Syllabus - CIS 4327
Senior Project 1 Fall 2007
Instructor: Dr. Bob Roggio,
Office Hours: Mon, Tues, and Wed 4:00pm - 6pm
Other times by appointment.
Office: Building 15 Room 3220
Office phone: 620-2985 – But I rarely answer this phone.
Use email, please.
Class Time: MW, 6:00 pm – 7:15 pm
Class Location: Building 15 Room 1204
Prerequisites:Capstone Course / Sequence
Textbook titles: (These books will be used for both Software Engineering courses.) – Get latest editions, should they become available
Use Cases – Requirements in Context, by Kulak and Guiney
Addison-Wesley, ISBN: 0-321-15498-3 Published in 2004
Visually Modeling with Rational Rose 2002 and UML, by Terry Quatrani
Addison-Wesley, ISBN: 0-201-72932-6 Published in 2003
The Rational Unified Process – An Introduction 3rd edition, by Philippe Kruchten
Addison-Wesley, ISBN: 0-321-19770-4 Published in 2004
Object-Oriented Software Engineering by Lethbridge and Langaniere, McGraw-Hill, ISBN: 0072834951 Pub Date: Aug 2004 – Get latest edition.
Important Dates:
Drop Add Week:
Last day to drop/add and pay fees:
Last day to withdraw from class (with no refund):
Last day of classes for us: .
Our final exam:
Please note change in time from normal class time.
Holidays:
Before you withdraw from this (or any) class, be sure to read the following policy:
Exam Schedule in general is: (
Exams must be held during your exam period, which may not be your normal class time.
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My web page:
Tests and Grading: Three Exams - each 20% of final grade
Project Deliverables and Presentations - 40% of final grade
This includes the physical deliverables, presentations,
updates to previous deliverables, logging / tracking activities, and everything to do with the deliverable.
Make-up tests will not be given unless an extreme documented emergency arises.
Presentations will be evaluated (required for accreditation).
Deliverables / Presentations: There will be approximately five deliverables which will are documented under separate link. Every attempt has been made to have a complete description of each deliverable in this link. However, if I have not been clear or if you have any question, please do not hesitate to ask. We will also discuss the deliverables during class time.
Grade Guidelines:
0. Every one wants an A. Unfortunately this rarely happens – although it has! But here is the simple key to your ‘earning’ an A – and, I might add, more importantly, learning the material that is essential to your success as a graduate and professional in this field.
1. DON’T MISS CLASS!
If you are one who misses classes to study for other courses or for other reasons, these are NOT classes that you want to miss. There is simply too much material passed on. If you must miss class, then do NOT assume that the slides are substitutes for the lecture. They are not.
Each major exam will be worth 100 points. All examinations will be announced. There will be no pop quizzes, but I will likely administer a series of short, topical quizzes (announced). The sum of these quizzes may be used to replace one of the two major exams, but not the third exam. So it is certainly to your advantage to study as we go. In a different course during the fall 2006, I had six or seven short announced quizzes. The grades were extrapolated to 100 and used in several cases to substitute for exam 1 or exam 2. In a number of these, this substitution resulted in a higher final grade
2. BE SMART: DOWNLOAD SLIDES AND BRING TO CLASS!
My lectures will come from these slides, which are updated every semester with the latest information. They are not sufficient in themselves as sources of study. Bring your copies to class and mark on them as I discuss the materials in class. These slides are on my web page for you so you don’t have to write volumes of notes during lecture and you can listen. Take advantage of this opportunity.
3. DON’T MISS THE READING ASSIGNMENTS! BE READY FOR CLASS.
You will be selling yourself short and not get the full impact of the lectures and the broadening presented to you in the readings. These readings are the ‘latest.’ They are critical to understanding the material.
4. WORK SMARTER – NOT HARDER!
‘Front-end’ everything. This means to jump on assignments once they are in scope. Don’t put them off! Don’t depend totally on your partners for their parts of the project and just ‘assemble’ them. This is a recipe for failure fur sure. Allow time. If you front end and work smart, there is time to resolve problems, ensure your deliverables look as if they came from a single source – and not five sources, and there is time to ask questions and resolve problems BEFORE the due date. Again, work smarter – not harder.
5. WORK THE COURSE EVERY DAY!
Don’t be foolish and wait until exams are announced and then start to study. This material cannot be memorized. It requires an ‘understanding’ and a ‘maturity’ that can only come from studying, listening, and ‘sink time.’ Study at least two hours per lecture per week aside from project work and reading. This is really needed. Ask former graduates of this course sequence.
Now for the specifics:
1. Students must averageat least 70% in the examination and earn at least a 70% average in the project deliverables/presentations in order to pass the course - (Grade “C” or better).
2. Each test will be worth 100 points. All examinations will be announced. There will be no pop quizzes, but I may elect to administer a series of approximately twenty point quizzes (announced). The sum of these quizzes ‘may’ be used to replace one of the two major exams, but not the third exam. We will discuss in class.
3. Additional guidance for the projects and their associated documentation are provided in separate documents, as mentioned, and discussed in great detail at that time.
Course Philosophy:
Planning your workload is critical. Teams will be formed and the establishing of a team leader, and agreed-to meeting dates, the apportioning of tasks, integration of results, inspections/appraisal of individual results prior to incorporating these results into an evolving document, and a host of related tasks will typify your activities during this course. The dynamics of your team will influence the degree of success of your project.
You will note that a number of books are required. Only one is full-sized. The others are short, but absolutely essential.
This the first of a two course sequence for IS majors. This is the most important course / sequence in your entire program! Here is where you “put it all together.” No matter what kind of software you are working with, you will need a “process,” the ability to work in a team setting and (as time goes on) object technology. You will need the disciplines and skills presented in this course. This is what most of you will be doing in the workplace.
Successful completion of this course will require a serious time commitment by you. The time required for your work can be considerable, as each task that you will undertake can require many hours of work. In some cases, you may spend an evening behind a computer working with a tool trying to model some requirements or, perhaps, some relationships among requirements, and be "stuck" on a single problem. This is not unusual - although it is frustrating. It is therefore essential that you budget your time accordingly, as the worst thing that you can do is to plan to complete your program the day (or night) before your part of the project is due. This is very clear to me when I evaluate your efforts and you will, I am sure, incur the wrath of your teammates.
Much of this course will involve our getting together to discuss your projects. Feel free to schedule times when we can all meet. I will be available as much as possible in addition to the scheduled office hours to assist you.
Should unforeseen emergencies arise, please do not hesitate to contact me at the Computer and Information Sciences office upstairs at 620-2985.
Project Work Periods:
From time to time, it will be necessary for me to be out of town. In most cases, this is to deliver papers at conferences. During these times, I will either have a test proctored or I will record the presentation ahead of time using the new engineering recording studio. We will discuss this in class as the dates arrive. They will be posted.
Lastly, please review the Project Deliverables and Course Schedule. These are the ‘living documents’ and they will likely change a bit as we progress through the semester(s). The Deliverables outline the … deliverables. The Course Schedule outlines the required readings.
There are a few of you who have had some of these materials in your undergraduate program. I have special plans for you, and these will be discussed during the first week of class. But, you will serve as team leaders and your individual tasking may well be in the restricted area of testing and traceability. Again, we will discuss in the beginning of the Fall semester.
Good luck, and have fun!
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