Pising to the Challenge: Using business-oriented case studies in software engineering education

Case studies are a common method for teaching professions such as law and business. At Miami University, we use case studies to leach software engineering by holding a "Senior Challenge" as part of our senior-level software engineering course. The goal is to give the students experience studying, analyzing, and proposing solutions to a real-life information-technology related business problem. The Challenge concludes with a presentation of their findings to a jury of industry professionals including some from the company that wrote the case. The Challenge is structured to leach the students how to analyze a business problem for business and technical objectives, how to describe and defend candidate solutions, and how to effectively present their findings both orally and in writing. This is a difficult project that provides students with experience working with real and significant information-technology problems and in understanding the business impact of their technical decisions.