The Experimental Training Course

1
The Experimental Training Course
SE MSF .NET
2
Authors of the Presentation

• Nikita I Boyko, mboyko_at_acm.org
• Alexey G Dubinsky, dubinsky_at_ukr.net, Associate
  Professor, PhD, Dnipropetrovsk National
  University
• Irina V Mozgovaya, mir_ra_at_mail.ru, Associate
  Professor, PhD, Dnipropetrovsk National
  University
• Vladimir L Pavlov, vlpavlov_at_ieee.org, Intel
• Alexandr D Firsov, phirsof_at_mail.ru, Associate
  Professor, PhD, Dnipropetrovsk National University

3
Agenda

1. Introduction
2. Course Content
3. How We Developed The Course
4. Conclusions

4
History of the SE MSF .NET Course

• July 2003 N. Boyko (mboyko_at_acm.org) and V.
  Pavlov (vlpavlov_at_ieee.org) came up with the idea
  to create the course
• Project team was formed
• The course was given a name SE MSF .NET
• August 2003 open rehearsal of lectures began
• September 2003 pilot lecturing began
• February 2004 student teams started to work on
  course projects
• June 2004 exam

5
Real World Practical Demands

• Many representatives of Ukrainian and Russian
  software development companies consider that IT
  graduates must
• possess knowledge of contemporary software
  development processes understand how software is
  developed and created
• be familiar with modern concepts of software
  testing, configuration management, requirement
  management, etc.
• posses skills and knowledge of software
  development techniques, UML, CASE-tools
• know technical English

6
ACM

• Association for Computing Machinery
• Founded in 1947
• More than 75,000 members
• More than 100 conferences conducted annually
• More than 25 periodicals
• International collegiate programming contests
• http//www.acm.org

7
IEEE-CS

• Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers
  Computer Society
• More than 100,000 members
• More than 140 conferences conducted annually
• More than 20 periodicals
• http//www.ieee.org
• http//www.computer.org

8
Computing Curricula 2001

• The first attempt to create computing curricula
  recommendation for Computer Science was
  undertaken by ACM in 1968, the second version was
  published in 1978.
• IEEE-CS the same steps were undertaken in 1977
  and 1983
• At the end of 1980s ACM and IEEE-CS teamed up
  and released a Computing Curricula in 1991
• 2001 the last version was released
• http//www.computer.org/education/cc2001
• In 2002, Saint Petersburg State University
  (Russia) published the translation of ??2001-CS
  in Russianhttp//se.math.spbu.ru/cc2001

9
C?2001 Structure

• ?? 2001 consists of 5 volumes
• Computer Science
• Software Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Information Systems
• Overview

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The Diversity of the Computing Field
Software Engineering
SE
SE MSF .NET
CS
IS
Information Systems
Computer Science
CE
Computer Engineering
11
Software Engineering in ??2001CS

• Core disciplines
• SE1. Software design
• SE2. Using APIs
• SE3. Software tools and environments
• SE4. Software processes
• SE5. Software requirements and specifications
• SE6. Software validation
• SE7. Software evolution
• SE8. Software project management
• Elective disciplines
• SE9. Component-based computing
• SE10. Formal methods
• SE11. Software reliability
• SE12. Specialized systems development

12
Characteristics of CS Graduates

• Section 11.1 of the ??2001-CS lists the five
  major characteristics that a CS-graduate must
  possess
• One of the five characteristics is significant
  project experience
• To ensure that graduates can successfully apply
  the knowledge they have gained, all students in
  computer science programs must be involved in at
  least one substantial software project. Such a
  project demonstrates the practical application of
  principles learned in different courses and
  forces students to integrate material learned at
  different stages of the curriculum.

