author software and meeting strict deadlines. The choice of topics, supervision and management aspects are all covered. The problems of assessment are described