CPSC 480-020 Software Engineering (SE) Fall 2024

Archive

• Week 7 Class 13 Tue Oct 08 Posted: Oct 08

  Announcements

  • Dr. Collard: Out of Town

    Dr. Collard is in Flagstaff, Arizona, for 2024 ICSME. He cancelled his Office and Advising Hours this week. He is available via email.

    Mr. Kyle Rossi is teaching class this week.

  • Exercise 23: Project 1 "Fix spelling of "calendar" Due Today, Oct 8 at 11:59:59 pm
  • Project 2 Due Tuesday, Oct 15 at 11:59:59 pm
  • Midterm Exam Thursday, October 17

  Class

  • Notes: Use Cases
  • HFSD Chapter 7

  • Exercise 27: Team Use Case Diagram

    Create a Use Case Diagram for your project. Use the user stories as use cases. Select up to 10 of your user stories. You may have to cut down the title of a user story for the use case.

    Use yuml.me to draw the diagram.

    Each member of the team must either create their own diagram at yuml.me, or draw a diagram on paper.

    By the end of the class period, upload to Brightspace a PDF of the diagram, or a photo of your hand-drawn diagram.

• Week 6 Class 12 Thu Oct 03 Posted: Oct 03

  Announcements

  • Class Meetings Tuesday, Oct 8 and Thursday, Oct 10

    I will be in Flagstaff, Arizona, the week of Oct 7 - 11 for the 2024 ICSME (International Conference on Software Maintenance & Evolution). In addition to a paper at the conference, we are holding a srcML Meeting, which is required as part of our NSF grant.

    Although I will be away, you will still have class. My RA, Mr. Kyle Rossi, is presenting, and there will be team exercises, with Mr. Rossi assisted by my TA Ms. Afia Assante.

    My Office and Advising Hours are canceled on those days.

  • Post Page The main course page is getting quite long. A reminder that the title of each post is a link to a separate page of that post.

  • Iteration Plans

    Do not leave space in an iteration because:

    • Just in case we underestimated
    • We spread out our user stories across all our iterations
    • It is our first iteration, and we are still learning
    • There may be unforeseen technical challenges that require additional time
    • The team may need to accommodate unexpected urgent tasks or bug fixes
    • To allow for thorough testing and quality assurance of the completed user stories
    • In case there are dependencies on external teams or third-party services that cause delays
    • To allocate time for knowledge sharing and skill development within the team

    There is only one reason for having space left in an iteration: there is not another user story that would fit. If you use any of the above reasons to explain your iterations, I will deduct points.

  • Project 2: Iteration Plan

    Each student must get their own priorities. Do not reuse the ones from the Team Exercises.

  • Midterm Exam
  • Version Control We have only covered a high-level view of version control. During the rest of the semester, we will cover it in much more detail as part of dedicated notes and the overall workflow.

  Class

  • Demo: diff and patch on the Linux kernel

    • kernel
    • Disk Usage: du -hs *
    • Apply patch: patch -p 1 < ../patch-6.11

  • Exercise 23: Project 1 "Fix spelling of "calendar"

    requirements-report-example020

  • HFSD 6.5

  • Make

    build-files-020

    • GNU Make
    • Make Rule Introduction What a rule looks like
    • Special Note: recipes are indented using a tab character, not spaces. Using spaces (or an editor that expands tabs to spaces) will result in an invalid Makefile.
    • Automatic Variables including $@, $<, and $^
    • NMake Microsoft's version of Make
    • srcML Playground Generate new srcML of source code, input format for srccomplexity

  • Exercise 27: Makefile

    Code along and make the same commits with the same commit messages as I do in class.

    I suggest you use GitHub Codespaces as all necessary packages are installed.

    Note: We did not get to any commits. So, it is not due. Wait until I get back.

  • Exercise 26: Team Iteration II

  Unless stated otherwise, all exercises are due by 3 pm on Fri Oct 04

• Midterm Exam Posted: Oct 03

  Note: I removed Chapter 6.5, cmake, and make from the Midterm. It will be on the Final Exam instead.

  The Midterm Exam is Thursday, October 17, during our regular class time and classroom. It covers Chapters 1 - 6 6.5 of the Head First Software Development book, plus notes and in-class examples.

  • Big Bang approach to development - description, the path it takes, and disadvantages
  • Iterative approach to development - description, the path it takes, and advantages
  • Role of the customer/client
  • User Stories - all parts, description, creation, valid user story titles
  • Use Case - Diagram and text, differences with User Stories
  • Estimates and the Estimation Process, including all details of planning poker
  • Iteration and deadline planning
  • Utopian vs. Real-World days
  • Velocity - description, standard rate, what does it mean if velocity is higher or lower
  • Big Board - basics of what it shows and how developers use it
  • Good-enough design, SRP, DRY
  • Version control - jobs that it does, commit messages, branches (specific git information not on this midterm)
  • Role and importance of build artifacts (code, configuration, tools), the general purpose of make and cmake; Given a Makefile, what would happen with specific targets.

  The exam has various problem types, including short answers, definitions, comparisons, creation of user stories, and planning. The question may require you to:

  • Explain a process or terminology of a process
  • Answer specific questions about parts of the process. E.g., "Explain why the recommendation is to come up with user stories whose estimates are 15 or less."
  • Explain what process and activities you would follow for a particular scenario

  It is a good idea to review the "Dumb Questions" and the answers.

  The questions are based on what we covered in the book, the exercises, and the projects. If I did not cover it in class, it is not on the exam.

  A calculator is not needed for any required math and, therefore, not permitted.

• Exercise 26: Team Iteration II Posted: Oct 03

  The first iteration ended. One of the user stories had an unexpected task, and it was large enough to delay the completion of that user story. Rewrite the first iteration to remove that user story.