13
The Objectives of Our Software Engineering Course

1. Introduce students to the core disciplines from
   the Software Engineering section of CC2001CS
2. Train students in Software Engineering methods
   using Microsoft Solution Framework as an example
3. Provide the experience of working on software
   projects in a team environment
4. Teach basic knowledge of the Microsoft .NET
   Framework

14
The extract from the list of skills that a
Ukrainian university graduate must posses.
Specialty 7.080403 Software Development for
Automatic Control Systems
Module abbreviation Module Name
??.11 Software Development Life Cycle
??.50 Object-Oriented Approach to Software Development
??.52 Financial Planning and Analysis of Software Projects
??.61 Document Flow Management for Software Development Projects
??.77 Project Management
15
Some Related Courses

• Course that is based on Ian Sommervilles
  classical book
• http//www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/computing/resources/Ia
  nS/SE6/Slides/index.html
• A number of universities (for example Saint
  Petersburg State University, Russia) build their
  courses using these materials
• Microsoft training courses
• 1846 Microsoft Solutions Framework Essentials
• http//www.microsoft.com/traincert/syllabi/1846AFi
  nal.asp
• 2710 Analyzing Requirements and Defining
  Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures
• http//www.microsoft.com/traincert/syllabi/2710bfi
  nal.asp

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Agenda

1. Introduction
2. Course Content
3. How We Developed The Course
4. Conclusions

17
The CC2001CS standard
Course SE MSF.NET
Software Engineering
Knowledge of Software Engineering
MSF
Teamwork in a software project
Project experience
.NET
18
Microsoft Solutions Framework

• There is a number of software project management
  methodologies (RUP, MSF, CDM, XP etc.)
• We have chosen Microsoft Solutions Framework
  (MSF)
• flexibility and scalability
• totally free
• the whitepapers have been translated into Russian
• http//www.microsoft.com/rus/msf
• two of the project participants are Microsoft
  Endorsed MSF Practitioners

19
What is MSF?

• The MSF is a collection of Microsoft's proven
  practices on managing successful IT projects
• Microsoft barely markets MSF, and they do not
  sell it. Instead, Microsoft focuses on making
  money USING MSF
• Microsoft initially made MSF available in 1994.
  The latest version of MSF is 3.0 it was released
  in 2002. Like Windows, or any other products, MSF
  evolves and matures as long as new versions are
  released
• All MSF-related materials are open for public
  access. Besides this, anyone can download the set
  of templates of all the documents used in MSF
  projects for free

20
MSF Process Model
Deployment complete
Deployment Stable Interim Milestone
Core Team Organized
Site Deployments Complete Interim Milestone
Vision/Scope Drafted
Core Components Deployed
Release Readiness Approved
Vision/Scope Approved
Technology Validation
Functional Specification Baselined
User Acceptance Testing Complete
Release Candidates
Master Plan Baselined
Master Schedule Baselined
Development and Test Environment Set Up
Scope Complete
Project Plans Approved
Proof of Concept Complete
Internal Build 1 Complete
Internal Build 2 Complete
Internal Build n Complete
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MSF Team Model
Project managementSolution architectureProcess
assuranceAdministrative services
Technology consultingImplementation
architecture and designApplication
developmentInfrastructure development
Business valueMarketingCustomer
advocacyProduct planning
Test planningTest engineeringTest reporting
AccessibilityInternationalizationUser
advocacyTraining/support materialUsability
research and testingUser interface design
InfrastructureSupportOperationsLogisticsCommer
cial release management
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MSF Project Management Discipline
Procurement Management
Risk Management
Communications Management
Human Resource Management
Integration Management
Cost Management
Time Management
Scope Management
Bridge between MSF and PMBOK
Quality Management
Team Leads
Program Management
Product Management
Development
Test
User Experience
Release Management
at overall project level
at sub-team level
23
MSF Risk Management Discipline
2
Analyze and Prioritize
Risk Statement
1
Identify
Master Risk List
3
5
Plan and Scedule
Control
Top Risks
6
Learn
Track and Reprt
RiskKnowledge Base,
4
24
MSF Readiness Management Discipline
Define
KnowledgeSkillsAbilities
Assess
Evaluate
Change
25
Why .NET?

