New Approach in Software Education in Metrology and Quality Assurance an Empirical Study

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1 New Approach in Software Education in Metrology and Quality Assurance an Empirical Study Martin Dambon, Gerhard Linß Technische Universität Ilmenau (Germany) Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Quality Assurance - Motivation and Idea - Approach - Results 1

Motivation and Idea - situation University education strength: theory and methodical understanding problem: practical relevance and suitable application Students: deficiency in software knowledge

2 Motivation and Idea - situation University education strength: theory and methodical understanding problem: practical relevance and suitable application Students: deficiency in software knowledge Industry: a) Application of software for quality assurance 1 : - 1/3 use standard software, - instead: MS Office b) Most software projects are failing Figure 1: Outcomes of surveys investigating software projects in enterprises (Buschermöhle, 06; Standish, 04; Sauer, 03) British Computer Society (BCS) Improving education will not make an immediate change to practice, but is a vital part of a long-term solution to the problem 1 Studies in Qualität und Zuverlässigkeit QZ (2005 ), QZ (2008) 2

3 Motivation and Idea Idea Office-database-centred-software system by students - MS Office: most distributed COTS-software (commercial off-the-shelf) - Database: core component of information systems Educational aims Fundamental understanding: software development and architecture Work with useful software tools Improving knowledge in metrology and quality assurance by practical experience Exercise presentation and teamwork Further aims Find and solve frequent problems at the development Analyse quality of students software solutions 3

4 Approach Lecture procedure Basics of software development with databases (data modelling) and MS Office Groups of 2-3 students typical function, e.g. SPC presentation: basics and example Students: develop their own software solution Students lectures = Development Inspection Planning Machine and Process Capability Analysis (Cp / Cpk) Sampling Inspection (AQL) common database SPC Statistical Process Control MSA Measurement System Analysis... Office-Client Database-Server Figure 2: Office-database centred software-system 4

5 Approach main steps of the software lifecycle Maintenance Design Implementation 5

6 Approach development Maintenance Design Implementation Students: lectures = MS Office client Graphical data model Database Name: Smith amount = 3 3 SQL 1 SQL modification, if necessary 6

(Control Charts) Access Excel Enterprise Application System e.g.

7 Approach development (scenario) Device Under Test manual input data file: e.g. *.csv MS Office for: Machine and Process Capability Analysis Measurement System Analysis Statistical Process Control (Control Charts) Access Excel Enterprise Application System e.g. ERP Interface SQL ODBC: SQL Common SQL Database Figure 3: Application scenario master data and measurement data: manual input, data file (.csv) or database connection (SQL) results: database (SQL) 7

8 Results Example 1 Machine and Process Capability Analysis Figure 4a: Students data model Machine and Process Capability (Eclipse and Azzurri-Plugin) Figure 4b: Program Machine and Process Capability Analysis (MS Access/ MS Excel) 8

9 Results Example 2 Measurement Systems Analysis Figure 5a: Students data model MSA (Eclipse and Azzurri-Plugin) Figure 5b: Program MSA (MS Access) 9

10 Results Example 3 Statistical Process Control Figure 6a: Students data model SPC (Eclipse and Azzurri-Plugin) Figure 6b: Program SPC (MS Excel) 10

11 no. of participants no. of participants no. of participants New Approach in Software Education in Metrology and Quality Assurance An Empirical Study Results students knowledge self assessm ent - office start (n=49) end (n=41) none little good very good category self assessment - database start (n=49) end (n=41) none little good very good category start (n=49) end (n=41) no. of question Figure 7: questionnaire to evaluate software knowledge regarding Office and Database standard questionnaire (beginning/ end) evaluation: self-assessment and control questions good correlation and increase in knowledge 11

12 Results Problems during development Key question: most problems Database Office Client Development Figure 8: Problems at the development (n=41) Students more problems with MS Office client than with database - Relational data model and design tools - But: only applicable to special use case 12

13 Results Problems during development - database What makes a good data model? - Four criteria: Correctness, Completeness, Flexibility, Understandability - Empirical studies: 1) Beginners no problem with simple semantic constructs, difficulties with complex constructs and larger domain of interest 2) High quality data model needs: a systematic approach and experts Figure 9: Number of adjustments between data model and Office-Client (n=41) 13

14 Conclusion Office-database-centred software system: fast and cheap development of customised software tools: - graphic development tools and program assistant, - rapid testing and - good software documentation Students without any previous software knowledge: - transform a problem into a software solution, - handling and limitations of tools, - aware of the effort Limitation - solutions only applicable to their special problem, because: data model 14

15 Conclusion Students feedback: Figure 10: Attitude to course at the beginning and at the end (n=41) 15

16 - teamwork - training programming and presentation - problems were difficult to be described (in words) which made problem-solving more complicate - good tutorial - learned a lot Thank you! - extremely high effort - work independently - different motivation among each student groups 16

A NEW APPROACH IN SOFTWARE EDUCATION IN METROLOGY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

1th IMEKO TC1 & TC Joint Symposium on Man Science & Measurement September, 5,, Annecy, France A NEW APPROACH IN SOFTWARE EDUCATION IN METROLOGY AND QUALITY ASSURANCE AN EMPIRICAL STUDY Stefan Waßmuth,