CS 5150
Lecture 1
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Web site: www.cs.cornell.edu/Courses/cs5150/2010fa/
Instructor: William Arms, wya@cs.cornell.edu
Teaching assistant: Stephen Purpura, stevepurpura@gmail.com
Assistant: Corinne Russell, crussell@cs.cornell.edu
This course does not use the Computer Science Course
Management System (CMS)
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Email
To contact members of the course team, send email to: both wya@cs.cornell.edu and stevepurpura@gmail.com
The Teaching Assistant does not have office hours, but you can schedule an appointment by email.
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Software Engineering is a collaborative activity. You are encouraged to work together, but ...
• Some tasks may require individual work.
• Always give credit to your sources and collaborators.
Good professional practice: To make use of the expertise of others and to build on previous work, with proper attribution .
Unethical and academic plagiarism: To use the efforts of others without attribution .
See: Academic Integrity on the course Web site, which points to the Cornell code.
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Organizations put trust in software developers:
• Competence: Software that does not work effectively can destroy an organization.
• Confidentiality: Software developers and systems administrators may have access to highly confidential information (e.g., trade secrets, personal data).
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Legal environment: Software exists in a complex legal environment (e.g., intellectual property, obscenity).
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Acceptable use and misuse: Computer abuse can paralyze an organization (e.g., the Internet worm).
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Syllabus
For the schedule of lectures, assignments, and tests, see the
Syllabus file on the course Web site. (Note that this syllabus may change as the course progresses.)
Monday evening
This time is for project team meetings. You may choose to meet at other times, but each project should have at least one regular weekly meeting.
The four tests are held on Monday evenings.
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Readings:
There is no course textbook.
See the Books and Readings file on the Web site.
Wikipedia is often a good source for information about methods of software engineering but...
beware articles that emphasize the current fashions
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Lectures and Tests
• The slides are outlines of the lecture material. You will need to take additional notes during class.
• Tests are on the material covered in the lectures, including material that is not on the slides .
• Four tests held on Monday evenings, each with two questions. Best six questions count for final grade.
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No make-up times.
See Tests on the Web site for more information.
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Project (group) 45%
Project (individual) 25%
Tests 30%
Do not neglect the material covered in the lectures.
You cannot expect to do well on the tests and get a good final grade in the course from the slides alone.
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There will be four short surveys, at the time of each assignment.
Comments on the group projects
Your feedback about what is working well on the project and where you see difficulties: to help anticipate problems early.
Feedback about the contribution of team members
Your feedback about how each member of your team contributed to the work of the group: to identify those individuals who make extra effort or do not contribute fully.
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The projects are a central part of the course
• Real projects for real clients who intend to use the software in production.
• Select your own project, any branch of software development.
• Project teams, 5 to 7 people.
• Feasibility study and plan, due September 24
• Milestones: three reports and group presentations
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Read the Web site
• Some projects are suggested on the Web site and will be discussed in class next week
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You are encouraged to find other projects
Contact potential clients
• Gain idea of their expectations
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Estimate scope and complexity of the project
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Discuss business decisions
Assemble project teams
• Make announcements at the beginning of class
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Projects
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Target must be a production system (not prototype or research)
• Client should be one or two named people -- client should be prepared to meet with you regularly and attend the presentations
Team
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Teams need many strengths -- organizational, technical, writing, etc.
• Consider appointing a project manager to coordinate the effort, or a separate project manager for each of the four assignments.
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We assume that you are technically proficient. You know a good deal about computing, can program reasonably, can learn more on the job.
When you leave Cornell, you are going to work on production projects where success or failure may cost millions of dollars.
Soon you will be in charge. It may be your money.
We want you to make your mistakes now and learn from your mistakes.
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Your background
• Biggest program that you have written?
• Biggest program that you have worked on?
• Biggest project team that you have been part of?
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Longest project that you have worked on?
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Most people who have used your work?
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Longest that your project has been in production?
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Much of my career, I was in charge of computing at universities such as Dartmouth and Carnegie Mellon, with some time in industry.
Projects where I was in charge
• Operating system, compilers, etc.
• Campus networks, routers, protocols, etc.
• Distributed computing environment, file systems, etc.
• Administrative data processing, general ledger, etc.
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Digital libraries (including recent Cornell Web Lab)
Theme has been first production system where the methods have previously been used only in research.
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Examples
Data processing: telephone billing, pensions
Real time:
Mobile devices: air traffic control digital camera, GPS, iPhone
Information systems: web sites, digital libraries
Sensors: weather data
System software: operating systems, compilers
Communications: routers, telephone switches
Offices:
Scientific: word processing, video conferences simulations, weather forecasting
Graphical: film making, design etc., etc., etc., ....
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Software products are very varied
• Client requirements are very different
• There is no standard process for software engineering
• There is no best language, operating system, platform, database system, development environment, etc.
A skilled software developer knows about a wide variety of approaches, methods, tools. The craft of software development is to select appropriate methods for each project and apply them effectively.
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Software is expensive.
The major costs are:
• salaries (your salaries)
• organizational change
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Who is paying the money?
What does that person or organization want?
• What is success?
• What is failure?
Technical people may have very different criteria of success from the people in charge of the organization.
Examples:
• Early Unix workstations, Sun and IBM
• Ship date for Dartmouth financial system
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Client
The client provides resources and expects some product in return.
The client is often a member of the organization that is providing the money. The client's job success may depend on the success of the software project.
Client satisfaction is a primary measurement of success in a software project.
Who is the client for Microsoft Excel?
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Customer
The customer is the person who buys the software or selects it for use by an organization.
User
A user is a person who actually uses the software.
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With personal software, the user may be the same person as the customer.
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In organizations, the customers and the users are usually different.
The Cornell Finance Office uses Microsoft Excel. Who is the customer? Who are the users?
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