  Now, design a second iteration

  Use the principles in the book to decide which of the remaining user stories belong in the second iteration.

  Individually, each team member will turn in to Brightspace notes with the following:

  • Details of the calculation of the capacity of the iteration, i.e., how many days of work can be accomplished
  • Set of user stories in the revised first iteration with title, estimate, and priority
  • Set of user stories in the second iteration with title, estimate, and priority
  • Any observations

  Do not assume any dependencies between user stories.

  The notes are due by the end of class. They can be a PDF (print to file from a computing device) or a JPG (picture taken via phone).

  If you finish early, work on the estimates for your user stories. All user stories will require estimates for Project 2.

• Week 6 Class 11 Tue Oct 01 Posted: Oct 01

  Announcements

  • Class Meetings Tuesday, Oct 8 and Thursday, Oct 10

    I will be in Flagstaff, Arizona, the week of Oct 7 - 11 for the 2024 ICSME (International Conference on Software Maintenance & Evolution). In addition to a paper at the conference, we are holding a srcML Meeting, which is required as part of our NSF grant.

    Although I will be away, you will still have class. My RA, Mr. Kyle Rossi, will present, and there will be team exercises, with Mr. Rossi assisted by my TA Ms. Afia Assante.

    My Office and Advising Hours are canceled on those days.

  • Project 1 Project 1 scores are in Brightspace. The feedback is in two parts in your Project 1 repository:

    • Feedback.md
    • Corrected.md Your report with edits. This does not include fixes to what was found in Feedback.md.

    General Feedback:

    • The main process for creating estimates is planning poker. It should have been described and the procedure for using it explained in as much detail as possible. There are variations on planning poker, so the card values and what they mean should have been clearly stated.
    • I have stated multiple times that user stories form a set and are not an ordered list. Numbering the user stories is treating them as an ordered list. The set of user stories will change over time. The priorities and estimates will change over time. So any kind of ordering is temporary at best.
    • Misspelling user domain terms not only adds complications but also demonstrates a lack of respect for the customer.
    • Besides misspellings, missing words, etc., the main issue with the writing was the use of passive voice, e.g., "Five estimates (subject) have been created (verb)". Use active voice instead, e.g., "We (subject) created (verb) five estimates (object)".

  • Project 2: Iteration Plan

  Class

  • Exercise 23: Project 1 "Fix spelling of "calendar"

    requirements-report-example020

  • Notes: Version Control

    • kernel
    • Disk Usage:
    • Apply patch:
  • Exercise 22: Version Control Overview Crossword I
  • Exercise 24: Version Control Overview Crossword II
  • HFSD Chapter 6.5
  • Exercise 25: Team Iteration

  Unless stated otherwise, all exercises are due by 3 pm on Wed Oct 02

• Exercise 23: Project 1 "Fix spelling of "calendar" Posted: Oct 01

  This exercise is optional. However, completing this exercise will add points to your Project 1 score.

  The exercise is due by Tuesday, Oct 8 at 11:59:59 pm EDT.

  In your repository for the Requirements Report is the file Corrected.md. This is an edited version of what you submitted with fixes and improvements to the writing.

  To see the difference between these two files, you can use the diff command:

  The diff utility is line-oriented. Since many of your lines are quite long (the lines are wrapped when you view them), this may be difficult to read. You can also use the wdiff command:

  The codespace for Project 1 has diff and wdiff installed. You will have to start a new codespace to use wdiff. If you want to use wdiff outside of a codespace, install on WSL/Linux apt-get update; apt-get install wdiff, and on macOS brew install wdiff.

  Your workflow must be the following:

  1. Examine the remaining differences between your original report and the corrected one using diff or wdiff.
  2. Select one individual correction
  3. Make the correction
  4. Commit the correction using an appropriate commit message
  5. Push the commit to GitHub
  6. Verify at GitHub that the commit is there and the correction is made

  Each correction must be a contiguous change. That means that each commit only contains one correction. Practically, this means that each correction/commit will be on a single line.

  To get credit, your resulting Requirements.md file must be exactly the same as the Corrected.md file. You will reach this stage when diff shows no differences.

  The git commit messages must be in the proper form, such as:

  • Fix spelling in story title
  • Fix spelling of "calendar"
  • Capitalize story title
  • Simplify description
  • Fix spacing in description
  • Add missing article in story title
  • Add missing article in general process
  • Simplify sentence in user story title

  The commit messages must following good git commit message guidelines:

  • Use the imperative mood in the subject line, e.g., Fix, not Fixed, Fixing
  • Capitalize the subject line, e.g., Fix, not fix
  • Do not end the subject line with a period, e.g., Fix spelling of "calendar", not Fix spelling of "calendar".

  The score on this exercise will be 0 if the commit messages do not follow the above guidelines, or there is no effort to use an appropriate commit message.

  Note:

  There will be a lot of commits, so you want to be efficient creating them. After you do the first few corrections, you can push to GitHub and verify at GitHub periodically and not every time. And, to save time with entering commands, bring up previous commands in a shell using the up arrow ⇧ or Ctrl + P, and edit the git commit messages if necessary.

• Project 2: Iteration Plan Posted: Oct 01

  Project 2 is due on Tuesday, Oct 15 at 11:59:59 pm. A GitHub Classroom invitation link is on the Brightspace course page.

  For Project 2, take all the user stories from Project 1 and create a series of iteration plans.

  Use the examples in the book to show which parts of the user story you should show in your iteration plan (e.g., do not restate descriptions in the plans). Also, clearly state the entire new iteration plan for each plan, not just the changes. However, make sure to thoroughly discuss what the change was and what effect it had.

