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ABSTRACT
Creativity is a critical skill that professional software engineers leverage to tackle difficult problems. In higher education, multiple efforts have been made to spark creative skills of engineering students. However, creativity is a vague concept that is open to interpretation. Furthermore, studies have shown that there is a gap in perception and implementation of creativity between industry and academia. To better understand the role of creativity in software engineering (SE), we interviewed 33 professionals via four focus groups and 10 SE students. Our results reveal 45 underlying topics related to creativity. When comparing the perception of students versus professionals, we discovered fundamental differences, grouped into five themes: the creative environment, application of techniques, creative collaboration, nature vs. nurture, and the perceived value of creativity. As our aim is to use these findings to install and further encourage creative problem-solving in higher education, we have included a list of implications for educational practice.
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank the participants of both study groups for their creative discussions, insights, and suggestions on creativity in software engineering. Thank you all very much!
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Wouter Groeneveld
Dr. Wouter Groeneveld is a computing education researcher affiliated with KU Leuven who has also worked as a software engineer in industry for over a decade before rejoining academia.
Laurens Luyten
Prof. Laurens Luyten is an associate professor affiliated with the department of Architecture who is also helping facilitate the improvement of engineering education in general.
Joost Vennekens
Prof. Joost Vennekens is an associate professor working for the department of computer sience, specialized in knowledge representation, who is also a driving force behind engineering education research for the faculty of Engineering Technology at KU Leuven.
Kris Aerts
Prof. Kris Aerts is a computer science professor who is also actively engaging in the quality assurance of software engineering education at the faculty of Engineering Technology at KU Leuven.