CS 321 Software Engineering
Syllabus

• lecture: --T-R-- 11:00 - 12:15 pm, TBD

There will be regular opportunities for you to practice what you have learned and to demonstrate your accomplishments.

The course grade will be determined as follows:

This course has five projects helping you practice the knowledge you learned in class. Most projects involve programming in Java or Python, and some projects focus on non-programming software engineering activities. Most projects are team projects with clear guidelines and expectations to ensure equal contribution.

These projects are usually assigned on Thursday. The usual deadline is the midnight of the second Thursday after the project is assigned.

You will work in groups of two on most projects through the semester, which will help you understand the course contents better and simulate a realistic software development environment. Students are expected to rotate groups in each team project.

We will use real-life software development tools like Git/GitHub for project submission, other methods of returning work will NOT be accepted.

Projects are graded based on a 30 point scale. Late projects (within a week of the due date) will receive a maximum score of 26/30, so handing in something on the due date is generally better than handing in a complete assignment late.

As you all have busy schedules, you may have one four-day extensions you can use at your discretion over the course of the semester, except the final project. That means you may choose to hand in one of the projects on Monday instead of Thursday. Please email me to let me know that you are taking your extension before the deadline.

• I will distribute short homework assignments in my lecture slides WITHOUT posting the homework separately on Moodle.
• The homeworks are worth 5% of your overall grade, and they prepare you for the quizzes. Take them seriously and you should be well-prepared for the quiz.
• Each homework is due by midnight of the following day..
  Late submissions will not be accepted.
• Homework will be graded in a binary fashion: if you hand in a reasonable attempt, you get a 1, otherwise a 0.

• There is a 15-20 minute quiz most Fridays online on Moodle. You will have a ~1.5 day window to complete the quiz at a time that works best with your schedule (until Saturday night at 11:59pm).
• The quizzes let you show me what you have learned. These should be quick and straight forward if you participate in lecture and review lecture notes.
• I understand that everyone has a bad day; the quiz with the lowest grade will be dropped.
• Each quiz may be made up when a prior request is made or there is a documented health issue.
• Please contact me immediately in the event of illness and other unforeseen circumstances, we will work out accommodations.

• You are expected to attend every class. This is important for the overall learning experience and cohesion of the course.
• If you must miss a class for any reason, please email me in advance. I am happy to work with you.
• For this course to be truly successful, your presence and participation are important. When you have a question, ask. It is highly probable that one of your classmates has the same question.

In your final project you will be asked to contribute to an open source. This real-life experience will introduce you to the industrial best practices, teamwork, workflows, and management of modern software projects. Both the social and technical learning outcomes are very relevant in the modern workplace, also this will look great on your resume!

You and a teammate are expected to select a software system from a list of failed and overbudget software projects and examine it in depth systematically. Your investigation should explore many resources and go beyond the basic project information from Wikipedia. You are expected to come up with reasonable hypotheses to identify the source/s of project failure from a software engineering perspective. In addition, you are expected to propose a solution for the identified problem to help future software engineers avoid the same mistake/s. Your analyses of the source of the problem and the proposed solution should be supported by evidence from software engineering concepts and research.

Topic selection deadline: September 30th

Case study report outline due: October 28th

Case study report due: November 23rd

Case study presentations: December 7th and 8th

Technical issues with Git/GitHub are part of everyday software development practice. It is your responsibility to resolve these issues and dedicate time for them in each project.

Computer science, both academically and professionally, is a collaborative discipline. In any collaboration, however, all parties are expected to make their own contributions and to generously credit the contributions of others. In our class, therefore, collaboration on assignments is encouraged, but you as an individual are responsible for understanding all the material in the assignment and doing your own work. Always strive to do your best, give generous credit to others, start early, and seek help early from both your professors and classmates.

The following rules are intended to help you get the most out of your education and to clarify the line between honest and dishonest work. We reserve the right to ask you to verbally explain the reasoning behind any answer or code that you turn in and to modify your project grade based on your answers. It is vitally important that you turn in work that is your own. We do use automated plagiarism detection software, so please be sure to abide by these, rather minimal, rules. Reports of academic dishonesty are handled by an academic review board and a finding of academic dishonesty may result in significant sanctions. For more details on Colby's Academic Integrity policies and procedures, see colby.edu/academicintegrity.

• You must not copy answers or code from another student or any source either by hand or electronically. You are expected to understand and be able to explain any part of your work whether done individually or in teams.

Colby College is a community dedicated to learning and committed to the growth and well-being of all its members.

As a community devoted to intellectual growth, we value academic integrity. We agree to take ownership of our academic work, to submit only work that is our own, to fully acknowledge the research and ideas of others in our work, and to abide by the instructions and regulations governing academic work established by the faculty.

As a community built on respect for ourselves, each other, and our physical environment, we recognize the diversity of people who have gathered here and that genuine inclusivity requires active, honest, and compassionate engagement with one another. We agree to respect each other, to honor community expectations, and to comply with College policies.

As a member of this community, I pledge to hold myself and others accountable to these values. More ...

Colby College prohibits and will not tolerate sexual misconduct or gender-based discrimination of any kind. Colby is legally obligated to investigate sexual misconduct (including, but not limited to sexual assault and sexual harassment).

If you wish to speak confidentially about an incident of sexual misconduct, please contact Colby Counseling Services (207-859-4490) or the Director of the Gender and Sexual Diversity Program, Emily Schusterbauer (207-859-4093).

Students should be aware that faculty members are considered responsible employees; as such, if you disclose an incident of sexual misconduct to a faculty member, they have an obligation to report it to Colby's Title IX Coordinator. "Disclosure" may include communication in-person, via email/phone/text, or through class assignments.

To learn more about sexual misconduct or report an incident, visit http://www.colby.edu/sexualviolence/.