CS 410 Software Engineering
Spring 2000 Project Description - Part 1
The project component of this course involves the development of a software
product from specification through implementation and testing, and also
the evaluation of another group's project. This handout describes the overall
logistics of the project.
General
Projects will be done in groups of 3-4 people. Each group will act as the
developer for one project and as the client for a different
group's project. Grading will be in two parts. Part A is the system development
and is worth a total of 90%: 15% for the client portion and 85% for the
developer portion. Your grade will be based on the final group product
and adjusted according to individual effort as necessary. Part B is individual
record keeping, group assessment, and team participation, worth a total
of 10%. This will serve as a learning experience for project management.
A. System Development: (90%)
I. Client.
Each group will serve as the client group for another group's project.
As such, you will prepare an informal requirements document for
the project and be responsible for its evaluation and criticism
as it progresses. You will be expected to be present at all presentations
and to comment on the write-ups. Your grade will depend on how thoroughly
the evaluation is carried out and the extent to which your requirements
and evaluation are fair and reasonable.
II. Developer.
Your group will work with a different group to receive informal requirements
for a system and will produce a formal specification; produce a
management plan; produce a design document; implement
and test the software for the project; and present a final demonstration
of the system. Oral presentations and discussions will be required at various
points within the project, and will be evaluated and assessed by the client
and the instructor. All documents must follow a specific format, to be
defined by the instructor. Points will be deducted for documents that are
late.
III. Reports.
You are to maintain a Web page for your group's project. The
main page should provide links to two separate pages: one for information
related to your client repsonsibilities and one for information related
to your developer responsibilities. All reports and documents, except
the Test Report, must be Web documents. Points will be deducted for
documents that exceed the maximum number of pages specified and for those
which are late.
B. Logs and group reports (10%)
The logs and group reports to be turned in include the following:
(i) A log of all your individual activities
on the developer side of the project. This log will be in the form
of a diary, specifying dates, what was done, and time spent on each item.
It is due with developer group reports (see below).
(ii) Three monthly reports of an assessment of each member
of your developer group. You should have one write-up per person, including
yourself, outlining who did what during the month and how you assess their
work. Some sort of grading on specific criteria should be applied and an
overall grade for the month should be assigned. Each report should
be about a third of a page long. You will be marked on how perceptive and
reasonable your comments are.
(iii) Team participation. You are expected to be a fully
contributing member of your team. You are also expected to be honest
with your team members and address problems in a timely and professional
manner.
Each month when the Log and Group Assessment reports are due, you should
send me TWO separate email messages. The messages must be in ASCII
format, i.e., not Word, Lotus, or any other formatted message.
For the Log report, the subject of the message must be
Subject: LOG, your name, your group number
and the body of the message should be a report of your individual activities
for the project, by date.
For the Group Assessment report, the subject of the message must be
Subject: ASSESSMENT, your name, your group number
and the body of the message should contain the 1/3 page assessments of
each member of the group (including yourself) as defined above.
Hints on writing logs and developer group reports
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Only include project work in logs, not what books you read, etc.
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Make sure you include yourself in the assessment reports.
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2 or 3 lines per person is not sufficient for assessment reports. You need
1/3 of a page per report.
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Define specific criteria that you feel are important for the success of
the project and grade each group member on each criteria. Based on
this assessment, assign an overall grade for the month for each person.
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Do not use N/A, or otherwise omit the grade on assessment reports.
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Do not give all As or all any other grade -- this is not proper grading.
Better still, use categories.