Comparison of software quality in the work of children and professional developers based on their classroom exercises

Abstract

There is a widely accepted belief that education has positive impact on the improvement of expertise in software development. The studies in this topic mainly focus on the product, more closely the functional requirements of the software. Besides these, they often pay attention to the individual so-called basic skills like abstract and logical thinking. We could not find any references where the final products of classroom exercises were compared by using non-functional properties like software quality. In this paper, we introduce a case study where several children’s work is compared to works created by professional developers and not qualified adults. These numerical properties are difficult to measure and compare objectively. The model used to measure the various aspects of software quality also known in the industrial sector, hence it provides a well established base for our research. Finally, we analyse and evaluate the results and briefly introduce further research plans.