Adapting a Software Acquisition Curriculum to Instruct Supply Chain Risk Management in a Project-Based Software Development Course

Abstract

Project-Based Instruction has become a de-facto standard in many software engineering curricula. It engages the learner in critical thinking, fosters introspection, improves retention, and enables generalization of concepts to new engineering situations. However, as projects often focus on software construction, students tend to adopt third-party technologies without critical reflection. Such insufficient supply chain risk management (SCRM) throughout the project then threatens learning success, as students struggle to recover from inadequacies and vulnerabilities in the adopted technology. We therefore propose a capstone-style course structure to deliver an industry-realistic, project-based, and teamwork-centric software development approach. Using an existing SCRM curriculum, we add acquisition planning, bidding, and monitoring activities to an existing course design and assess learning outcomes.