Harvey Mudd College
Computer Science

CS121: Software Development

Fall 2012

Lecture:

T&Th 2:45-4:00, Sprague Learning Studio

Lab:

T&4:15-5:30, Sprague Learning Studio

Professor:

Z Sweedyk, 1249 Olin, x78360

Mail: z@cs.hmc.edu

Office hours:

T,Th: 1:15-2:45

F: 10-11

Course mailing list:

cs-121-1-l@hmc.edu

Course trac/wiki:

TBD

Tutors/Graders:

Jessie Liu

Will Newbury

Lawrence Thibodeaux

Kevin Vigue

Vivian Wehner

What This Course Is About

The objective of this course is to introduce you to the theory and practice of software design and development. You will study the stages of development from requirements specification and analysis through design, implementation, and testing. You will study ways to organize and manage these stages. You will also learn principles of software design including design patterns and anti-patterns. You will apply these principles and techniques in the design and development of an educational computer game.

We focus on games for several reasons. Games are fun projects and most students have a strong sense of what constitutes a good product. More importantly, games require solutions to a broad range of problems that rarely show up in a single software project. Games are real-time systems with stringent performance constraints. They require good user interface design. They typically use computer graphics and sound. Games can draw on other areas of computer science as well, such as artificial intelligence, computer networking, and computer art. And they often involve the modeling and simulation of physical systems, which requires concepts from mathematics, engineering, and physics.

Grades

Your grade will depend on class assignments, the team project, and and class participation:

Assignments	30%
Project	60%
Class participation	10%

Textbooks

There is no required text for this section.

Schedule

 

Date	Topic	Assignment	Links	Project deliverables
Tues 9-4	Introduction, software methodologies Requirements Intro to iOS dev	HW 1	iOS dev tutorial 1
Thurs 9-6	Design models, UML, MVC	HW 2	iOS dev tutorial 2
Tues 9-11	UI Design	HW 3	iOS dev tutorial 3
Thurs 9-13	Prototype design Usability Tests	HW 4	iOS dev tutorial 4
Tues 9-18	Module/Code design Alpha specs	HW 5		Sudoku prototype
Thurs 9-20	Assessing quality Walk through	HW 6
Tues 9-25	Software testing	HW 7	iOS dev tutorial 5	Sudoku alpha
Thurs 9-27	Beta requirements White box testing of alphas	HW 8
Tues 10-2	Project intro/management	Week 1 deliverables	Math learning objectives Science learning objectives Social science learning objectives	Sudoku beta
Thurs 10-4	No class
Tues 10-9	Week 2 Project Managemenent More design principles UI/Concept prototype test schedule	Week 2 deliverables		UI/Concept prototype test prep
Thurs 10-11
Tues 10-16	Design patterns Design Review Team meetings 2nd Floor Sprague work stations	Week 3 deliverables		Design review prep
Thurs 10-18	Team meetings Blog Posts
Tues 10-23	Fall break
Thurs 10-25	Usability redux	Week 4 deliverables
Tues 10-30	Usability tests	Alpha due next week		Usability test
Thurs 11-1	Usability testing continued
Tues 11-6	Presentation prep		Death by Powerpoint
Thurs 11-8	Alpha presentations			Alpha
Tues 11-13	Beta phase		Alpha rubric
Thurs 11-15	In-class design walk throughs			Design walk through prep
Tues 11-20	Test plan preparation (lecture) In-class design walk throughs		Week 7 rubric Memory Leak tutorial
Thurs 11-22	Thanksgiving
Tues 11-27	Test plan review prep
Thurs 11-29	Instruments 1 Test plan prep		testApp 1 Test Plan Rubric
Tues 12-4	Instruments 2 User test prep		testApp 2
Thurs 12-6
Tues 12-11	Code freeze Optional walk through
Thurs 12-13	Beta presentations			Beta
Wed 12-19 2pm	Beta walk through

Last updated Aug. 2012