Syllabus for SSE 675
Lean and Agile Software Development
Summer Semester 2013 (13U)
Early version; changes are possible.
Instructor: Dr. Paul E. MacNeil
Office: Suite
223a, School of Engineering
Phone: 478-301-2185
Email: macneil_pe@mercer.edu
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Textbooks and Supplies:
Texts
(including web sites):
- Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit (1st ed.),
by Mary Poppendieck and Tom
Poppendieck, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0321150783 (2003) (Required)
- Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game (2nd. ed.),
by Alistair Cockburn, Addison Wesley, ISBN 0321482751 (2006) (Required)
- Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed
(1st ed.), by Barry Boehm and Richard Turner, Addison
Wesley ISBN 0321186125 (2003) (Required)
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Software
(including web sites):
- tbd
- An Internet ftp client of your choice. Core FTP LE is
free and works well http://www.coreftp.com/
. (Required, but your choice)
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Other Useful
Resources (including web sites):
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Catalog Description (Course Purpose):
Software management and processes with consideration of process
impact on cost, schedule, and development techniques.
This course begins on May 20, 2013.
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Course
Objectives:
Breadth and Depth in Defining, Analyzing, and Solving Complex
Problems:
- After successfully completing this course, you should be able
to demonstrate a more advanced capability to apply lean and
agile development techniques to solve complex problems.
Communicate Technical Aspects of the Solution for Complex
Software Engineering Problems to a Technical Audience:
- After successfully completing this course, you should be able
to demonstrate a more advanced ability to communicate regarding
the application of lean and agile development techniques to a
technical audience.
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Prerequisites:
SSE 550.
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Class
Location:
- The Distance Learning asynchronous "meetings" take place in
Cyberspace; i.e., on the Internet.
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Grading:
Item
|
Percent of Term Grade
|
Project 1 |
20
|
Project 2 |
20
|
Project 3 |
20
|
Project 4 |
30
|
Listserv contributions |
10
|
Credit will be given only for
original work.
Project reports are to be submitted complete, not as incremental
partial submissions.
More information about grading is contained in the recently-updated General Project Rubric.
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Assignments:
- Purpose of projects:
- Use the projects to develop your capabilities, and
- Use the projects to demonstrate your capabilities.
- Deliverables for all projects:
- Your report should be a single, standalone document in
.pdf format.
- Your report should be organized in such a way as to make the
topics that you want credit for covering easy to find, and
demonstrate your capabilities clearly and convincingly.
Everything you want considered for credit, including code and
tests (including test results), should be included in the
report.
- Each project can be a single, integrated project that tries
to actually do something, or a collection of exercises that
demonstrate your capabilities but don't accomplish anything
else, or any combination of these two alternatives that you
find convenient.
- Screen shots may be included in your document to clarify and
demonstrate what you did and what the results were.
- You may include other material outside of the report, if you
wish, but this material may or may not be considered in
evaluating your work.
- For each capability that you demonstrate within a report or
major section of that report, you may present only the final
result of your work; you need not demonstrate every step in
the development of that result.
- Some suggestions for doing a project are contained in
the One Way to Do a Project page.
- Project 1 (solo):
- Read Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit
(Poppendieck & Poppendieck).
- Write a report on this book as follows:
- Your report should be a single, standalone document in .pdf,
format.
- The content of your report should address:
- What subject is addressed by this book?
- With what issues is this book concerned? What problems does
the book attempt to solve? What matters to the authors?
- What do you think of this book's selection of issues and
problems? What do you think of the book's solution to these
problems?
- What issues/problems that were not included in the book do
you think should have been included? Why?
- What other changes to this book would you suggest?
- Which parts of the contents of this book are/could be
applicable in your current working environment? Why, and why
not?
- Would you like to work on projects run in accordance with
this book? Why? Why not?
- Assignment 2 (Solo):
- Review what other students have written about Lean
Software Development: An Agile Toolkit (Poppendieck
& Poppendieck) in Assignment 1.
- Read Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game
(Cockburn) in Assignment 2.
- Write a report on this book as follows:
- Your report should be a single, standalone document in .pdf,
format.
- The content of your report should address:
- What subject is addressed by this book?
- With what issues is this book concerned? What problems does
the book attempt to solve? What matters to the authors?
- What do you think of this book's selection of issues and
problems? What do you think of the book's solution to these
problems?
- What issues/problems that were not included in the book do
you think should have been included? Why?
- What other changes to this book would you suggest?
- Which parts of the contents of this book are/could be
applicable in your current working environment? Why, and why
not?
- Would you like to work on projects run in accordance with
this book? Why? Why not?
- Compare and contrast this book with Lean Software
Development: An Agile Toolkit (Poppendieck &
Poppendieck).
- Assignment 3 (Solo):
- Review what other students have written about Agile
Software Development: The Cooperative Game (Cockburn)
in Assignment 2.
- Read Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the
Perplexed (Boehm & Turner).
- Write a report on this book as follows:
- Your report should be a single, standalone document in .pdf,
format.
- The content of your report should address:
- What subject is addressed by this book?
- With what issues is this book concerned? What problems does
the book attempt to solve? What matters to the authors?