  This is an individual project. Each member of a team has different user-story priorities. To get individual priorities for Project 2, select the number of user stories:

  User Stories:
  

  Note: You may get a warning from your browser that the information is not secure. You can safely ignore that.

  Put these in the Priority field in the order in which you listed the user stories. In the report, do not discuss how you generated your report's priorities, i.e., pretend that the customer gave them.

  The following plans may require you to add additional user stories. This violates our rule that only the development team can create estimates. However, as part of the exercise, put in an estimate.

  Each plan is a point in time. For each plan, show the entire estimation plan, including the iterations already completed.

  Plan	Events
  1	Create an initial iteration plan: 2 Weeks (14 calendar days) iteration, 2 developers, 0.6 velocity
  2	The customer adds two new user stories of the highest priority at the end of the first iteration. For the two new user stories, one is a new feature, and one is an emergency. Create a non-trivial estimate (i.e., an estimate that makes the planning interesting) for these new user stories.
  3	A user story with a non-trivial estimate takes twice as long. Assume this occurred right before the last iteration.
  4	At the beginning of the last iteration of your current plan, the other developer leaves for another project, and it is up to you to finish the project.

  After the plans, create a section with all of your user stories, including their titles, descriptions, estimates, and priorities. You will need estimates for all of your user stories.

  Regarding the format, GitHub Codespaces, checkmd, and a Final Check with an asciinema session, all of those requirements of Project 1 are also in effect for Project 2.

• Exercise 25: Team Iteration Posted: Oct 01

  As a team, create the first iteration.

  Ideally, we would have enough Team Meeting time to estimate all user stories using Planning Poker. However, we do not and almost all teams only have enough user stories for trivial iteration planning. To make up for this, I am providing estimates for the rest of your user stories. Enter the following:

  Current Maximum User Story Estimate: 2 3 5 8 13 20 40 100
  Missing User Story Estimates:
  

  Note: You may get a warning from your browser that the information is not secure. You can safely ignore that.

  Add these estimates to your user story cards.

  The other missing item are the priorities. These come from the customer. To get priorities, select the number of user stories:

  User Stories:
  

  Add these priorities to your user stories.

  You have 1 developer and a one-month iteration with a 70% velocity.

  Use the principles in the book to decide which user stories belong in the first iteration.

  Individually, each team member will turn in to Brightspace notes with the following:

  • Details of the calculation of the capacity of the iteration, i.e., how many days of work can be accomplished
  • Set of user stories in the first iteration with title, estimate, and priority
  • Any observations

  Do not assume any dependencies between user stories.

  The notes are due by the end of class. They can be a PDF (print to file from a computing device) or a JPG (picture taken via phone).

  If you finish early, use planning poker to work on more estimates for your user stories.

• Week 5 Class 10 Thu Sep 26 Posted: Sep 26

  Announcements:

  • Tasks do not have names as titles. They are numbered.
  • Tasks have a (numbered) title, a description, and an (eventual) estimate. It is essential in software development to use proper terminology as much as possible.
  • Only estimates obtained by a team consensus using a planning poker process will be put on tasks (just like with user stories).
  • Tasks are not the process a user would go through. They are what the developer would go through. They are parts of the implementation of the code.
  • Tasks should be brief. For one thing, they need to fit on a post-it note. Secondly, that extra detail does not help; you would never have enough detail.

  Class

  • Exercise 20: HFSD Chapter 5 Crossword
  • HFSD Chapter 6
  • Notes: Version Control
    • hello.cpp
    • iostream.patch
    • kernel.org
  • Exercise 21: Team Tasks II
  • Exercise 22: Version Control Overview 1 Crossword Due after the next class meeting

  Unless stated otherwise, all exercises are due by 3 pm on Fri Sep 27

• Exercise 21: Team Tasks II Posted: Sep 26

  As a team, take a user story that has an estimate, and create the tasks for that user story. Then, create the estimate for each task by playing planning poker using the procedure described on pages 48-49 of the book. Go through the estimation process at least one time.

  When the team reaches a consensus for the estimate, place the estimate at the bottom of the task, e.g., "Estimate: 1 day" or "Estimate: 3 days".

  Individually, each team member will turn in to Brightspace individual notes that include for each round of planning poker:

  • Title of the user story, task title, and description of the task
  • Any questions on or confusions with the user story/task
  • Any assumptions that you made
  • Any interesting assumptions that other team members made
  • The spread of estimates, indicating which one is yours
  • The final estimate, which is a team consensus (if the team was able to reach one in this round)

  If the team cannot reach a consensus, table that task and go on to another one.

  The notes are due by the end of class. They can be a PDF (print to file from a computing device) or a JPG (picture taken via phone). The notes are for today only. Do not start with the notes from the previous team meeting.

  The more you work with the user stories, the more you will find improvements to them. Be sure to make those improvements.

• Week 5 Class 9 Tue Sep 24 Posted: Sep 24

  Announcements:

  • Published - Feedback Read I spend time giving feedback and grades on the Team Exercises. This may be comments on current user stories (titles, etc.), assumptions, the planning poker procedure, etc. However, 50% of students never look at the feedback and continue to make the same mistakes on the exercises. There are even entire teams where no member looked at the feedback from the last team meeting.

    One of the main topics of this course is processes that lead to successful and predictable outcomes. For exercises, this involves:

    1. Requirements: Figuring out what is needed or required
    2. Implementation: Performing the exercises
    3. Validation: Checking the outcome, i.e., viewing feedback
    4. Return to 1

  Class

  • HFSD Chapter 4
  • Exercise 17: HFSD Chapter 4 Crossword
  • HFSD Chapter 5
  • Exercise 19: Team Tasks

  Unless stated otherwise, all exercises are due by 3 pm on Wed Sep 25

• Exercise 19: Team Tasks Posted: Sep 24

  As a team, take a user story that has an estimate, and create the tasks for that user story. Then, create the estimate for each task by playing planning poker using the procedure described on pages 48-49 of the book. Go through the estimation process at least one time.

