Re:Computer science is not software engineering
by to11mtm on Saturday December 26, 2020 @06:37PM
(#25547388)
When I did CS (my alma mater didn't have Software engineering at the time,) many courses did similar but with a different spin; The work based on the exercise was pre-divided into modules that were fairly similar in size. And at the end you had to code your module and everything had to 'work together'.
As a blunt observation, the courses where writing a specification was part of the project everything seemed to click together more easily. The ones where a specification wasn't written were the ones where people were scrambling on due date.
As part of that course, we simulated spec work by having Team A write the specifications for a project and having Team B trying to interpret that as loosely as possible while still being compliant. (Team C would then do that with Team B's spec and so on, so there would be no 'revenge').
That wasn't perfect, but it did teach us a lot about writing down implicit and non-functional requirements, as well as the use of precise language.