General Philosophy

The following is adapted from course information written by Dr. Noel LeJeune, whose efforts are gratefully acknowledged.

Software Engineering is a dynamic field with few uniquely “right” answers and many “wrong” ones. This is often difficult for those students who have come to expect that there is one correct answer. Here, you are required examine the situation context, reflect upon possible alternatives, select the most suitable, and justify your decision.

This course is intended to provide you with the opportunity to acquire a rich set of principles and a familiarity with tools that prepare you to be successful practitioners of software quality engineering. As such, our approach operates in the real-world context.

Collaboration and teamwork are the norms. Individual performance may be recognized, but the entire project team is judged by the team’s collective performance. Acquisition of team-oriented skills and practices comprise part of the course and assessment.

Course Description

This course is for students wishing to obtain an understanding of software quality and the means to improve the quality of software products. It addresses the broad body of knowledge of software quality across the life-cycle of software products. Topics afford a fundamental understanding of quality philosophies, principles, methods, tools, standards, organizational and team dynamics, professional ethics, and legal implications.

Participants will locate, critically review, and make extensive use of outside resources.

Course Objectives

Expected learning outcomes that students should be able to do upon completion:

• Evaluate quality-based risks associated with a software development project
• Determine appropriate software quality metrics
• Create effective test plans
• Evaluate test plan effectiveness
• Conduct software testing and quality assessment
• Apply automated testing frameworks, methods, and tools
• Identify tools for software quality assurance
• Judge appropriateness of software quality assurance tools
• Create artifacts through the use of software quality assurance tools
• Analyze software quality artifacts
• Construct well-justified rationales for determining the adequacy of software quality for product release
• Identify ethical issues arising from software quality evidence and stakeholder concerns
• Assess test coverage
• Evaluate testing effort return on investment

Required Book:

Software Quality Engineering: Testing, Quality Assurance, and Quantifiable Improvement
by Jeff Tian
IEEE Computer Society Press (2005); ISBN 0471713457
REQUIRED

Online References (partial list):

Jenkins: Documentation
jenkins.io (2018); Available Online

Redmine: User Guide
redmine.org (2018); Available Online

ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
by ACM
acm.org (2018); Available Online

Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional Practice
by IEEE-CS/ACM
ieee.org (1999); Available Online

Software Engineering Resources
jodypaul.com (2018); Available Online

Version Control with Subversion
by B. Collins-Sussman, et al.
svnbook.org (2018); Available Online

Supplemental Books:

Not required for this course. These resources upport readiness, reinforcement, and extended coverage of specific areas.

Software Quality Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach
by Witold Suryn
IEEE Computer Society Press (2014); ISBN 1118592492

BDD in Action: Behavior-Driven Development for the Whole Software Lifecycle
by John Ferguson Smart
Manning (2014); ISBN 9781617291654

Building Maintainable Software, Java Edition:
Ten Guidelines for Future-Proof Code
by J. Visser, et al.
O'Reilly (2016); ISBN 9781491953525

Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
by R. C. Martin
Prentice Hall (2008); ISBN 9780132350884

The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers
by Robert C. Martin
Prentice Hall (2011); ISBN 0137081073

Debug It!
Find, Repair, and Prevent Bugs in Your Code
by P. Butcher
Pragmatic Programmers (2009); ISBN 9781934356289

Pragmatic Unit Testing in Java 8 with JUnit
by Jeff Langr, et al.
Pragmatic Programmers (2015); ISBN 9781941222591

Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code
by Martin Fowler
Addison-Wesley (2000); ISBN 0201485672

Refactoring Workbook
by William C. Wake
Addison-Wesley (2004); ISBN 0321109295

Class Sessions & Websites

You are expected to prepare in advance for class sessions (reading, exercises, etc.), to participate in class discussions and activities, and to make in-class presentations. Participation in class discussions and activities is mandatory and constitutes part of the overall grade for the course.

A substantial amount of information is disseminated during class sessions. Similarly, additional information is disseminated via the course website. You are responsible for knowing this information whether or not you attended the sessions and accessed the website. Note in particular that the textbooks and references provide some but not all of the information necessary to successfully complete the course.

In addition to important course and domain information, the course support website also provides the vehicle for managing assignments and assessment.

Successful software engineering is rarely a solitary endeavor. Collaboration and teamwork are the norms. Individual performance may be recognized, but the entire project team is judged by the team’s collective performance. Acquisition of team-oriented skills and practices is integral to this course and comprises part of the assessment.

Assignments & Projects

Assignments and projects represent your opportunity to practice applying the concepts, thereby enhancing your understanding, and to demonstrate your knowledge of the concepts and their application. Details regarding assignments and projects will be provided in class or on the course support website.