  When the team reaches a consensus for the estimate, place the estimate at the bottom of the task, e.g., "Estimate: 1 day" or "Estimate: 3 days".

  Individually, each team member will turn in to Brightspace individual notes that include for each round of planning poker:

  • Title of the user story and task
  • Any questions on or confusions with the user story/task
  • Any assumptions that you made
  • Any interesting assumptions that other team members made
  • The spread of estimates, indicating which one is yours
  • The final estimate, which is a team consensus (if the team was able to reach one in this round)

  If the team cannot reach a consensus, table that task and go on to another one.

  The notes are due by the end of class. They can be a PDF (print to file from a computing device) or a JPG (picture taken via phone). The notes are for today only. Do not start with the notes from the previous team meeting.

  The more you work with the user stories, the more you will find improvements to them. Be sure to make those improvements.

• Week 4 Class 8 Thu Sep 19 Posted: Sep 19

  After Class

  • Project 1 Include all user stories, even those without estimates. If a user story does not have an estimate, leave the estimate value blank.

  Announcements

  • Engineering, Engineering Technology, and Computing Career Fair Looking for student volunteers, Resume Workshop

  • Resume

    If you bring a printed copy of your resume to me during my Office Hours on Thursday, September 19, I can review it and provide suggestions for improvement.

  • Project 1: Requirements Report

    • Project 1 is not a team project. They only thing that you share with your team is the user story cards. Everything else originates from you. Do not set a team template for this.
    • This is a report about the team results and process, not your individual results and process.
    • The first two sections will be shown to the customer. Those sections should only contain information the customer is allowed to see. You will lose a significant number of points if you do not follow this rule.
    • All user stories belong to the team. This is a report of the current state of your team project.
    • There is no "my user story". All user stories belong to the team, actually the customer.
    • The customer is not interested in tasks, only the user stories.
    • The report should be readable and consistent both in markdown and displayed as a web page at GitHub.
  • Exercise 16: Commit to Project 1 Repository I did not mention this in one of the sections, so I will extend the due date to after the next class.
  • Project 1 asciinema session I added the link for submitting your asciinema session

  Class

  • Exercise 16: Commit to Project 1 Repository

    Following the procedure given in the assignment and demonstrated in class, contribute at least one commit to the Project 1 repository. This must be a valid and useful commit.

    • Use the git CLI to make the commit. You can do this wherever you have the repository cloned. You can even do this in a GitHub Codespace
    • Good commit messages follow certain patterns, and you need to follow them on all git commits:
      • Start with an action, e.g., Add
      • Capitalize the subject line (the only line we are using)
      • Use the imperative mood, e.g., Added, Adding, Adds, Add
      • Do not end the subject line with a period

    You can see your commit messages with the git log command.

  • HFSD Chapter 4
  • Exercise 17: HFSD Chapter 4 Crossword Due after next class meeting
  • Exercise 18: Team User Story Estimates II

  Unless stated otherwise, all exercises are due by 3 pm on Fri Sep 20

• Exercise 18: Team User Story Estimates II Posted: Sep 19

  Start by reviewing your user stories, particularly the titles. Titles that do not have an action term, or have a poor action term, will reduce your score on Project 1.

  As a team, create estimates for the user stories by using the planning poker procedure described on pages 48-49 of the book.

  When the team reaches a consensus for the estimate, place the estimate at the bottom left of the User Story as indicated by the example, e.g., "Estimate: 1 day" or "Estimate: 3 days".

  Individually, each team member will turn in to Brightspace individual notes that include for each round of planning poker:

  • Title of the user story
  • Any questions on or confusions with the user story
  • Any assumptions that you made
  • Any interesting assumptions that other team members made
  • The spread of estimates, indicating which one is yours. Be very careful with this, and note that a spread is on a number line.
  • The estimate, which is a team consensus (if the team was able to reach one in this round)

  If the team is not able to come to a consensus, table that User Story and go on to another one.

  The notes are due by the end of class. They can be in the form of a PDF (print to file from a computing device), or a JPG (picture taken via your phone).

  The more you work with the user stories, the more you will find improvements to them. Be sure to make those improvements. Also, you may think of additional user stories. Be sure to add them.

• Week 4 Class 7 Tue Sep 17 Posted: Sep 17

  After Class

  • Exercise 15: Team User Stories III If you participated in the team meeting, but were not able to fill out the form or upload a photo of your coded potential user story titles due to a technical error, then send me an email.
  • Exercise 16: Commit to Project 1 Repository I did not mention this in one of the sections, so I will extend the due date to after the next class.

  Announcements:

  • Resume

    If you bring a printed copy of your resume to me during my Office Hours or Advising Hours on Tuesday, September 17, or Thursday, September 19, I can review it and provide suggestions for improvement.

  • Individual Posts Small web improvements
  • Project 1 GitHub Classroom I added gh to the image. Create a new codespace if you need it and it is not there.

  • Windows File Explorer & WSL

    To open the Windows File Explorer on the current directory in WSL:

    If you open a path it has to be in Linux format, e.g., C:\Users\JohnDoe\Documents would be /mnt/c/Users/JohnDoe/Documents.

  • Dependencies

    I see a lot of user story estimates where the assumptions include the completion of a previous user story. This is a dependency. Avoid dependencies at all costs. For example, Add … does not have to be completed before Delete …. Obviously there will be some dependencies, but they are to be at the user-story level, not the implementation level.