• For implementing software solutions, students
  need an appropriate development framework
• A typical situation is modeled an IT specialist
  needs to become familiar with new technology in
  bounded terms
• .NET is a new technology promoted by Microsoft
• Advantages
• actively promoted by Microsoft
• will be highly used in the nearest future
• Students learn only those elements of .NET
  Framework which are required for working on
  practical tasks

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Pilot Deployment of the Course

• Department of Applied Mathematics of
  Dnipropetrovsk National University
• Chairs
• Software Development
• Computational Mathematics and Mathematical
  Cybernetics (CMMC)
• Course System Analysis and Design of
  Informational Systems

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First Attendees of the Course

• 4th year students of the Department of Applied
  Mathematics, Dnipropertrovsk National University
• Specialties
• Software Development for Automatic Control
  Systems
• Intellectual Decision Making Systems

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Classes are Lectured by the Department of Applied
Mathematics Faculty
Lectures Chair of CMMC N. Boyko K. Runduyev Chair of Software Development I. Mozgovaya Lab work Chair of CMMC A. Firsov Chair of Software Development O. Beloborodko
29
The Course is Planned for Two Semesters

• 1st semester
• 9 lectures
• 9 lab classes
• 2nd semester
• 17 lectures
• 17 lab classes

30
26 Lectures

• Software Engineering 12
• MSF-based Project Management 8
• .NET Technologies 3
• Additional Topics 3

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26 Classes in the Departments Laboratory

• 9 classes lab work on .NET using web-based
  technologies (HTML, SOAP)
• 17 classes team work on projects

32
Material Distribution among Semesters

• Fall (the first) semester of 2003/2004
• Familiarizing with .NET
• Specific topics of SE and MSF
• 3 lab tasks
• Spring (the second) semester of 2003/2004
• Profound topics of SE
• Detailed study of MSF
• Course project

33
Lectures that the Students Attend During the
First Semester

1. Course introduction
2. Microsoft .NET Framework review
3. UML language review
4. Project Management in IT.
5. The review of Web-service based architecture. XML
   and SOAP
6. MSF Team Model
7. Risk management in IT-projects
8. The Envisioning phase of the MSF Process Model
9. The Planning phase of the MSF Process Model

34
Lectures that the Students Attend During the
Second Semester

1. Course Review
2. Conceptual, Logical and Physical Design in the
   MSF Process Model
3. Design Patterns
4. UML Meta Model
5. The Development Phase in the MSF Process Model
6. The Stabilizing Phase in the MSF Process Model
7. Software Testing
8. The Deployment Phase in the MSF Process Model

35
Lectures That the Students Attend During the
Second Semester (2)

1. Management in IT-operations. Overview of ITIL and
   MOF
2. Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)
3. Managing Security Requirements. Security in .NET
4. Creating Windows Applications in .NET
5. Employment in IT. Professional Ethics
6. Rational Unified Process
7. Agile Processes, eXtreme Programming
8. SW/CMMCMMI
9. Overview of Component Software Development
   (CORBA, COM, RMI, Advanced Aspects of .NET
   Programming)

36
Feedback From Students

• The course is interesting, useful and unusual
• Students like that the course contains plenty of
  information about contemporary achievements and
  tendencies in the IT-industry
• Students of the course often feel as if they have
  read the table of contents, but not the book
  itself

37
Feedback From Students (2)

• The scope of the course is very broad and does
  not allow them to learn many areas deeply, even
  though details are important in programming
• Students appreciate that they do not need to
  write the lectures down leaving more time for
  absorbing information
• Some students, however, do need to write the
  lecture down sometimes people remember
  information better while writing

38
Lab Tasks of the 1st Semester

• Three compulsory lab tasks
• Create a small (static) web-site using XML
• Expand the site with database interaction
• Create web-services

39
Lab Tasks of the 2nd Semester

• Complete a course project
• Work in a team of 5-8 students

• The team performs its work in compliance with
  MSF methodology
• The team reports the status to the supervisor on
  a regular basis
• At the end of the 2nd semester student teams
  compete in a contest

40
Student Projects

• Requirements
• The project must not be for profit
• The result of the project must be useful for the
  university
• .NET technologies must be used
• Potential customers
• Deans office
• University department
• Lyceum of Information technology

41
Student Documentation

• A Vision Scope document

42
Master Risk List
43
A Use-case Diagram
44
Every Student Receives

• Presentation handouts for each lecture
• Additional materials for every lecture
  (hardcopies of referenced articles, printouts of
  diagrams, etc.)
• CD that contains materials on software
  engineering
• CD that contains necessary .NET-related
  materials (including free software)

45
CD 1 Informational Resources on Software
Engineering

• Materials on Software Engineering, including
• SWEBOK Standard
• Ion Sommervillels presentations to his course
  Software Engineering
• Materials on UML, including
• UML and SPEM standards
• Materials on MSF, including
• MSF whitepapers in Russian and English languages
• Document templates for MSF-based projects
• A video presentation of the MSF overview lecture
• Materials on CMM, including
• SW-CMM and CMMI official CMU SEI documentation
• Other resources
• Materials on RUP, Agile, etc.

