GCIS 514 Requirements & Project Management
Instructor:
Office:
Office Hours:
Frank Xu, Ph.D.
Z312
Contact Information:
xu001
Class Location: computer lab NOT required
Class Time:
Monday, Wednesday 03:00PM - 04:20PM, Zurn, Room 329
Website:
http://www.angel.gannon.edu
Course Title:
GCIS 514 Requirements and Project Management
Course Description:
The course focuses on the requirements engineering and project management process, and how these two practices are
intertwined. Requirements engineering includes the study of tools, methods and description techniques applicable from initial
requirements elicitation through to requirements validation. Along with the requirements engineering focus, the project
management skills for managing software systems and projects are addressed. The course includes specific techniques for the
analysis, modeling, validation, and management of requirements for engineering and a general introduction to the Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) terminology. Ethical practice of software engineering and information system
development is addressed.
Prerequisites:
Credit Hours:
GCIS 509 Systems Analysis and Design or
GCIS 510 Software Engineering in UML
3
Course Learning Objectives:
The student will be able to
1) Apply requirements management techniques to trace requirements from elicitation through analysis and into
specifications
2) Apply review techniques to ensure the quality of requirements and project management work products
3) Develop and implement a plan for team development of an engineering application.
4) Apply risk management techniques to the development of an engineering project.
Text Books:
1) Visual Models for Software Requirements, Microsoft Press, Beatty, Joy and Chen, Anthony, 2012, ISBN-13 9780735667723. (Required)
2) Managing Software Requirements: A Use Case Approach, 2nd Edition, by Dean Leffingwell and Don Widrig,
Addison-Wesley, 2003, ISBN 0-321-12477-X (Optional)
3) Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme, 7th Edition, by Robert K. Wysocki, 2013, ISBN: 9781-118-72916-8.
Tentative Topic:
Topic
Introduction to
Software Engineering
Analyzing the Problem
Understanding User
and Stakeholder Needs
Defining the System
Book 1
Ch 1: The Requirements Problem
Ch 2: Introduction to Requirements Management
Ch 3: Requirements and the Software Lifecycle
Ch 4:The Software Team
Ch 5: The Five Steps in Problem Analysis
Ch 8: The Challenge of Requirements Elicitation
Ch 9 :The Features of a Product or System
Ch 10: Interviewing: A Requirements Gathering
Technique
Ch 11: Requirements Workshops
Ch 12: Brainstorming and Idea Reduction
Ch 13: Storyboarding
Ch 14: A Use Case Primer
Ch 15: Organizing Requirements Information
Ch 16: The Vision Document
Ch 17: Product Management (skipped)
Book 2
Ch 1: Introduction to RML
Ch 9: Process Flow
Ch 3: Business Objectives Model
Ch 6: Feature Tree
Ch 7: Requirements Mapping Matrix
Ch 10: Use Case
Managing scope
Refining the system
definition
Build system
Effective Project
Management:
Traditional, Agile,
Extreme
Ethics of Software
Engineering
Ch 18: Establishing project scope
Ch 19: Managing your customer
Ch 20. Software Requirements: a more rigorous look
Ch 21: Refining the Use Cases
Ch 22: Developing the Supplementary Specification
Ch 23: On Ambiguity and Specificity
Ch 24: Technical Methods for Specifying Requirements
Ch 25. From Use Cases to Implementation
Ch 26. From Use Cases to Test Cases
Ch 27. Tracing Requirements
Ch 28. Managing Change
Ch 29. Assessing Requirements Quality in Iterative
Development
Book 3
Ch01: What Is a Project?
Ch02: What Is Project Management?
Ch09: Complexity and Uncertainty in the Project
Management Landscape
Ch10: Agile Project Management
Ch11: Extreme Project Management
Software Engineering Code of Ethics and Professional
Practice
Ch 15: Display-Action-Response
Ch 16: Decision Table
Ch 17: Decision Tree
Ch 23: State Diagram
Ch 14: User Interface Flow
Course Policies:
 Integrity: Cheating in any form will not be tolerated. Willfully misrepresenting your work in this class may result
in an “F” grade for the course. Please refer to the Gannon University Code of Academic Integrity. Students are
explicitly required to use only their assigned personal-response transmitter.
 Testing: The test procedure will be announced prior to the examinations. Anyone violating the testing procedure
will be dropped from class. No make-up quizzes/exams will be allowed without prior arrangements being made.
 Appeal grade: To appeal a grade, send an e-mail to your instructor's e-mail address within two weeks of the grade
having been received. Explain in detail and with reference to explain a higher grade should be given. Overdue
appeals will not be considered.
 Attendance: Three inadequately excused absences from class will result in a grade of F.
 Submission: No late homework assignments will be accepted. The instructor reserves the right to waive this
penalty for due cause (e.g., hospitalization, etc.) or arrangement made with the instructor 48 hours prior to the
submission due date.
 Participation: Active participation in course meetings is expected of all students. With each submitted assignment,
students should be prepared to explain their solutions to the class. Many projects/homework assignments will
include in-class presentation and reviews of said documents on or before the day the work is due. Your prepared,
informed participation in such reviews is part of your grade. Not all students’ work will be presented at each
review, but all students must be prepared to present their work.
 Individual Assignments: Students are encouraged to discuss course topics and homework assignments with each
other. However duplicate assignments are not allowed. All submissions must represent your own work.
 Group Assignments: Some of the work of this class may include the development of a group assignments. The
work submitted must reflect the efforts of the team, and the grade assigned to group work will be shared among
the entire team equally
Grading Polices:
Item
Projects/Homework
Quiz
Midterm
Final
Total
Grade
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CF
Grade Scale
90%
80%
70%
59% and below
Academic Integrity:






Points
100
100
100
100
400
Points
360+
355+
330+
320+
315+
290+
280+
275+
below 275
All work should be the result of each individual’s effort, unless a team effort is
authorized by the instructor.
According to the Gannon University Undergraduate Catalog: 2010-2011, page 48: “Absolute integrity is expected of
every Gannon student in all academic undertakings; the student must in no way misrepresent his/her work,
fraudulently or unfairly advance his/her academic status, or be a party to another student’s failure to maintain
integrity.”
Please review pages 48-51 in the same catalog for additional details of the Gannon policy.
Cheating on any assignment or exam will result in, at minimum, a zero grade on the document for the first occurrence.
In most cases of a first occurrence the total points for the document will be subtracted from your semester score (e.g.
cheating on a 60 point programming assignment will result in 60 points being subtracted from your total point
accumulation). I reserve the right to assign a failing grade for the course for a first occurrence depending on the
severity of the action and previous circumstances. If there is a second occurrence, at minimum a failing grade for the
course will be given. Depending on the severity of and circumstances surrounding the cheating, further action may be
pursued.
In all cases, I will also apply the Computer and Information Science Department Procedures for Academic Integrity.
This policy applies to both the individual(s) receiving the information and to the individual(s) supplying the
information.
If in doubt as to how I will view the assistance you may wish to give to a classmate, the best approach is to ask me
before you provide the assistance.