  • Estimates

    • Estimation in software development is not about finding the minimum time it would take you to complete a user story. It's about understanding and predicting the genuine effort required in the context of your regular 5-day workweek and 50 weeks of work in a year. Remember, an estimate is not a speed challenge but rather a measure of how long it will realistically take to thoroughly implement a user story.
    • Avoid the trap of only considering the quickest or simplest implementation. Proper estimation requires thoughtful consideration of all possible complexities. Moreover, completing a user story quickly doesn't mean the rest of the day is free; there's always another user story waiting. This is not a class assignment or a lab exercise where once you are finished you are done for the day.
    • Refrain from using phrases like "All we have to do…” when discussing software tasks. Such assumptions often oversimplify the complexities inherent in coding.
  • Project 1: Requirements Report Change in due date

  Class

  • Creating the Report
  • Git Commands

  • Exercise 16: Commit to Project 1 Repository

    Following the procedure given in the assignment and demonstrated in class, contribute at least one commit to the Project 1 repository. This must be a valid and useful commit.

    • Use the git CLI to make the commit. You can do this wherever you have the repository cloned. You can even do this in a GitHub Codespace
    • Good commit messages follow certain patterns, and you need to follow them on all git commits:
      • Start with an action, e.g., Add
      • Capitalize the subject line (the only line we are using)
      • Use the imperative mood, e.g., Added, Adding, Adds, Add
      • Do not end the subject line with a period

    You can see your commit messages with the git log command.

  • HFSD Chapter 3
  • Exercise 13: HFSD Chapter 3 Crossword
  • HFSD Chapter 4
  • Exercise 15: Team User Stories III

  Unless stated otherwise, all exercises are due by 3 pm on Wed Sep 18

• Exercise 15: Team User Stories III Posted: Sep 17

  Your management is concerned that your team does not have a complete set of user stories. The first problem is low recall, i.e., the team is not capturing all the user stories the customer needs. The second problem is that without not enough work, the organization will have to let some of the team members go cut everybody's pay.

  The customer met with their team and returned with a list of potential user-story titles. These possible new user stories fall into one of the following categories:

  Code	Description
  A	Already have as a user story
  N	Not a user story title
  P	New, but needs to be converted from plural to singular
  S	New, but needs to be split into multiple stories
  X	Not part of the description

  On the provided sheet, code each of the user stories into one of these categories.

  Create a new user story, or multiple user stories, for each of these valid potential user stories. This includes fixing any title issues and adding a description. Also, take this time to fix any existing user stories.

  Each team member will turn in both of the following:

  1. A photo of the coded potential user stories uploaded to Brightspace (also put in the folder). Sign the sheet at the top before you take a photo.
  2. Fill out the Exercise 15 Form, which contains
  • Previous number of user stories
  • New number of user stories
  • Count for each Code (A, N, P, S, X)

  If you have any additional time, then create more estimates. As you did before, keep track of details for the next team meeting.

• Week 3 Class 6 Thu Sep 12 Posted: Sep 12

  Announcements:

  • Engineering, Engineering Technology, and Computing Career Fair October 1 (Tuesday) from 10am to 3pm in Student Union. Pre-registration is open through Friday, Sept. 13, 2024, at 11:55 PM.

    If you bring a printed copy of your resume to me during my Office Hours or Advising Hours on Tuesday, September 17, or Thursday, September 19, I can review it and provide suggestions for improvement.

  • Similar Action Words

    Many action words are similar in meaning, but can vary in specificity or in details to what they imply.

    Word 1	Word 2	Explanation
    Remove	Delete	"Delete" often implies a permanent action, while "Remove" can be less final or reversible
    Accept	Approve	"Approve" generally has an authoritative connotation, while "Accept" is more general
    Connect	Invite	"Invite" is very specific, suggesting a request for participation, whereas "Connect" is broader
    Add	Create	"Create" is making something new, whereas "Add" means including something that already exists
    Register	Subscribe	"Subscribe" is ongoing engagement, while "Register" is often a one-time action
    Validate	Approve	"Approve" is a decision or permission, while "Validate" suggests checking or confirming correctness
    Link	Merge	"Merge" is combining into one, whereas "Link" connects them without combining
    Send	Submit	"Submit" is submission to a process, while "Send" is transferring information
    Pause	Stop	"Stop" is final, while "Pause" is temporary
    Stop	Cancel	"Cancel" is preventing something from starting or finishing, whereas "Stop" is halting an ongoing action

    Note that the customer may not realize the difference between these terms, and say one when they mean the other.

  • Keep Up

  
  • GitHub Authentication
  • Project 1: Requirements Report

  Class

  • Exercise 12: Create Project 1 Repository

    Create your Project 1 Repository from GitHub classroom. Log into GitHub, then use the link on Brightspace to create your repository.

    As you use the link, it will ask you to select your UA username (email address) from the list. Please do so carefully, and do not select the wrong email.

    This is due by 3 pm on Monday, Sep 16

  • HFSD Chapter 3
  • Exercise 13: HFSD Chapter 3 Crossword Due after the next class meeting
  • Exercise 14: Team User Story Estimates

  Unless stated otherwise, all exercises are due by 3 pm on Fri Sep 13

• Exercise 14: Team User Story Estimates Posted: Sep 12

  Start by reviewing your user stories, particularly the titles. Titles that do not have an action term, or have a poor action term, will be counted off on your score for this exercise.

  As a team, create estimates for the user stories by using the planning poker procedure described on pages 48-49 of the book.