Reflections

Every assignment and project turned in must include a section (maximum 150 words) labeled “Reflection” in which you are expected to reflect on the experience of working on the assignment or project and describe your personal insights and observations associated with the experience. This reflection is required whether or not the assignment specification mentions it explicitly. Reflections comprise a portion of the score of every assignment and project.

Deliverables

Online Submission

Assignments must be turned in using the course Moodle website unless explicitly specified otherwise. In particular, e-mail and hard-copy will not be accepted in lieu of online submission.

Deliverable Formats

When available, the Online text field of a Moodle assignment should be used for text-based responses and for reflections. File attachments to Online text are generally not acceptable.

Formats of files turned in for assignments must not depend on specific operating system or commercial software.

• Examples of generally acceptable formats: ASCII or UNICODE UTF-8 text, HTML, PDF, GIF, JPEG, PNG.
• Examples of specifically unacceptable formats: Microsoft Word, Apple Pages, Microsoft PowerPoint, Apple Keynote, Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers.
• Acceptable formats for archives include only tar and zip.

If a specific archive or file format is required it will be explicitly specified.

A deliverable submitted in an unacceptable format is equivalent to no submission at all. If unsure about the acceptability of afile format, please check with the instructor prior to submission and well before the deadline.

Due Dates/Times

Deliverables associated with assignments may be submitted for scoring at any time prior to the published deadline.

No assignment deliverables will be accepted after the published due date/time.

Because there are so many risks to completion and submission, you are strongly encouraged to target completion and submission of assignments no less than 24 hours prior to the published due date/time. Computer systems and networks often experience "down times" and are likely to be strained during the 24-hour period immediately preceding a published deadline; thus, you should not depend on such systems, including the course support servers, to be consistently available during that period. Further, the instructor may not be available to address questions directly referencing that specific assignment in the last 24 hours.

Illness, crises, and emergency situations will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis in accordance with University, College, and Departmental policies.

Grading

The final course grade is determined by a weighted combiniation of grades on assignments, projects, in-class activities, and exams.

Collaboration & Citation of Sources

Successful software engineering is rarely a solitary endeavor devoid of external contributions. Collaboration, teamwork, and consultation of work by others are the norms.

Collaborative activity is required for successful completion of this course. In particular, collaboration is encouraged and regarded as an essential aspect of learning computer science and software engineering. Collaboration and discussion with fellow students and instructors concerning course information, materials, assignments, projects, proofreading, concept exploration and studying for exams is strongly encouraged. You are not expected to learn the course content or work on assignments and projects in complete isolation.

Most project work in this course will be collaborative in nature.

That said, in order to provide fair assessment for grading, the work you turn in must reflect your own efforts. You must write up your own submissions, reflecting your individual effort, for every assignment you turn in to be assessed, even if the solution results from collaborative effort.

In your submission, you must credit the people with whom you worked or consulted.

If you consult any sources, your submission must explicitly reference those sources and indicate where and how they apply.

Remember that you must write and turn in a personal reflection for every collaborative effort, as well as every individual effort.

Collaboration during exams is never acceptable.

Special Note: Because group work represents a significant aspect of this course, if you think you will drop, do your classmates a favor and drop early. If you drop after you are part of a team, your fellow students are adversely impacted.

Team deliverables are expected to be a joint effort involving all team members. An overall grade will be assigned for each deliverable that reflects the quality of product. An individual grade for each team member will also be assigned for each deliverable. This individual grade may reflect a combination of instructor assessment and peer assessments. You will be expected to assess each team member's contribution, including your own.

Academic Dishonesty

Turning in work that includes quotations without corresponding citations, does not properly cite references, or does not credit collaborators, will be treated as an act of academic dishonesty. Failing to abide by examination policies will be treated as an act of academic dishonesty. All incidents of suspected dishonesty will be reported to the Chair of the department and the Dean of the college. Consequences may include a score of 0 on the assignment, a grade of "F" for the course, academic probation, or dismissal from the institution. This is a very serious matter and should not be taken lightly. If you have any uncertainty or concerns, please discuss them with your instructor or your advisor.

Official Information

Official policies applicable to all courses may be accessed at https://msudenver.edu/math/policies

MSU Denver Academic Calendar: http://www.msudenver.edu/events/academic/
Additional official dates and deadlines, including the last dates to withdraw and holidays

MSU Denver Student Rights and Responsibilities: http://catalog.msudenver.edu/content.php?catoid=28&navoid=1780

Policy documents provided by the Department of Mathematical and Computer Sciences:
CLAS Syllabus Policies Fall 2018finalREV.docx
Deadline Dates Fall 2018.doc