46
CD 2 Resources on Microsoft .NET

• Installation packages
• MSDE 2000 SP3
• Microsoft .NET Framework SDK 1.1
• Microsoft Web Matrix (the latest available
  version)
• SharpDeveloper (the latest available version)
• Additional materials
• Off-line copies of useful web-resources
• Current C language ISO standard
• Current HTML and XML W3C standards
• Current CLI ISO standard

47
Students Knowledge Control

• Regular control (quizzes during lectures)
• Midterm control (midterm examination and quizzes)
• Laboratory tasks (1st term)
• Course project (2nd term)
• The course peaks with the exam. Three questions
• Software Engineering
• MSF
• Microsoft .NET Framework and ASP.NET

48
Possible Alternatives for the Examination

• A student, who successfully passes an approved
  certification exam before April 15th, is exempt
  from the course exam
• IBM 486 Object-Oriented Analysis and Design with
  UML
• MS 74-100 Microsoft Endorsed MSF Practitioner
  Exam
• . . .

49
Knowledge Transfer

• While working on the course one of the team
  members (a university lecturer) passed his exams
  and became a Microsoft Endorsed MSF
  Practitioner, another team member (a student)
  became a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer
  (MCSD) for .NET

50
Encouraging the Students

• A Prize CD, which contains a video of recognized
  professional lectures, is given to students who
  finish their laboratory tasks first
• Department competition among student projects
• Winners will receive a prize - a set of IT books

51
Agenda

1. Introduction
2. Course content
3. How We Developed The Course
4. Conclusions

52
The Training Course SE MSF.NET

• Has been created by the following 12 people O.
  Biloborodko, N. Boyko, A. Dubinsky, S.Zemlyana,
  E.Kolesnikova, D.Malenko, I.Mozgova, V.Pavlov,
  O.Pylypenko, K.Runduev, O.Fedorenko, A.Firsov
  under the leadership of vice president of the
  Managers Union of Dnipropetrovsk, CTO of eLine
  Software V.Pavlov
• Sponsored by The Managers Union of
  Dnipropetrovsk
• Please send your comments on this course to
  se.msf.net_at_elinesoftware.com

53
Managers Union Support

• Student kits
• Presentation handouts for every lecture
• Students CDs
• Computers are upgraded in a Department's lab
• Purchasing books for the Department's library

54
What is a Project?

• A project is a temporary venture, with a finite
  beginning and end, whose goal is to create a
  unique product or service
• Project management is an independent discipline
  that has been rapidly developing throughout the
  last decades
• Constraints budget, schedule, quality
• Project Management methods

55
Course Development as a Project

• The development of the course is considered to be
  a project
• It is reasonable to use project management
  methodologies in our case
• We have chosen MSF (see slide 16)
• Are there any specifics?
• Similarity to software projects
• Adaptation is necessary
• MSF has been reworked

56
MSF Adaptation for the Educational Project

• Modified Team Model
• Completely different Process Model
• Project and Risk Management disciplines have
  undergone minor changes

57
Traditional MSF Team Model
Stakeholder
Product Management
Customer
Project Team
6
Program Management
Project Sponsor
Development
Role Cluster
External Stakeholder
User Experience
User
Testing
Release Management
Maintenance
58
Adapted Team Model
Stakeholder
Coordination
Sponsor
Project Team
Teacher care
Teacher
7
Student care
Development
Student
Role Cluster
External Stakeholder
Potential Employer
Business care
Testing
Institutionalization
University
59
Role Clusters

• Coordination
• coordinating the teamwork and managing schedule
  and budget constraints
• Institutionalization
• correspondence to educational standards and
  coordination with other courses
• Teacher-care
• assurance that training materials are complete
  enough for teaching the course

60

• Student-care
• the course is designed to be interesting and
  understandable for students as well as useful for
  their future careers
• Business-care
• students are to acquire the necessary skills and
  qualities to attract potential employers
• Development
• creating training materials, quizzes and
  laboratory tasks
• Testing
• verification that the quality of the course
  corresponds to predetermined norms and
  requirements

