Course Description and Objective:


The primary goal of this course is to introduce students to the principles of software engineering.  We will cover software planning, specifications, coding, testing, and maintenance.  Group projects will enhance team skills and approaches to large system development.

This course will be time consuming and requires serious dedication on the part of each student.  Attention to detail, analytical thinking, logical problem solving, and programming are very technical activities and will be expected of you throughout the semester.  In addition, as in any course, some rote memorization is necessary to recall the terms, definitions, and syntax taught.  Please be aware of these points and arrange your schedule accordingly.

 

Textbook


Our textbook will be used a reference. Either the 7th or the 8th edition of Sommerville will do.   Additional references can be found on the course website.

Software Engineering, 7th Edition, Ian Sommerville, 2004, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-321-21026-3.

Software Engineering, 8th Edition, Ian Sommerville, 2006, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0-321-31379-8.


 

Schedule


Here is an approximate schedule for the semester. 

Week #

Dates

Topic

Referencial Reading

1
Aug. 22

2
Aug. 27

Set up Projects

3
Sept. 3

Software Requirements

4
Sept. 10

Design

5
Sept. 17

Scrum Sprint 1

6
Sept. 24

7
Oct. 1

8
Oct. 8

Scrum Sprint 2

9
Oct. 15

10

Oct. 22

11
Oct. 29

Scrum Sprint 3

12
Nov. 5

13
Nov. 12

14
Nov. 19

15
Nov. 26

16
Dec. 3

Software Festival

 

Policies & Grading


You will find resources from the text given here.

During the semester, you will have a diverse set of responsibilities, thus you will be evaluated in many ways as the semester progresses.  First, every week in discussion the TAs will evaluate the progress of your project at a group level.  Next, your individual performance and contribution will be assessed.   

You will create three progress reports, bringing a hard copy to discussion and submitting a soft copy online.  These reports will summarize the specifics of your individual contribution to the projects on which you are working.  They will be one to two pages of a single side of one sheet of paper in length. 

Every team of students will make three presentations, on their Requirements Specification, their Software Design, and the Final Presentation & demo. Every student must at some point deliver a portion of these in-class presentations, jointly with other students. Your attendance at ALL these presentations is mandatory, even if your group is not presenting that day. 

Finally, there will be a final exam worth 15% of your grade. 

All grading/re-grading issues must be resolved within 1 week of the graded work being returned.  To question an exam grade, you must return the exam to your discussion leader, along with a printed (not handwritten) attachment stating the reasons for the re-grade.  Do not write anything on the exam itself or detach (un-staple) the pages from each other.  If you do so, your exam will not be re-graded.  For project re-grading, see the TA who grades your assignment in his or her office hours immediately.  Note, when requesting a re-grade, the whole exam/project is subject to the re-grade, not just the portion you specify.  We will be happy to discuss the solution and answer any questions, however no change will be made after the allotted week has passed.

There will be no make-ups, except for serious medical reasons with a medical practitioner’s note. 

Grading:
Attendance (discussions, presentations, and the focus group): 15%
Presentation (average evaluation of your peers): 10%
Software Evaluation (by peers): 10%
Evaluation of your role in your group (by peers): 10%
SRS, Design and First Release Report: 10%
Scrum Sprint Report 1: 10%
Scrum Sprint Report 2: 10%
Final Report (excluding peer evaluations): 15%
Homeworks: 10%

Grade Scale:
A 92-100
A- 90-91
B+ 87-89
B 83-86
B- 80-82
C+ 77-79
C 73-76 (75 or higher is required for a grade of S)
C- 70-72
D+ 67-69
D 63-66
D- 60-62
E 0-59

 

Special Notes for the First Week of Classes


There will be NO discussion sections the first week of classes. 

 

Project Submission


All projects are due at 11:59 PM on the assigned date.   No late submissions will be accepted.  You will submit a soft copy of your project, using a web-based submission system.  The specification of what you must submit will be included within the project description.  Submitting the wrong file and not following the instructions will result in an automatic loss of points on the project.  Clearly place your name, section number, group number, and the name of your partners in a comment at the top of every separate file you submit.  Here is the format you should follow:

 

Name

Meriadoc 'Merry' Brandybuck

Section

1234

Group

1

Partner

Peregrin 'Pippin' Took

 

Frodo Baggins

 

Samwise 'Sam' Gamgee

 

Whom Should I Speak With Regarding?


Here are the individuals that you should see concerning the following topics:

Course Policies

Manuel & Any TA

 

Course Material Questions

Manuel & Any TA

 

Project Questions

Any TA

 

Exam Grading

Your Discussion Leader

 

Project Grading

Your Discussion Leader

 

Picking Up Graded Work

Your Discussion Leader

 

Teaching Assistants

 

Discussion Leaders & Graders


You must attend the discussion section in which you are registered (attendance is mandatory).  Here are the days, periods, locations, discussion leaders, and project graders for each section.  Note that this is tentative and could change, based on any last minute departmental needs pertaining to TA assignments. Please check your discussion meeting place on Discussion page.