Course Introduction

1
Course Introduction

• CS 4911 Spring 2008

2
Agenda

• Course Overview
• Syllabus
• Project Ideas
• Deliverables
• Friday, January 11 _at_ 2400 - Status Report 1
• Project Selection
• Team Formation
• Project Manager
• Email Points of Contact

3
Course Overview

• Class Webpage
• http//www-static.cc.gatech.edu/classes/AY2008/cs4
  911_spring/
• Swiki see link on web page
• Purpose of Course
• Class Schedule
• Specialization Recommendation
• Important Questions
• Can I find my own project?
• How many people are in my team?
• Can I work with people in the other section?

4
Available Projects

• Course Web Page
• First Come/First Served on Selection after Tue
  1600.
• Need full team (4) to lock-in project
• Send email to Bob with members and top 3
  preferences for a project.
• Amount of work is computed based on number of
  team members
• Each credit hour 50-60 Hours of effort
• 3 hour course 150-180 Hours
• Times number of people

5
Recent Changes

• Iterative Development Strategy with 3 iterations
  ( 5-5-5 week)
• Individual Design Analysis
• Less Formal documentation
• Agile Project Management
• Submissions via swiki
• Instructor as Advisor for most teams

6
Individual Design Analysis

• Keep this in mind throughout project.
• Look over format and understand what data you
  should be collecting over the semester.

7
WARNING

• Danger Will Robinson
• Grades in this course have been steadily falling
  overall since we moved from 3911 to 4911.
• You may be a graduating senior, but this is still
  a real 3 hour course.

8
What is a Team?

• A small number of people
• with complementary skills
• who are committed to a common purpose,
• performance goals, and
• approach
• for which they hold themselves mutually
  accountable
• Katzenbach Smith
• When two heads together are better than two
  heads individually McConnell

9
Highly Effective Teams

• Interdependence among Team
• Rely on strengths
• Everybody contributes
• Effective communication
• Constant clear
• Mutual understanding
• Bad news too

• Shared vision
• Common big picture
• Builds trust
• Commitment to the Team
• Team supercedes individual
• Desire to contribute

10
Software Project Roles

• Programmer
• Project Manager
• Technical Lead
• Tester
• Technical Writer/ Documentation Coordinator

• Analyst
• Designer
• Marketing
• Customer Delivery
• Installation
• Configuration
• Training

11
Possible Organization

• Team Leader/Project Manager
• Motivate team members
• Plan/Run Meetings
• Prepare weekly status reports
• Allocate tasks/workload
• Maintain project files
• Act as development engineer

12
Possible Organization (2)

• Development Manager
• Lead team in producing development strategy
• Prepare time and size estimates for product
• Lead in development of Product Vision
• Lead in producing design
• Lead in development of Design
• Lead in developing test plan for development,
  integration and system testing
• Lead in developing test materials and running
  tests
• Lead in producing user-level documentation
• Act as development engineer

13
Possible Organization (3)

• Planning Manager
• Lead the team in producing product backlog
• Lead team in developing schedule for next
  iteration
• Lead team in producing the Sprint Backlog
• Track teams progress against plan (Burndown
  Charts)
• Act as development engineer

14
Possible Organization (4)

• Quality/Process Manager
• Lead team in producing and tracking the quality
  plan
• Alert team leader to quality problems
• Lead team in defining and documenting the
  processes and process improvement plan.
• Establish team development standards
• Review proposed changes to baseline
• Act as moderator for reviews
• Act as recorder at team meetings
• Act as development engineer

15
Possible Organization (5)

• Support Manager
• Lead team in defining support needs and obtaining
  tools and facilities
• Chair Configuration Control Board and
  Configuration Control
• Maintain the Configuration Control System
• Maintain system glossary
• Maintain issue and risk tracking system
• Act as reuse advocate
• Act as a development engineer

16
Why Teams Can Fail

• Personnel Problems
• Team leaders unwilling to confront and resolve
  problems
• Cover up ignorance
• I dont know how to explain it just works
• Excessive desire for privacy
• I dont need anyone to review my

• Territorial
• No one else can fix the bugs in my code.
• Grumble about team decisions revisit past
  discussions
• Communication
• What we have here is a failure to communicate

17
Dysfunctional Team Members

• Hitchhikers
• Couch Potatoes

Remember Bobs motto If its not in
CVS/Subversion, it does not exist!
18
Some Advice...

• Class is a lot of work but its worth it
• Faculty Interaction
• Letters of recommendation
• Interview fodder
• Get on a project you have some interest in!!!

• Everyone on your team should not be exactly like
  you
• Remember diversity of project team roles
• Be careful of mixing projects and close friends

19
Team Selection