61
Project Outputs

• Project vision/scope
• Course curriculum
• Project structure definition
• Presentations for all lectures and laboratory
  work, additional materials
• Template
• Recommendation
• Trainer's CD contains current versions of these
  materials
• A new version of the CD is released every two
  weeks on a regular basis

62
Testing

• Careful testing of the outputs is one the most
  important constituents of the project work
• The team performs continual testing of the course
  materials in open lectures
• the lecture rehearsal is conducted by the author
  and the tester of the course team
• open lectures occur once a week on weekends
• IT-specialists and university lecturers from
  Dnipropetrovsk and other Ukrainian cities are
  invited to the lecture rehearsals

63
Lecture Lifecycle

• An author creates an initial version
• A tester submits remarks on how to improve the
  lecture, and then the author revises it
• At a general project group meeting, the lecture
  is discussed and the author revises it again
• Open rehearsal is conducted
• After an open lecture rehearsal, the author
  revises it taking feedback into account
• A proofreader corrects the presentation
• External peer-review is conducted
• The lecture is corrected accounting for the notes
  from external reviewers
• Perhaps we are to involve a graphical designer?

64
External Review

• Another quality assurance procedure is the
  reviewing of created materials
• The course curriculum has been successfully
  reviewed by professionals from a number of
  top-rated American, Russian and Ukrainian
  universities
• Currently the lectures of the first term are
  being reviewed

65
Risks

• Project risk is an uncertain event or condition
  that, if occurs, has a positive or negative
  effect on project objectives (PMBOK)
• Being unmanaged, risks can become problems
• Risk analysis is performed according to the MSF
  Risk Management Discipline
• A number of obstacles, that could have hampered
  the success of the project, have been identified
• Measures have been planned and taken to minimize
  or abolish major risks

66
Some Results of Risk Analysis

• OBSTACLE There is no projector for showing Power
  Point presentations at the department auditoriums
  
• SOLUTION Before each lecture students get
  individual kits with printed handouts
• OBSTACLE The time in a computer auditorium is
  limited some students do not have Internet
  access
• SOLUTION Each student gets two CDs with free
  software and additional course materials
  including the copies of useful web-sites
• OBSTACLE The university library does not have
  enough books and manuals for the course
• SOLUTION Necessary books have been bought for
  the departments library
• OBSTACLE computers in the laboratory of the
  Applied Mathematics department do not have enough
  memory for using Microsoft .NET Framework
• SOLUTION Additional memory has been installed

67
Agenda

1. Introduction
2. Course content
3. How We Developed The Course
4. Conclusions

68
Research Project

• While working on the course, an idea was born to
  conduct research on formalizing MSF using SPEM
• Its result has been reported at the Moscow State
  University conference which took place on March
  4th, Moscow, Russia

69
The Evolution of the Course

• This course is supposed to be a basis for a set
  of the following courses
• Software Engineering
• IT-Project Management using Microsoft Solution
  Framework
• IT-operations Management
• Object Oriented Analysis and Design Using UML
  Language
• Object Oriented Programming in C Language

70
The Discussion of the Course

• The Guild of Certified Professionals,
  Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, November 17th, 2003
• International conference "United Information
  Space", Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, December
  3rd-4th, 2003
• Microsoft Workshop "Contemporary Technologies and
  their Training Approach". Nizhniy Novgorod, NNGU,
  February 14th, 2004, Moscow, Russia, February
  16th, 2004
• Workshop Teaching IT in Ukrainian Universities",
  Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, March 30th, 2004
• Report on Microsoft Research Academic Days -
  St. Petersburg, Russia, April 22nd, 2004

71
Conclusion

• The course of Software Engineering is being
  developed at Dnipropetrovsk National University
  (DNU, Ukraine) the course covers all core SE
  disciplines from the IEEE / ACM Computing
  Curricula 2001 Computer Science volume
• The participants of this project organized their
  efforts by adapting contemporary project
  management approaches

72
You can download this presentation from

• http//www.it-education.ru
• http//www.vlpavlov.com

73
Questions?
? ? ?
74
The picture of the space ship Ocean-O is used
in the background. Such satellites are
manufactured at the Ukrainian factory UMZ,
located in Dnipropetrovsk