cs437 Software Engineering Syllabus

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cs437 Software EngineeringSyllabus
Administrative Miscellanea cs437 Major
Objectives Nature of the cs437 Class cs437 Major
Topics Grading Student Grading and
Evaluations Nature of the Exams Class Attendance
and Punctuality Class Participation Class
Project Readings
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THE FOLLOWING SLIDES WILL EXPLAIN IN DETAIL THE
CHARACTERISTICS AND DEMANDS FOR THIS
CLASS.PLEASE PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO EACH OF
THESE.
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Instructor Jose M. Macias, PhD REQUIREMENT
the students in the class will call me José
Office Hours After class as needed. Other
times are by appointment [phone] - cell
[phone]-work/JPL.E-mails josemasia
_at_gmail.com or jose.m.macias_at_jpl.nasa.gov
(work) This class has Lecture time (4hrs.) a
Lab time (1.5hrs.).Prerequisites CS 337 and
completion of the GWAR.
Syllabus Administrative Miscellanea (These data
are permanent in time)
Official Schedule at http//www.calstatela.edu/a
cademic/ecst/cs/schedule.htm
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Class Days Lec Monday 610pm 10pm Lab
Wednesday 610pm 840pmClass Room ET
A220TEMPORARY SCHEDULE MODIFICATION FOR THE
MONTH OF APRILLab Part of the Lab sessions
will be conducted by the TA from 610-8pm on
Monday. Lec The Lec sessions and the remaining
of the Lab session will be conducted from 8-10pm
on Monday and from 8-1030pm on Wednesday.
Office ET A3xx, phone [phone]
Syllabus (Contd) Administrative Miscellanea
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Syllabus (Contd) Textbooks
Recommended Textbook Software Engineering A
Practitioners Approach, (SEPA), 2005 by
Roger S. Pressman, 6th Edition,
McGraw-Hill. Recommended textbook Software
Engineering by Ian Sommerville, 2007, 8th
Edition, Addison- Wesley. (NOT IN THE BOOK
STORE It was not ordered) For the most
part the material used in this class is taken
from the textbook and from the additional
resources it provides. Some chapters are better
dealt with in Sommervilles book and in that case
I will provide the required material to the
students via email
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The aim of this class is to provide a broad
introduction to software engineering methods as
well as "hands-on" experience with software
engineering methodologies. The focus will
include the discussion of practical software
technologies and a set of readings that address
major software engineering experiences. The
"hands-on" experience will come from continuing
the work from cs337, including a brief review of
software requirements and software
specifications. cs437 includes software design
and completion of the SRD, writing the test plan
document and some implementation work. All this
activity is aimed at introducing the student to
the work done for typical large/complex software
projects developed by the industry.
Syllabus (Contd) cs437 Major Objectives
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Creating quality software is understood today as
the single most complex task ever attempted by
mankind. To be able to understand and visualize
some of its intricacies and idiosyncrasies is
indeed a daunting task. This class will attempt
to open a small yet wide enough aperture into the
world of developing quality large complex
software systems. The nature of this class is
eminently practical. That is, this class emulates
as much as possible the working environment when
developing a Software Engineering project the
instructor is the project lead and each team of
two members participates by creating and
designing their own project. The idea behind
this class is to provide the student with the
unique opportunity of being a team member of a
Software Engineering team and understanding the
many complex components of such a task.
Syllabus (Contd) Nature of the cs437 class
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The following is a list of some of the major
topics discussed in class Requirements Analysis
(Review) Software Design Elements of Software
Architecture Real Time (Embedded) Software
Systems Software VV and Software
Testing Software Development Management Software
Metrics and Risk Analysis Elements of Software
EconomicsThe order in which these topics will
be discussed is not necessarily the one given
above
Syllabus (Contd) cs437 Major Topics
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Midterm 10 (5th week of class) Final 10
(In class exam) Participation 10
Readings 15Project 15 Instructors
Evaluation 5 Students Evaluation 10
Presentation 40 Instructors
Evaluation 20 (8) Instructors Interview
Assessment 30 (12) Partners
Assessment 10 (4) Students
Evaluation 40 (16)Note 1 All exams are
open book/notes including papers and
documentation. You are NOT allowed to use the
Internet/cell phone at any time during
exams.Note 2 All Assignments are to be turned
in by email (no hard copies).
Syllabus (Contd) GRADING
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Some of you will ignore the professional nature
of this class and assign the same grade from top
to bottom for anything and everything that has
been presented to you by your fellow students,
regardless of content, quality and evident
effort.Those who do so will have his/her grade
reduced by at least one complete step down from
A to A-, from B to a B-, and so on.The idea
behind this is that you cannot be a valuable
future lead or member of a Software Team if you
are unable to properly and objectively evaluate
peers and colleagues regarding their work.
Syllabus (Contd) Students Grading and
Evaluating
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The Midterm exam (10) A take-home exam for you
and ONE of your partners that consists of 3-4
possibly open questions/problems. You both
receive the same grade. The Final exam (10)
A series of in-class questions. Major exam themes
will be announced before the exam. In-class
Participation (10) The instructor evaluates
your in-class participation, plus your required
punctuality and attendance. The Readings
(15) In this class you are required to read at
least 6 classical papers from the Software
Engineering literature. These readings are
evaluated by means of detailed in class quizzes.
The Project (15)There are 2 project
grades. One given by the instructor with a weight
of 5 and another given by the students (average)
with a 10 weight. Presentation (40) The
project presentation has several components The
instructor evaluates the project work (8) and
how appropriately the student dressed up for the
project interview (12), the fellow students
evaluate their peers project (16) and lastly,
(privately, by email, and addressed only to the
instructor) they will assess their partners
contribution to the project, briefly explaining
the WHY of his/her assessment (6).
Syllabus (Contd) Nature of the Exams
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Syllabus (Contd) Class Attendance and
Punctuality

