University of Puget Sound - Fall 2007
CSci340 Software Engineering

Catalog description

Students study the design and implementation of large software systems. Topics include design methodologies, programming team organization and management, program verification and maintenance, human engineering, and CASE tools.

What we're really going to study:

We're going to learn practical aspects of writing software where we must first determine what is required, then determine what's permitted, then design, develop, and test software. We'll look at different methods for each of these steps and learn what's most appropriate for the project at hand.

Textbook

Other worthwhile reading:

• Unix command line tutorial
• OpenSource Gantt chart
• MySQL Reference Manual 4.1 as html pages or pdf file
• UML editors ArgoUML or Violet
• The Risks Forum
• recent postings in comp.risks
• description of WeirdNIX contest rules

Other Resources

• Secure Shell command line and file transfer
• vim (vi improved) for Windows
• The current project's Requirements Document

Lecture Schedule and Notes

On the nature of changing specifications:

It was once remarked that a design wasn't frozen so much as it was becoming ever hardening slush.

In much the same way the content of this class is not fixed. The above schedule is an approximation, but the emphasis of the lectures¹ may change in response to your questions. I may not always find the best explanation or example for you, so if you don't understand something, ask questions. It's not always obvious how things work, and sometimes the obvious is wrong, so experiment. You are responsible to get as much out of this class as you can!

Assignments

Grades and assignments are recorded at moodle.

When submitted by email to rbentson@ups.edu, the subject line should start with CSci340, followed by the due date, e.g., 2007-09-07

• Due 2007-09-07 2359 PDT: Exercises ....

Grading

Programming is not just about writing syntatically correct programs which compute the correct results. It is also about writing commentary and other documentation which will help others understand what you're doing. (This matches one of the University goals which emphasizes "the ability to communicate clearly and effectively".) Therefore you will also be expected to write clearly. Spelling, grammar, and style count.

Final grades will be based on the following components:

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CSCI340A/index.html was last edited by Randolph Bentson, on 2007/11/05T09:45:13-08:00
This course syllabus is a work in progress, so be sure to visit again in the near future.