COMP 680 Seminar in
Software Engineering
Dr. Shan Barkataki, Computer Science Department, CSUN
shan
@ csun . edu Office (remove spaces) : Office: JD 4449
Phone: 818-677-2733
M 15:00 - 16:15; W 18:50 – 19:20 Class
room: JD3508
Office hours: M 15:00-16:00 W
15:00-16:00 email at any time
Course synopsis: COMP680 is a
seminars class. We will read and discuss papers on current developments as well
a few classic papers. You will join a
seminar group of typically of two or three students. Each group will present a seminar on a
specific topic. The group will also list
three papers for the others to study and write seminar questions. There will be one analysis and design project
(no coding involved). You will also
write a research paper on a topic in software engineering. This is not an online course, class
attendance is essential to pass this class. You are expected to submit all
assignments for grading. Do not game the
course grade!
Prerequisites: Comp380/L and Comp322/L or
equivalent. Work experience cannot be
substituted for academic prerequisites however equivalent classes taken
elsewhere can. You need to have good comprehension
of the prerequisite material and adequate skills in reading and writing
English. Lack of proper preparation is
the primary reason for student’s poor performance in this class.
Text book:
ACM & IEEE digital libraries.
In place of a regular text book we will use online resources. You will have full access to the ACM digital
library and partial access to the IEEE Xplore database as long as you visit
these resources from the CSUN library web site (http://library.csun.edu/Find_Resources/Databases/index.html
) The following free resources will also be used, some need free registration. Software Engineering Information Repository (SEIR): https://seir.sei.cmu.edu/seir/ SEI publications: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/publications/
STSC
articles repository: http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/2003/articles.html WWW Virtual Library: http://vlib.org/Computing
SW Eng BOK:
http://www.sei.cmu.edu/publications/documents/99.reports/99tr004/99tr004chap03.html and Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com/
Internet:
You will need fast internet access to use the digital libraries and to
do other searches. Fast internet access
is freely available in the CSUN library and in many computer labs within the
university. You also have fast wireless
in many areas within campus. Visit http://www.csun.edu/technology/index.html To get a CSUN computer account http://www.csun.edu/itr/guides/account.html
Email: I will send all email to your CSUN
email address using a special class email alias. If you do not use the CSUN webmail client,
then please set up webmail to auto-forward the emails sent there to wherever
you read your email (use Solar for auto-forwarding). Make sure that the target email account for
the forwarded emails is functional (not over quota or expired). Please
make sure that your CSUN webmail is not over quota (happens due to spam), if it
is, then the auto-forwarding will not work and you will lose important class
announcements.
WebCT:
See webCT for course notes and assignments webteach.csun.edu I will register you automatically at webCT
Turnitin.com:
Many homework assignments and the research paper will be submitted via
turnitin.com See the instruction &
tutorial at http://www.turnitin.com/ You will need to self register- I will
provide the class code and password in
class or email. When you register at
turnitin.com, please use your CSUN email address. (An email address like kissmeqwik@yahoo.com leaves me clueless
about who you are and your submissions may not get graded.
Evaluations:
The final grade will be based on the following:
|
Item |
Weight |
|
Paper
Review quizzes (closed book) |
20% |
|
Research
Paper (turnitin.com) |
15% |
|
Seminar
presentation (Group) |
10%
|
|
Seminar
presentation (Individual) |
05% |
|
Seminar
questions (turnitin.com) |
05% |
|
Design
project (webCT/hardcopy) |
10%
|
|
Attendance
& participation (please sign attendance sheet) |
05% |
|
Final
Exam (seminar Q&A, papers, other topics TBD) |
30% |
Typical grade distribution: (A
85-100%); (A- 83-84%); (B+ 80-82%); (B 75-79%); (B- 69-74%); (C+ 65-69%); (C
60-64%); (C- 57-59%); (D+ 54-56%); (D 51-53%); (D- 48-50%); F < 48%
Class etiquette: Please silence
all pagers and cell phones before entering classroom. Please, no snoozing in class, because it is
disruptive to others. If you feel
sleepy, then you can walk out of the class room, get a drink of water, wake-up
and return. You can even stand at the
back of the room to beat that drowsy feeling!!
