The MOSAICS model of educational approaches for teaching the practice of software project management

Abstract

Maybe you heard the line “managing programmers is like herding cats”, and if you consider there is some truth behind this, then you should, perhaps, think how it is to teach people to perform this job. As we know from the research literature, there is no such thing as a consensus about the most suitable teaching method of a software project management course targeted to information technology students. Moreover, the majority of publications focus on the theoretical aspects of the course, thus leaving little details about the application of the theory, or how to experience the practical side. The paper at hand proposes an abstract model of educational approaches, suggestively named MOSAICS, which may be used in teaching the practical side of a software project management course.