- What do you think of this book's selection of issues and
problems? What do you think of the book's solution to these
problems?
- What issues/problems that were not included in the book do
you think should have been included? Why?
- What other changes to this book would you suggest?
- Which parts of the contents of this book are/could be
applicable in your current working environment? Why, and why
not?
- Would you like to work on projects run in accordance with
this book? Why? Why not?
- Compare and contrast this book with Agile Software
Development: The Cooperative Game (Cockburn), and with
Lean Software Development: An Agile Toolkit
(Poppendieck & Poppendieck).
- Assignment 4 (Team):
- Your report should be a single, standalone document in .pdf,
format.
- Each member of the team should write an essentially complete
first draft of the report, not looking at any other team
members' work until s/he has completed and posted (to the ftp
server) his/her own draft.
- Team members should _not_ divide the document up into
sections to be worked on solo by individuals; each team member
should be fully involved in writing each section of each
draft.
- For purposes of this report, imagine that you have been
appointed software development dictator for a new software
project.
- You have complete authority over the project, and complete
responsibility for its success or failure.
- Clearly state any assumptions that you make about the
project (e.g., kind of product, kind of customer, relative
importance of time to market, etc.), but do make reasonable
assumptions (e.g., no infinite budgets, eternal schedules,
lack of consequences for failure, etc.).
- Describe, in some detail, using the concepts from the texts,
how you will run this project, emphasizing the process issues
addressed in the texts.
- Explain what process options you considered, and what the
strengths and weaknesses of these options are, and why you
selected the options that you did.
- Anticipate objections (to your option selections) of the
kinds that might be made by one or more of the authors of our
texts, and by people with other points of view covered in
these texts.
- Your target reader is anyone who is familiar with software
process issues, although the reader may not have read our
texts.
- Include in your report how you will deal with people who
want you to do the project differently; even dictators get
contradicted, and your treatment of dissent has to satisfy
American law.
- Work top down, at least in that you cover the forest before
you get into the trees. In other words, don't let emphasis on
one part of the project or process prevent you from giving a
clear picture of the project and process overall.
- Treat this assignment as your opportunity to show what you
know about and can do with software processes, especially lean
and/or agile software processes. Even if you choose a process
that is neither lean nor agile, you can still show off your
knowledge by addressing the concerns of those who practice
lean and agile processes.
- If you have any questions or issues regarding this project,
please present them via the listserv.
- Please raise any issues via the course listserv.
- TBD
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Additional
Information:
- Asynchronous Learning Nets (ALNs)
- Self Study: You study the texts and any other course study
material on your own.
- Collaborative Projects: After your self-study, you
collaborate (via the Internet [email, ftp]) with your
partner(s) to produce a team product. Your collaborative work
is substantial, asynchronous, and rapid.
- This course is a distance learning course. Please read this Distance Learning web page
regarding distance learning in this course and this program.
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What Do I Do?
- Subscribe to the course email listserv and be able to access
our FTP server.
- Study the assigned material.
- Write and read email messages (to the listserv) about ideas,
problems and solutions to do with the assigned study material.
- Do the assigned projects.
- Review the projects done by other people after you have submitted
your own work for the same project.
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Changes to this Syllabus:
There will be changes to this syllabus, so check back
frequently, and don't forget to hit "Reload" or "Refresh".
List of all courses.
Schedule
of Events and Assignments:
Start Date
|
End Date
|
Activity/Event
|
May 20, 2013 |
June 21, 2013 |
Course in Progress |
May 20, 2013 |
May 24, 2013 |
Work on Project 1 |
|
May 24, 2013 |
Project 1 due |
|
June 3, 2013 |
Project 2 due |
|
June 13, 2013 |
Project 3 due |
|
June 21, 2013 |
Project 4 due |
|
June 21, 2013 |
Course ends. Firm date. |
Notes:
tbd
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Contact
Information
- My Name: Dr. Paul E. MacNeil
- My E-mail: macneil_pe@mercer.edu
.
- My Office Phone: 478 301-2185
- US Mail:
- Dr. Paul E. MacNeil
- School of Engineering
- Mercer University
- 1400 Coleman Ave.
- Macon, GA 31207
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Important Additional Information:
"Students requiring accommodations for a disability should inform
the instructor at the close of the first class meeting or as soon
as possible. The instructor will refer you to the Disability
Support Services Coordinator to document your disability,
determine eligibility for accommodations under the ADAAA/Section
504 and to request a Faculty Accommodation Form. Disability
accommodations or status will not be indicated on academic
transcripts. In order to receive accommodations in a class,
students with sensory, learning, psychological, physical or
medical disabilities must provide their instructor with a Faculty
Accommodation Form to sign. Students must return the signed form
to the Disability Services Coordinator. A new form must be
requested each semester. Students with a history of a disability,
perceived as having a disability or with a current disability who
do not wish to use academic accommodations are also strongly
encouraged to register with the Disability Services Coordinator
and request a Faculty Accommodation Form each semester. For
further information, please contact Carole Burrowbridge,
Disability Services Coordinator, at 301-2778 or visit the
Disability Support Services website at http://www.mercer.edu/studentaffairs/disabilityservices"
* (10/09)
Accreditation: Mercer University is accredited by SACS.