Read "How to ace my class" in my website. COMP680 is a participatory class, but please
avoid private discussions during class sessions; share all discussions with the
whole class in an orderly manner.
Research paper:
Each student will write a research paper on a topic selected from a list
that I will supply. The research topic
must be chosen from the list of topics that I will provide, it cannot be a
topic chosen by you (avoids submission of the same paper in multiple classes).
1) The final paper should be between 6
to 8 typed pages long, including diagrams.
The papers should be of professional quality and conform to the ACM
style guide at www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/pubform.doc,
however, use a single column format ( i.e. do not use the two column format), use single spacing, use a serif font such as
Ariel with a font size of 11 or 12, paginate the paper. There is no need for including the copyright
block. Other than that, follow the ACM
guidelines including abstract, keywords, section numbers and titles etc. Use of illustrative diagrams is highly
recommended.
2) You should study and analyze a
minimum of 5 high-quality references from computer science journals, conference
proceedings and reputable web sites. Please
note that there will be no exceptions to the 5 paper rule. Submit these references in turnitin.com
(details in class). Contents from reputable
vendor websites are acceptable references but no more than 2 should be except
when the paper involves a product trade study (e.g. comparison of CASE tools or
IDEs)
3) You must write the paper in your own
words; anyone who submits a paper written by someone else (including paid term
paper writing services) will receive a failing grade in the paper and in the
course as a whole.
4) All material (text, diagram, etc.) quoted (i.e.
copied verbatim) or paraphrased from
other work must be formally cited as specified in the CSUN catalog; reproduced at http://library.csun.edu/Research_Assistance/plagiarism.html Also see the Grading policy section later in
this syllabus.
5) Your final paper should reflect an
in-depth study and evidence of critical analysis of the referenced
material. The paper MUST HAVE THE
FOLLOWING MANDATORY SECTIONS, no additional sections should be present. Papers that do not have these sections will
earn a significantly low score. You need
to work on the paper throughout the semester.
Leaving the paper to the last two weeks runs a great risk of failure.
a) Background:
Describe the background of the topic you have chosen and state the importance
of the topic in software engineering. (5%)
b) Literature survey: Summarize the papers that you
listed when choosing the topic plus any additional papers that you
discovered. Briefly describe the major
results and conclusions contained in each referenced paper. (15%)
c) Role in Software Engineering: Discuss what role does the method/technique
play in software development? Examples:
it may help produce better analysis, design, code, or test work products. It may help process improvement. It may enhance software quality or
productivity. It may reduce development
cost or shorten development schedule, etc. (25%)
d) Critical Analysis:
Provide a critical analysis of the papers you have studied. Critical analysis means that you have read and
understood the papers, and analyzed the contents. The results of the analysis should be
presented by addressing one or more of the following: Are the arguments logical? Are the results
quoted reasonable? Are the investigating
procedures/methods reliable? Are there
unsubstantiated conclusions? Are there
major issues missing? Does the paper
contain rationale for the conclusions made? Example: trying to establish a trend based
on limited data, establishing software laws from experiments conducted entirely within an
academic environment, etc. (40%)
e) Conclusions: Summarize major observations and/or findings
from your work. (5%)
f)
Surprise Section: A surprise section will be specified
one week before the paper is due. This
is my attempt at rewarding those of you who are not tempted by the “rent a
paper writer” scam. (10%)
6) The paper submitted through
turnitin.com should be in Microsoft word format (not PDF). If you use open office please convert to word
format with the free tool provided. I need word format so that I can provide
inline comments.
Seminars: Student seminars will play a major part in the COMP
680. .
