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