Computer Science 181F - Big Software (Fall 2012)

Tuesday/Thursday - 14:45-16:00

Last Updated: 9/4/12

Lecture, Reading and Exam Schedule

Week	Day	Date	Discussion Topic	Reading*	Projects	Slides
1	T	09/04	Introduction	McC 1-2 Kessler: Why Projects Fail Brooks: No Silver Bullet	P1a: teams and concepts	pdf Q&A
1	R	09/06	Basic Project Skills	McC 28.2 Spolsky: 12 steps to better code Kampe: Reproducibility and Control Kampe: Surviving Larger Projects Kampe: What is a Post-Mortem? Schaefer: Diablo Postmortem Project 1 Description	P1a: teams and concepts	pdf Q&A
2	T	09/11	S/W Process Models	McC 3-3.2 Kampe: S/W Process Models Boehm: Spiral Development Big Requirements up Front	P1a: proposal development	pdf Q&A
2	R	09/13	Requirements	McC 3.3-4 Wiki: Requirements Analysis Kampe: User Requirements Wiegers: Requirements Traps Wiegers: Prioritizing Requirements	P1a: proposal development	pdf Q&A
3	T	09/18	Users, Roles, and Use Cases	Sisson: User Characterization Rouse: What Players Want Wiegers: Developing Use cases Wells: User Story Cards Wiki: UML introduction Agile: UML use case diagrams Agile: UML activity diagrams Agile: UML state diagrams	P1b - requirements planning	pdf Q&A
3	R	09/20	DEMONSTRATION		P1c Requirements Elicitation
4	T	09/25	Quality Quality Assurance	McC 20 Rakitin: What is Quality? Spolsky: Five Worlds Rakitin: What is Software Quality Assurance? Boehm: S/W Defect Reduction Wieger: Peer Reviews	P1d - Final Requirements	pdf Q&A
4	R	09/27	System Models & Modeling	Kampe: Why we model Ambler: Agile Modeling Principles Ambler: UML component diagrams Ambler: UML deployment diagrams Gabler: Game Prototyping	P1d - Final Requirements	pdf Q&A
5	T	10/02	Principles of Architecture	McC 3.5-6, 5.2 SEI: S/W Architecture Garlan: S/W Architecture (ch 1-2) Foote: Big Ball of Mud (digest) Wiki: Mechanism/Policy Separation Kampe: Software Testability Kampe: Interface Stability	P2a - architecture, prototyping	pdf Q&A
5	R	10/04	Evolving an Architecture	McC 5.1, 5.3-4, 34.1, 34.6 Kampe: Architecture Does All That?	P2a - architecture, prototyping	pdf Q&A
6	T	10/09	Formal Reviews	McC 21.3-4 Wieger: Inspections Wieger: 7 Deadly Sins	P2a - architecture, prototyping	pdf Q&A
6	R	10/11	U/I Design	usability.net: User Centered Design Talin: U/I Design Principles Wiki: Usability Testing Thompson: Halo 3 Usability Bay: Designing Games that Don't Suck Nielsen: Web U/Is are different from GUIs Kampe: Content Architecture Kampe: CLI Design	P2a - architecture, prototyping	pdf Q&A
7	T	10/16	DEMONSTRATION	Floridex architecture SQL component analysis Phone UI component analysis U/I mock-up	P2b Architectural Review
7	R	10/18	MID-TERM EXAM	all the above		info
8	T	10/23	FALL BREAK
8	R	10/25	Component, Class Designs	McC 6, 34.4 Object Mentor: Packaging Principles Spolsky: What are specs? Agile: UML class diagrams Agile: UML package diagrams Agile: UML object diagrams	P2c Finalize Architecture	pdf Q&A
9	T	10/30	Routine, Algorithm Design	McC 7-7.2 (skim 7.3-7.7), 9-9.3, 18 Agile: UML Sequence diagrams	P3a Component Specifications	pdf Q&A
9	R	11/01	Design Patterns	McC section 5.3 (review design patterns) Garlan: S/W Architecture (ch 3) Wiki: Client/Server Model Creational: singleton, object-pool Behavioral: iterator, observer, strategy, visitor Structural: adapter, bridge, proxy Synchronization: events, locking, leases, transactions,	P3a Component Specifications	pdf Q&A
10	T	11/06	Testability & Test Cases	McC 19.5-6, 22 (review) Kampe: Software Testability Kampe: Introduction to S/W Test Cases Cornett: Code Coverage sample: testing strategy sample: list of test cases sample: test case	P3b - Component Design	pdf Q&A
10	R	11/08	Robustness	McC 8 Kampe: HA taxonomy Kampe: S/W HA	P3b - Component Design	pdf Q&A
11	T	11/13	Bugs & Debugging	McC 23 Kampe: Forensic Debugging Kampe: Root Cause Analysis Wiki: Defect Tracking Black: writing a bug report Kampe: Severity and Priority Bugzilla Manual (sections 5.3-5.4)	P3b/c - Design/Test Plan	pdf Q&A
11	R	11/15	Integration Strategy Testing Methodology	McC 29 Kampe: Integration Strategy Fowler: Continuous Integration Kampe: The Train Model Wiki: Test Driven Development Kampe: Test Harnesses CUnit - a unit testing framework (just skim)	P3b/c - Design/Test Plan	pdf Q&A
12	T	11/20	System Testing Performance	McC 25 Wiki: System Testing Kampe: Load & Stress Testing Kampe: Testing and Bug Discovery Kampe: Scenario Based Testing Kampe: Release Phases & Criteria Gnu: Gprof (just skim)	P3d - Design Review	pdf Q&A
12	R	11/22	THANKSGIVING		P3d - Design Review
13	T	11/27	Maintainability	Much but easy Reading McC 30.2, 31, 32.1-4, 34.3, 34.5 Wiki: Doxygen (documentation generation)	P3e - Finalize Design	pdf Q&A
13	R	11/29	Agile Process	McC 34.2, 34.9 Wiki: Agile S/W Development Wiki: Scrum (Roles, Sprint, Meetings, Artifacts)	P3e - Finalize Design	pdf Q&A
14	T	12/04	Productivity & Collaboration	McC 21.1-2, 28.1, 28.5, 33 XP: Project Activities XP: Rules XP: Values XP: Collective Ownership Williams: Pair Programming Rosenberg: Problems w/Pair Programming Global Software Development	P4 - Implementation and Final Report	pdf Q&A
14	R	12/06	Task Estimation and Risk Assessment	McC 27, 28.3 Kampe: S/W Estimation Principles Wiki: COnstructive COst MOdel Peters: S/W Project Estimation Wiegers: Risk Assessment & Management Scrum backlog grooming		pdf Q&A
15	T	12/11	Project Scheduling and Tracking	McC 34.7 Wiegers: Successful Project Management Brooks: Mythical Man Month (digest) Kampe: Project Management Concepts Kampe: Project Milestones Kampe: Putnam Norden Rayleigh curves Scrum points and velocity Wiki: Earned Value Analysis		pdf Q&A
16	W	12/19	FINAL EXAM	everything since midterm		info
16	F	12/21	EXTRA CREDIT	syllabus and assigned reading lectures and class activities assigned projects	Course Post Mortem Review