1) The class will be divided into
several seminar groups consisting of two to four students each. Each group will present a seminar on a topic
chosen from a list of seminar topics that I will provide in webCT.
2) Seminar groups will be formed by
posting specially organized messages in webCT.
Detailed procedure will be explained in class.
3) Each seminar presentation should be
a highly technical providing an in-depth analysis/description of the material
on the subject matter. Pretend as if you
are giving a short course to a collection of software engineering
professionals. The presentation should
make good use of PowerPoint (or similar) visual aids. Each member of the team must speak.
4)
I
will post a list of topics in the webCT discussion forum. Each group will claim a topic by posting its
name in the chosen topic. Details will
be announced in class. The seminar topic
has to be chosen from the list I will provide.
Selection basis for topic will be FCFS as recorded in webCT postings.
5)
Next,
each group will claim one of the scheduled presentation dates in webCT. Selection of the basis will be FCFS.
6) Each group will post in webCT, its final
and “camera ready” copy of the slides by 12:00 of the day before the scheduled seminar
date (typically noon, Sunday) and send an email to the class announcing the
availability of the slides. I will
provide the special email address in class.
A 20% penalty will apply for submissions received after 12:01 on the day
before. The late penalty will increase
by 5% every hour, to a maximum penalty of 50%. The slides presented in class must be identical to those posted.
7) Ideally, the posted file should be
in PDF format, although PowerPoint format will be acceptable; if you use
Open-Office, then please convert to PowerPoint format for posting. There are many free PDF converters available
(Google “Free PDF converter”), Adobe allows 5 online PDF conversions for free
at http://createpdf.adobe.com/
8) Each presentation should last about
60 minutes, not including the time for questions and answer session (Q&A)
after the presentation.
a) The instructor will be the moderator
throughout the seminar presentations and the Q&A session.
b) Each student in the seminar group
will earn points by making a part of the presentation. The 60 minute presentation time should be
equally divided among the presenters.
9) After the presentation, each student, not presenting,
will earn points by asking a question that is relevant to the presentation
topic.
a) Individual members of the seminar team will take
turns in fielding these questions and earn points by answering the questions to
the point- quickly and concisely.
b) The total time for each question and answer will be
about 2 minutes; follow-up questions can be asked within this time limit or at
the end of the Q&A session. Always
seek recognition from the moderator to ask follow-up questions.
10) The seminar group will prepare and
post a list of articles for the rest of the class to read. These will be posted in discussion forum
under a topic name that I will create.
The reading list should contain no more than 3 representative articles
and must be posted at least two weeks prior to the scheduled seminar
presentation date. Note that you post on
the references to the articles, not the full text. These articles should be freely available on
the web; ideally in the ACM digital library or IEEE Xplore available through
the CSUN library. Online articles
published by professional organizations or well known companies/institutes
(SEI, IBM, SUN, Microsoft, HP etc.) are also acceptable. Contents of sales/commercial nature are not
acceptable.
11) Each student, not in the seminar presentation
group will read the listed articles and write two relevant questions in a file and submit the file for grading at
www.turnitin.com day by 12:00 noon of the day before the scheduled seminar
presentation (typically noon Sunday).
Timeliness is important, turnitin.com will NOT accept submissions after
the deadline and hardcopy submissions will not be acceptable; failing to submit
a question will result is total loss of points. Please create your questions file in Microsoft
word, or PDF format.
a) The file name format is <your
last name>-<Initial>-Q-<mm-dd-yy>.(doc|pdf) Examples: barkataki-p-Q-02-25-08.doc agile-p-Q-03-24-08.pdf
12) You can use these prepared questions
during the Q&A after the presentation or ask a completely new question based
on the presentation. These questions
should be searching-probing questions derived from the posted reading material. Do not write questions that asks “Tell me
more about xxx”, or “Tell me how does this differ from xxx”. “Garbage” questions that are vague, rambling,
overly general, or off-topic will earn no points.