  When the team reaches a consensus for the estimate, place the estimate at the bottom left of the User Story as indicated by the example, e.g., "Estimate: 1 day" or "Estimate: 3 days".

  Individually, each team member will turn in to Brightspace individual notes that include for each round of planning poker:

  • Title of the user story
  • Any questions on or confusions with the user story
  • Any assumptions that you made
  • Any interesting assumptions that other team members made
  • The spread of estimates, indicating which one is yours. Be very careful with this, and note that a spread is on a number line.
  • The estimate, which is a team consensus (if the team was able to reach one in this round)

  If the team is not able to come to a consensus, table that User Story and go on to another one.

  The notes are due by the end of class. They can be in the form of a PDF (print to file from a computing device), or a JPG (picture taken via your phone).

  The more you work with the user stories, the more you will find improvements to them. Be sure to make those improvements. Also, you may think of additional user stories. Be sure to add them.

• Project 1: Requirements Report Posted: Sep 12

  Note Include all user stories, even those without estimates. If a user story does not have an estimate, leave the estimate value blank.

  Project 1 is due Friday, September 20, Monday, September 23 at 11:59:59 pm, in the file Requirements.md in a GitHub Classroom repository. You will need a GitHub account. Once you have an account, an invitation link to create the repository is on the Brightspace course page.

  Description

  At your place of work, you need to submit a formal report describing the project's current state. Write a report of your individual and team activities, including these primary sections:

  1. User Stories

  User Stories with title, description, estimate, and space for priority

  This will be shown to the customer. This section should not contain any information that a customer should not see.

  2. General Process

  Details of the overall process and procedure that created the Estimates

  This will be shown to the customer, so only data on the User Story cards from section 1 should be shown.

  3. Background Data

  Details on spread, assumptions, issues, etc.

  How did the team interaction work, and what did and did not work well

  This will not be shown to the customer. It is for your supervisor.

  In other words, the report describes all the work and processes followed while creating the user stories and their estimates. The details of the general process and the general observations in Section 3 are in the form of a narrative, i.e., describe what you did, how you did it, and the result, ordered by time. The report's tone is professional, with a clear, consistent presentation.

  The team created the User Stories and Estimates, but this report is an individual project. In your account, make changes to User Stories if they do not follow the guidelines given in the book. These changes are especially crucial for the Title and the Description. Split User Stories if the Estimate is too large. Explain any changes in your report.

  Content Notes

  • Identify yourself clearly at the top of the page with your name, email, team name, and section
  • Do not address me at the top of the page
  • Do not sign it at the bottom

  Format

  The report uses plain-text formatting syntax Markdown. Markdown is an almost universal format for text formatting in software development. Due to its direct conversion to HTML, Markdown has replaced HTML and other plain-text formatting languages in SE.

  • While Markdown does allow using HTML, do not use any HTML in this report
  • The entire report must be in a single, self-contained file: Requirements.md
  • The report is to look good both as raw Markdown and as a web page in GitHub
  • Plain text (no .pdf, .doc, .docx, etc.)
  • UTF–8 encoding Note: An ASCII document is a UTF–8 document
  • The file, like all text and source-code files, should end in a newline
  • Do not use any unnecessary multiple-blank lines

  Creating the Report

  You will use git to work on your report. Assuming a username of jdoe@uakron.edu, the steps are as follows:

  1. Create your project repository using the link in Brightspace
  2. Copy the URL from your project page
  3. Clone your repository, e.g., jdoe@uakron.edu
  4. Move to your repository directory:
  5. Edit your document. Any text editor will do. E.g., add the title.
  6. Commit your change with a reason for your change: Commit messages start with a verb, e.g., Add, Remove, Change, Fix, Reformat, etc. Follow the style given in this example: Capitalized verb, no period.
  7. View your current commits:
  8. Push your commits to GitHub:
  9. Verify that your changes appear in GitHub
  10. Repeat steps 5-9 for each change.

  Note: All commits must have non-blank commit messages. Any non-blank commit messages will not be accepted, leading to a 0 on the entire project.

  GitHub Codespace

  A GitHub Codespace is available for this project. See the guide GitHub Codespaces.

  Final Check

  After you have committed your final change to the project, you must run your report through a report check to see if it follows many of the Markdown requirements of the project. To do so, create a GitHub Codespace for the project. When in there, enter the command:

  You should see a clean report. If it finds anything, fix it and rerun the checkmd command.

  The checkmd is a custom command created for this project to verify specific Markdown requirements. A clean run does not mean you have nothing wrong with your project.

  Final Submission Requirement

  Upload an terminal session of your report successfully passing the checkmd program.

  To demonstrate this, you will record a terminal session using asciinema. It records the commands you enter and the output the command produces. asciinema is already installed in the GitHub Codespaces image. You can also install asciinema on Linux/WSL/macOS.

  asciinema is relatively straightforward to use.

  You can play, pause, skip, etc. You can also copy the commands as text. Note that the replay even includes your pauses and any delay as the command is run.

  At the end of the terminal session, asciinema will show a URL. Anybody can use this URL to view the session. This is what you will submit for the exercise to the link in the exercise title. The URL should not contain "connect" or be a local file. Test your URL in a browser; an incorrect URL will receive a 0.

  Submit the URL via this form: Project 1

  Score

  The report content, format, and involvement in team activities are all considered for your score.

  Think carefully about how you present the report, including using Markdown. Remember, the User Stories form an unordered set, not an ordered list.

• Week 3 Class 5 Tue Sep 10 Posted: Sep 10

  Announcements:

  • Brightspace & Exercises Uploads of assignments to Brightspace may not be available until the end of class, even when the Class Meeting is posted early.

  • Action-Oriented Titles

    The primary goal of user stories is to capture a specific need or goal of a user in the context of software development. It's about "what the user wants to do" or "achieve" with the software.