• Class ATTENDANCE is MANDATORY. You may not miss
  a single class without the most credible
  justification to the instructor. This is a must
  and you should seriously consider not taking this
  class if you cannot satisfy this requirement
  (i.e., you are taking another class conflicting
  with this one, or you have work conditions that
  do not allow you to be in class at the scheduled
  times, etc.).
• PUNCTUALITY I and the TA expect all students
  to be at their working place (fixed throughout
  the quarter) when we arrive to the class room. If
  for some unforeseen reason I or the TA happen to
  not be on time for any class session, please call
  me/him on the cell phone so you can determine the
  immediate reason of such an anomaly.
• BREAKS After any break students are expected
  to be back in class in a timely manner. Being
  consistently present is part of your class
  attendance record. Your grade will be affected by
  not fulfilling this requirement.

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Syllabus (Contd) Class Participation

• Class participation is such an important
  component of our project progress that if this
  class is not the kind you had in mind, please do
  not enroll. In doing so you will leave space for
  others who are more interested in becoming
  Software Engineers in todays software industry.
• Class Participation is also an important
  component of your overall grade. Your
  participation in class will be elicited by your
  instructor as part of the class interaction. From
  the very first day of class all students will be
  expected to actively participate.
• The instructor and TA will create a favorable
  environment for the students participation.

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Syllabus (Contd) Class Project

• The Class Project is the major component of
  your class work. Typically it takes a team of two
  students about 3-4 solid weekends to complete the
  overall project. The grade weight of the project
  is the largest (40) and is made up of several
  components (see earlier slide).
• But first
• DO NOT LEAVE YOUR PROJECT WORK UNTIL THE LAST
  MINUTE. YOU WILL BE LATE.
• Due to the nature of this class any late
  projects cannot and will not be accepted.

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Syllabus (Contd) Readings

• 1. Software Engineering cannot be learned without
  reading about other peoples successes/failures.
  To read the classical literature in the software
  engineering field is crucial. Some of the papers
  you will read include classical, well known in
  the Software Engineering field, papers.
• 2. The Readings (15) are an extremely important
  part of the class. You will be asked to read 6
  classical papers. Besides two PRE-Reading papers.
  Most readings may be made available on-line,
  otherwise the instructor will provide you with a
  hard or soft copy. There are TWO papers that are
  part of cs337 that will be controlled the first
  week of class Mythical Man-Month and No
  Silver Bullet by Brooks. A pdf copy of these
  papers will be available from the TA.
• 3. All readings will be controlled and graded by
  means of time-limited quizzes with specific
  questions from the paper that are impossible to
  answer without having read the paper in detail
  MORE THAN ONCE. Typically a student must read the
  paper at least a couple of times before being
  able to answer any question. The best hint here
  is get a hard copy of the paper and underline it
  for better reference. The quizzes are
  open-paper but NOT open on-line resources.
• 4. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you
  can search the questions from the paper in the
  amount of time provided to answer them.

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Syllabus (Contd) Papers

• Possible readings may include
• Pre-Reading Mythical Man-Month by F. Brooks,
  1974-1975.
• Pre-Reading No Silver Bullet by F. Brooks, 1986.
• Programming in the Large vs Programm. in the
  Small by DeRemer Kron.
• Software Reuse Facts and Myths, many authors,
  1994.
• Software Aging D. Parnas, 1994
• A View of 20th 21st Century SE by B. Boehm,
  2006.
• Integrated Safety Analysis Reqts Specs, Many
  authors, 1997.
• A View of 20th 21st Century SE by B. Boehm,
  2006.
• Other titles to be announced.