CS411W Outline

Overview

The purpose of this Module is to get set for success. Communication tools will be established and we intend to familiarize students with the hardware and software to be used this semester. During the first week of the semester, students should update any and all materials as a result of lessons learned in CS 410.

Objectives

At the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Recognize the general purpose and goals for the online course
2. Discern team member skills and identify team development needs
3. Modify CS 410’s existing documentation from lessons learned
4. Investigate and establish mechanisms of communication for team members

Relevance

The business and research communities provide capabilities for online communication and collaboration using asynchronous and synchronous tools. Students will be exposed to such tools, and will be required to be an effective member of a non-geographically centric team by contributing to the development of a prototype on a computer science department virtual machine.

Overview

The work will begin on the prototype development environment. Teams must configure their virtual machines to support coding. Development milestones will be identified, along with a list of tasks for each milestone. A schedule will be created and resources applied. Lab1 will be outlined and individually written.

Objectives

At the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Maintain team website and communication tools
2. Identify high level tasks with prioritization of CS410 user stories
3. Assign personnel resources to tasks
4. Identify and implement prototype development tools
5. Prepare a Gantt chart of milestones for prototype development.
6. Write a descriptive paper of the real world product and prototype development.

Relevance

The software design approach of agile development is reflected in our approach to prototype design. This is based around user stories that may change (usually do) along the way. The goal of prototype design in this module is to confirm mentor acceptance of the development approach of the detailed Gantt chart. The technical paper is representative of the type of descriptive documents students will be required to create in the workforce. The practice of following specific formatting and style is a critical skill set.

Overview

The goal of Module 3 is to prepare a detailed list of tasks necessary to complete each milestone. The tasks will have associated timelines and resources. This will allow for the creation of a weekly “to do” list for the team and each individual of the team. The associate paper describes and defines the specifications and requirements. The mentors should be actively consulted during this design process. Actual coding of the prototype should begin.

Objectives

At the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Identify sub-tasks for each milestone
2. Record and track sub-tasks with a Gantt chart, including: resources, start dates and stop dates
3. Identify tasks that can begin immediately
4. Create a list of design/coding elements to be completed each week
5. Write in the style required for specification and requirement documents in the workforce

Relevance

An absolutely critical component of software design is the writing of specifications and requirements. There are industry expected characteristics of each that will provide students the ability to master this type of writing. Also critical is the ability to provide software code based upon provided documents.

Overview

Testing is notoriously given the least amount of time and attention in software development. A move toward test-driven development has gained momentum. We are currently coding aspects of the prototypes, yet need to simultaneously prepare test cases for our requirements. Significant progress should be made on software development over the next four weeks. Each team will collaborate on an outline of Lab 3 – which is a test plan. A portion of the lab will be individually written, and a portion will be a collaborative effort of the team. This Module spans 4 weeks.

Objectives

At the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Maintain a Gantt chart of software development progress
2. Prepare industry standard test cases of three types that verify and validate the requirements from Lab 2:
   1. unit tests
   2. integrations tests
   3. system tests
   4. acceptance tests

3. Collaborate on the development of an outline for Lab 3

4. Collaborate on the authoring of test cases and traceability matrices

Relevance

Software development in industry is heavily dependent upon adherence to requirements. The only way to guarantee that the correct software solution to a problem has been achieved is through verification and validation via testing. If the test cases are not written to properly assess the development, time, money and credibility are lost. Possibly resulting in job loss and business failure. Students will experience the detailed process of this critical V & V element using their prototypes as the test bed.

Overview

The primary objective of this module is to practice agile (potentially scrum) development of the prototype with frequent instructor and mentor interaction. Weekly progress examinations will be conducted, and feedback will be provided. Adherence to requirements and development toward correct validation and verification is expected.

Objectives

At the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Collaboratively continue successful prototype development employing all necessary software tools.
2. Collaboratively prepare a User Manual developed for the prototype.
3. Interpret the writing style necessary for user manuals.
4. Demonstrate correct adherence to user manual authoring standards.
5. Effectively demonstrate the prototype to the instructor and mentor.

Relevance

The ability to effectively communicate the purpose of user interfaces is a part of software engineering. If the user does not understand the interface, they may not appreciate potential outcomes. The ability to take the reader of a user manual step-by-step through the usage of the screen is also a skillset needed in industry. If the user cannot correctly use the interface, they may not utilize the product. The process of interim reviews of software development requires unique skillsets. A developer must be able to professionally take criticism and ask questions of the customer to deliver a product that solves a problem correctly.

Overview

This module guides the student to successful completion of all written labs (re-writes). Teams will be required to modify the software of their product as identified in Module 5. Demonstrations will be necessary to gain approval of their mentor, which is required by the end of the semester. The goal is to provide each student with an appreciation of industry’s expectations upon graduation with a degree in computer science.

Objectives

At the end of this module, students will be able to:

1. Summarize their journey through their professional preparation for employment.
2. Summarize the successes and challenges of developing professionally written technical documents typical of computer scientists.
3. Summarize their successes and challenges of working on a team to design, develop, and deliver a large scale software product.
4. Deliver a working product to their mentor.

Relevance

At the end of every software development process industry members must analyze the successes and challenges. The goal is to repeat the aspects that were great, and avoid those that cost them time and money. Keeping on top of customer expectations is critical in providing a useful product that correctly solves the prevalent problems that necessitated the need for a software solution.