13) Each student in the class, other
than those in the seminar group making
the presentation, will do a peer evaluation of the presentation regarding its
technical content, helpfulness of the visual aids, the organization of the
presentation, and its overall clarity.
Students will not evaluate the group’s oral presentation skills or
language proficiency. The peer evaluations will be turned in at the end of
class. I will supply a form for this.
Seminar
diary: Maintain a diary of the discussions that take
place during the seminars. The final may
include questions from these seminar discussions and you will be able to consult
your diary during the exam.
Analysis & Design project: I will provide a problem for
analysis and design. This will be a team
effort. The project team will be set up
in a manner similar to the formation of the seminar teams. I
expect you to be familiar with a standard SW eng development method (COMP380/L
stuff) and leverage on that maturity to create analysis and design models for
the project. I will not teach any
method, you will earn higher credit by submit complete and comprehensive models
and also by selecting a new state-of-the art method. Each group should set up a Google group for
holding online discussions and for posting the work products. Please make me a group owner using the email
sbarkataki at gmail
dot com I will look at the postings and submissions
in the group site for grading purposes.
Participation: Students who participate actively and
constructively in the class discussions and webCT bulletin board postings will
receive more marks than those who are passive.
Regular, punctual, and complete attendance will also earn points for
participation.
Final: The questions will be picked from the
material from the review papers and the seminar discussions. There may be essay questions and objective
(true/false) questions.
Review Papers, Research Paper Topics
and Seminar Topics: Will be posted in webCT
Grading policy: Submission of assignments must be
made by the deadline. Late submissions
will not be possible for the seminar questions.
In other cases, I will give reasonable extension for good cause. Except in case of emergencies, a request for
extension should be submitted by email on or before the due date. The extension request should specify: Your
name, description of the assignment, why you need an extension (in two lines),
and the new date by when you will submit the assignment. Assignments submitted after the solutions
have been discussed in class will not be graded.
Please arrange to take all exams on
the scheduled dates. I will reschedule
exams only for emergencies.
In fairness to all, I give no make-up assignments
to compensate for poor performance in work that has already been graded.
There will be ZERO TOLERANCE against
plagiarism and cheating. Plagiarism will
result in very low points or a failing grade, both in the assignment and in the
class as a whole. Section entitled
“ACADEMIC DISHONESTY” in the CSUN catalog gives definition of plagiarism and
cheating; this entire section is included in this syllabus by reference. In this class, the term plagiarism also
includes the case where a student submits material for grading that is authored
by someone else as his or her own work.
Examples of such plagiarized work include term papers, computer
programs, design solutions, and answers to questions written by a commercial
entity or anyone else other than the student.
However,
a) Peer review of your work by others
is both acceptable and encouraged. Peer
review involves reading and commenting of your work by others for the purpose
of identifying areas of weakness and excellence. Peer review comments are just that- comments;
you should neither seek, nor use any actual solutions or answers provided by
the reviewers.
b) Students are allowed to work
together in teams in design projects, seminars and in writing the research
paper (max per research paper team); in all such cases, THERE MUST BE ONLY ONE
submission of the work and the names of all students in the team should appear
in the submission.
c) Students can also collaborate in studying
the papers for review; however, each student must submit separate and distinct
questions.
Any student found cheating or
plagiarizing will be assigned the grade F in the semester’s class grade; the student will not be given the
opportunity to resubmit the assignment or retake the exam.
Regular and timely class attendance
is required to pass this class. Please
make sure that you sign the attendance sheet that will be circulated in the
class from time to time (not in every class and not always at the same
time). If you have a work or family
conflict that will not allow you to attend class regularly and do the
assignments in a timely manner, then please consider dropping this class now
and taking it in future.
All
homework/coursework submissions should be of professional quality; always do a
spell & grammar check. Computer printout is best (printers available in
all computer science labs).
Submitting work: