Syllabus for SSE 675
Lean and Agile Software Development
Summer Semester 2014 (14U)
Be sure to check back for updates.
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):
- A software development environment for your language of choice (C++, C#, Java) (Required, but your choice.)
- TBD - more information will be forthcoming
- 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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Software management and processes with consideration of process
impact on cost, schedule, and development techniques.
This
Online Learning course begins on May 19, 2014.
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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.
- 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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(none - software development experience is recommended)
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- The Online Learning
asynchronous "meetings" take place in
Cyberspace; i.e., on the Internet.
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Item
|
Percent of Term Grade
|
Direct Activity Report 1 |
5
|
Direct Activity Report 2 |
5
|
Direct Activity Report 3 |
5
|
Project 1 |
20
|
Project 2 |
20
|
Project 3 |
20
|
Project 4 |
25
|
Credit will be given only for
original work.
The Mercer University Student Handbook,
including its provisions for academic honesty (including plagiarism), apply to all Mercer students.
Project reports are to be submitted complete, not as incremental
partial submissions.
All course work is categorized as either Direct or Non-Direct (but not both).
More information about the Direct and Non-Direct categories is contained in the Direct and Non-Direct and Report Logs. Please read these pages very
carefully.
Instruction Time
Federal and regional accreditation requirements stipulate that a 3-credit hour course
must include 450 minutes of direct instruction time per week (for a five week Summer course). For this course, that direct instruction time includes"
- Collaborative discussions with other students regarding the content of readings assigned for the course.
- Collaborative discussions with other students regarding the content that goes beyond readings assigned for the course,
but is not part of work on the projects assigned on the syllabus.
- Collaborative development of generic technology that may be useful for your project(s), but is not, in its generic form,
part of your project.
In addition to the 450 minutes of direct instruction time each week, students are expected to spend a minimum of 900
additional minutes per week (for a five week Summer course) completing reading and writing assignments:
- Doing the assigned reading.
- Working on the projects assigned on the syllabus.
More information about the Direct and Non-Direct categories is contained in the Direct and Non-Direct and Report Logs. Please read these pages very
carefully.
Use the Report Logs to help you to manage your time and keep on schedule. You should schedule your work evenly
throughout the term. If you fall behind schedule for
your Direct Activities, and you "catch up" by your last Direct Activity Report, your previous Direct Activity Report
grades can be raised to reflect your success in meeting this requirement, provided that your previous Direct Activity
Reports were submitted in a timely manner. Direct Activity Reports not submitted in a timely manner will receive a
grade of 0 (zero) unless the professor has approved an extension in advance.
The Non-Direct Activity reports do not
receive a separate grade, but are used to help in evaluating your project reports.
More information about project
grading is contained in the General Project Rubric .
If you have a question about
any of this, please ask, via the course listserv.
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- 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.
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- Asynchronous
Learning Nets (ALNs)
-
- Self
Study: You study the texts and any other course study
material on your own(team).
- Collaborative
Projects: After your self-study, you
collaborate (via the Internet [email]) with your
partner(s) to produce
a team product. Your collaborative work is substantial,
asynchronous,
and rapid.
- This
course is an online learning course. Please read this Online Learning web page
regarding
online learning in this course and this program.
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- Subscribe to the course email listserv. Your professor can tell you how to
do this.
- Study the assigned material.
- Write and read email messages about ideas, problems and
solutions
to do with the assigned study material.
- Do the assigned work, deliver the assigned deliverables.
- Write and read email messages (to/from the listserv) about
ideas,
problems and solutions to do with the assigned homework.
- Review the deliverables produced by other people.
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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".
Start Date
|
End Date
|
Activity/Event
|
May 19, 2014 |
June 20, 2014 |
Course in Progress |
May 19, 2014 |
May 27, 2014 |
Work on Project 1 |
|
May 27, 2014 |
Project 1 due. |
|
May 28, 2014 |
Direct Activity Report 1 due. |
|
June 4, 2014 |
Project 2 due. |
|
June 9, 2014 |
Direct Activity Report 2 due. |
|
June 11, 2014 |
Project 3 due. |
| 3
June 20, 2014 |
Direct Activity Report 3 due. |
|
June 20, 2014 |
Project 4 due. |
|
June 20, 2014 |
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 or modifications 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 ACCESS
and Accommodation Office 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 ACCESS 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 does
not wish to use academic accommodations are also strongly encouraged to
register with the ACCESS and Accommodation Office and request a Faculty
Accommodation Form each semester. For further information, please
contact Carole Burrowbridge, Director and ADA/504 Coordinator, at
301-2778 or visit the ACCESS and Accommodation Office website at
http://www.mercer.edu/disabilityservices.
Accreditation: Mercer University is accredited by SACSCOC.