Syllabus

In this course, students learn and gain practical experience with software engineering principles and techniques. The practical experience centers on a semester-long team project in which a software development project is carried through all the stages of the software life cycle. Topics in this course include requirements analysis, specification, design, abstraction, programming style, testing, maintenance, communication, teamwork, and software project management. Particular emphasis is placed on communication and negotiation skills and on designing and developing maintainable software.  Use of computer required. Several written assignments, in-class presentations, and a term project. This course satisfies the Integrative Experience requirement. Prerequisite CMPSCI 220 or equivalent. 4 credits.

This page lists the topics of the course, the textbook, provides an overview of grading, discusses plagiarism and collaboration, and lists the course policies.

Topics of the course

This course covers the foundations of Software Engineering and and its application to the construction of a large software system in a group setting. Topics covered will include:

Textbook

There is no text required for this course.

Your final grade in this class will be based upon in class activities, quizzes, and the semester project.

All assignments are due as indicated on the assignment and the Moodle page.  Late assignments will only be accepted in accordance with University policy, at the sole discretion of the instructor.

Collaboration, Plagiarism, and Intellectual honesty

Your work must be your own. For anything other than exams, you are welcome to discuss general issues with other students, but the answer, the writing, and the final result that you hand in must be your own effort. Discussing or sharing answers to specific problems is considered dishonest. If you have questions about what is honest, please ask! One suggestion is never to write down anything while you're talking with someone about class work since that will require you to come up with the result again on your own later. You are strongly encouraged to cite your sources if you received extraordinary help from any person or text (including the Web), other than lecture content or the textbook. Computer Science Department policy specifies that the penalty for cheating is (1) a final course grade of "F" and (2) possible referral to the Academic Dishonesty Committee.

For any material you hand in, you must appropriately indicate when you are using work of others. If you use verbatim or only slightly altered text, you must clearly indicate (quotation marks, indented text, etc.) that you are quoting another source and what that source is. If you refer to work done by others, even if you do not quote it, you should include a reference to the original source. It does not matter if that work was published or not: if it is work other than your own, you are obligated to make it clear that you are using that person's work. Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this class. Plagiarism is a type of cheating and will be treated accordingly: the penalty for cheating is (1) a final course grade of "F" and (2) possible referral to the Academic Dishonesty Committee. The campus writing program provides more information about plagiarism.

You may (but probably won't) be using copyright-protected software as part of the class. Federal law and license agreements between the University and various software producers prohibit copying this software for any purpose. Such activity will be regarded as a form of cheating and will be dealt with as such.

Course policies

• Attendance. Students are expected to attend each class. Attendance will not be taken, but absence will be noted. The official means of communication for this class will be in-class announcements, though every effort will be made to ensure that the course Web site is up to date.
• Incompletes. An incomplete will be given only when documented, exceptional circumstances beyond your control have made it impossible to complete the assigned work before the end of the semester. It is your responsibility to contact the instructor regarding any such problems well before the end of the semester. Note that general rules of the University allow an incomplete only if most of the work has been completed satisfactorily before the end of the semester, so that the incomplete can be finished within the first four weeks of the immediately following semester. They further state that if a substantial amount of work remains undone then a retroactive drop should be obtained and the entire course repeated.
  
• Auditing. Official auditors will normally be expected to complete some amount of the course work to be sure that they are following the material (education by osmosis rarely works). Anyone enrolled for audit should contact the instructor early in the semester to discuss the requirements for receiving audit credit for this course. If the course is heavily enrolled, audits may not be possible.
• Office hours. The instructor will normally be available in their office during posted office hours. Outside of those hours, or times arranged on an appointment basis, they cannot be assumed to be available for course-related matters, even if in their offices.