    Benefits of Action-Oriented Titles:

    • Clarity Action-oriented titles make it clear what the expected outcome or behavior of the system should be
    • Focus on Value Emphasizing actions reminds the team to focus on delivering value and functionality rather than just creating artifacts
    • Facilitates Testing It is easier to deriving test cases from action-oriented stories

  • User Story Titles and the Number Grammatical Category

    Strongly consider using a title with a singular noun for a user story, instead of a title with a plural noun, because it emphasizes the atomic nature of the action.

    Plural	Singular
    Upload Documents	Upload a Document
    Send Messages	Send a Message
    Add Products to Cart	Add a Product to Cart
    Register for Events	Register for an Event
    View Notifications	View a Notification
    Search for Jobs	Search for a Job

    In general, user stories with singular titles are going to be easier to implement. There can be exceptions, as "View Notifications" may be simpler than "View a Notification" due to not having to select just one.

    The most important aspect is clarity and understanding. If "Purchase Clothes" effectively communicates the intent without ambiguity and your team finds it more natural, it's also acceptable. The choice between singular and plural should ultimately be guided by what best serves the clarity and focus of the story in your context.

  • Development Environment: Git Setup by next class.

  Class

  • Exercise 9: HFSD Chapter 2 p 47 Cubicle Conversation
  • HFSD Chapter 2
  • Exercise 10: HFSD Chapter 2 Crossword
  • HFSD Chapter 3
  • Exercise 11: Team User Stories II

  Unless stated otherwise, all exercises are due by 3 pm on Wed Sep 11

• Exercise 11: Team User Stories II Posted: Sep 10

  

  Your team is to correct the current user stories and increase the number of user stories. Very carefully go over your user titles and descriptions. Add more user stories and see what you are missing.

  Remember to split any user stories that you can. Apply the "and" rule.

  • I want a lot of user stories. Do not make any judgments on whether they are worthwhile or not. Generate as many as you can
  • The User Stories do not belong to an individual team member. They belong to the team. So feel free to make changes to stories, even if you are not the original author.
  • For this assignment, no User Story should have a title that includes "Login" or similar terms. Assume that they have already logged in or (much better) do not have to log in.
  • You have not performed an estimation process. Do not fill in the estimate with some guess or random number.

  In addition to the team work of extracting user stories from the app description, each team member will turn in to Brightspace individual notes that includes:

  • The new total number of user stories
  • The titles of at least 3 new user stories or user stories with changed titles

  The individual notes are due by the end of class uploaded to Brightspace. They can be in the form of a PDF (print to file from a computing device), or a JPG (picture taken via your phone).

• Week 2 Class 4 Thu Sep 05 Posted: Sep 05

  Announcements:

  • Exercise Scores Posted in Brightspace. In the future I will only announce exercise grades and feedback when I have a point to make or it is delayed.

  • Pattern Recognition

    Pattern recognition and adaptation are essential skills in software development. This involves closely following examples while adjusting them to fit specific needs, whether working with APIs, formatting code, handling data, or configuration. Lacking this skill can complicate development, introduce bugs, and waste development time.

    Correct Format:

      Firstname,Lastname,Email,Section,Team
      John,Doe,johndoe@uakron.edu,020,Harpo
    

    Missing field name row:

      John,Doe,johndoe@uakron.edu,020,Harpo
    

    Spaces that are not part of the data:

      Firstname,Lastname,Email,Section,Team
      John, Doe, johndoe@uakron.edu, 020, Harpo
    

    Wrong section format:

      Firstname,Lastname,Email,Section,Team
      John,Doe,johndoe@uakron.edu,20,Harpo
    

    Very wrong section format:

      Firstname,Lastname,Email,Section,Team
      John,Doe,johndoe@uakron.edu,CPSC480-020,Harpo
    

  • Priority At a mega-level:

    Amazon Alexa is a Colossal Failure

  Class

  • HFSD Chapter 2

  • Exercise 7: HFSD Chapter 2 p42 User Story Interview

    • Be sure to save your response
    • You cannot go back and edit your response
    • The number correct is your score out of 10

  • Exercise 8: Team User Stories

    • Note that almost all Team Exercises will have individual notes due by the end of class.

  Unless stated otherwise, all exercises are due by 3 pm on Fri Sep 06

• Exercise 8: Team User Stories Posted: Sep 05

  

  Each Team is assigned a separate App with the description in Brightspace.

  As a Team, create as many User Stories as you can for that app from the app description. For now, this is just the Title and the Description. The Title is just an action that a user can perform. The Description is from 1 to 3 sentences that describes what that action is. Follow the examples given in the book.

  The User Stories are written on the provided index cards. I will provide a folder for you to put the cards in as I will collect the cards at the end of class.

  • I want a lot of user stories. Do not make any judgments on whether they are worthwhile or not. Do not stop at 6 or some specific number. Generate as many unique user stories as you can.
  • You do not "own" a user story. The user story is part of the project. If you leave the project, the user stories do not go with you.
  • For any assignment in this class, no user story should have a title that includes "Login" or any similar terms. Assume that they have already logged in or (much better) do not have to log in.

  In addition to the team work of extracting user stories from the app description, each team member will turn in to Brightspace individual notes that includes:

  • The total number of user stories created
  • The titles of at least 3 user stories

  The individual notes are due by the end of class uploaded to Brightspace. They can be in the form of a PDF (print to file from a computing device), or a JPG (picture taken via your phone).

• Week 2 Class 3 Tue Sep 03 Posted: Sep 03

  Announcements:

  • Exercise 3: App Idea I posted scores and feedback in Brightspace

    Following directions is important in any field, but particularly important in Computer Science.