*There will be daily quizzes on the assigned reading

Supplementary Reading

Git and GitHub

You will need to get set up on GitHub and learn basic git use. I have created a Git Cheat Sheet that:

steps you through the getting started process
points you at basic concepts and commands documentation
points you at documentation on few more advanced topics
provides a summary of the most commonly used git commands

McConnell, chapters 10-19

This course involves considerable reading ... and yet it touches only only superficially on many important subjects. The projects require so much planning activity that there is little time left for actual implementation. I believe (and I hope you will agree) that this course will make very good use of the semester ... but many students enter this course hoping to gain more, and large-project, programming experience. I respect this desire, but I couldn't find enough hours in the semester.

The primary text for this course (McConnell, Code Complete) actually has several excellent chapters on coding and programming issues. The only reasons I do not assign them are:

they would turn a heavy reading burden into a crippling one.
they are outside of the key learning objectives that I have established for this course.

If, however, you want to be exposed to a well articulated collection of programming lessons that it normally takes a decade or more to learn, I strongly recommend that you read (and carefully study) chapters 10-19 of Code Complete.

Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software

This book by Gamma, Helm, Johnson and Vlissides (the Gang of Four) is considered by many to be one of the foundations of object oriented design. Design patterns will not solve all of your problems, but studying and using them will make you a better programmer. I did not make it required reading for this class because it would have taken us too deeply into programming, but if you have not already read it, I strongly encourge you to do so.