    The instructions clearly stated:

    • "The description must be at least 350 words long"
    • "Do not identify yourself in the description"
    • "Submit via Brightspace in PDF form" and "Upload a PDF of your App Idea description. Only PDFs allowed." Word documents are not PDFs.
  • Archive
  • TA

  Class

  • Exercise 4: HFSD p7 Sharpen Your Pencil Answer 3 is required, but you can answer it after class
  • HFSD Chapter 1

  • Exercise 5: HFSD Chapter 1 Crossword

    • Print using browser (not a screenshot)
    • Include a timestamp with Headers and Footers (Chrome: More settings/Options; Safari: Safari/Print headers and footers)
  • Exercise 6: Teams

  Unless stated otherwise, all exercises are due by 3 pm on Wed Sep 04

• Exercise 6: Teams Posted: Sep 03

  Form a team of 4 members. The final team composition is at the discretion of the instructor.

  After forming a team, your team needs to decide on a name from the following choices:

  • Three Stooges (Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, Curly Joe)
  • Marx Brothers (Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Gummo, Zeppo)
  • Character from Star Wars

  Pick at least 4 names.

  Send Dr. Collard an email with the following:

  • Subject is CPSC480-020 Team
  • CC all members of the team using their UA email address
  • An attachment file, members.csv, in the CSV (Comma-Separated Values) format. Use the following as an example:

  
  Firstname,Lastname,Email,Section,Team
  John,Doe,johndoe@uakron.edu,020,Harpo
  Jane,Doe,janedoe@uakron.edu,020,Harpo
  Brian,Doe,briandoe@uakron.edu,020,Harpo
  Suzy,Doe,suzydoe@uakron.edu,020,Harpo
  
  

  • The body of the email is a list of requested team names in priority order, e.g.,

  
  Harpo
  Moe
  Yoda
  Zeppo
  
  

  The purpose of a team is not just to divide the work but also to meet a required level of quality. All members of the team must check any team assignment in this course. You, as a team, are responsible for these directions. Any emails sent as part of an assignment (including exercises) must have the correct subject, CC list, and contents. Exercises are not accepted and do not receive points if they do not have the proper form and content.

  The exercise is due by the end of class.

• Week 1 Class 2 Thu Aug 29 Posted: Aug 29

  Announcements:

  • Syllabus Added the Final Exam time and day
  • Scores I posted the feedback and scores in Brightspace for Exercises 1 & 2
  • Class Survey Results Version Control Usage, Maximum Hours Spent, Maximum Timespan, Group Size
  • Algorithms Where does a class like Algorithms fit in the Software Development phases? Apple's Hidden AI Prompts Discovered in macOS Beta
  • Notes The class notes have a bunch of default and custom hotkeys. Type a "?" to see a list.
  • Notes PDF versions of the notes

  Class

  • Notes: Context

  • Exercise 3: App Idea - Submit via Brightspace in PDF form. Due by 3 pm on Mon, Sep 2

    All applications start with an idea or a need. As a user, write a description of an application. The description should include who would use it and its features. The application can be one that you create yourself or an existing program.

    Guidelines:

    • The description must be at least 350 words long
    • Include a name for the app at the top
    • Do not identify yourself in the description
    • Assume this is a smartphone app
    • The description should be of the what not the how. Do not include any discussion of programming languages, libraries to use, or software design. Do not talk about how easy or difficult it would be to create the app. Do not describe the screens, views, or user interaction.
    • If the application already exists, be creative with your name and description

    Comments:

    • This is not the place if you have a great app idea. Your app idea may be shared with others or discussed (anonymously) with the entire class.
    • This is not the app that you or your future team will work on.
  • Notes: Roots
  • HFSD: Chapter 1 (if time)

• Week 1 Class 1 Tue Aug 27 Posted: Aug 27

  Announcements

  • Syllabus
  • GitHub In the class, we use GitHub and GitHub Classroom to manage documents and source code for projects and examples. You are required to have a GitHub account. The account email (not necessarily the account name) should be your @uakron.edu email address. If it is, you can apply for the Student Github Developer Pack and get a free GitHub Pro account.
  • O'Reilly Online Learning The course textbooks are available in O'Reilly Online Learning. You do not have to be on the campus network (e.g., via VPN) to access O'Reilly Online Learning. To access, click the "Institution not listed?" link below the dropdown and enter your UA email. You will then create an account and use that account from now on. For more information: Library LibGuide

  Exercises

  • Exercise 1: SE Survey

  • Exercise 2: Software Development Diagram

    Draw the Software Development Diagram that I present in class. Upload a PDF or JPG through Brightspace.

  • Notes: Context

  • For next class: Read Chapter 1 of the HFSD (Head First Software Development) book.

  All exercises are due by 3 pm on Wed Aug 28

• Welcome Posted: Aug 06

  Greetings and welcome to CPSC 480 Software Engineering (SE) section 020 for Fall 2024.

  • Syllabus The draft syllabus for the course is on the main course page. I will finalize the syllabus before our first class meeting.
  • Survey The first exercise is to fill out the class survey. The survey is due after our first class meeting, but you can complete it before.
  • Textbook The course has two textbooks. We start with the Head First Software Development (HFSD), available from Safari Books Online via a link at the bottom of the main course page.
  • GitHub In the class, we use GitHub and GitHub Classroom to manage documents and source code for projects and examples. You are required to have a GitHub account. The account email (not necessarily the account name) should be your @uakron.edu email address. If it is, you can apply for the Student Github Developer Pack and get a free GitHub Pro account.

  See you on Tuesday, Aug 27 at  2:00 - 3:15 pm in (CAS) room 134