Course Participation

       The Course Participation portion of the course grade is based upon participation in the conferences. This is both an objective and subjective assessment of one's participation in the course: the actual number of conferences in which a student participated and the quality of the responses and comments in the conferences. A one or two paragraph response will count as participating in a conference; however, such a response would lack the quality and depth expected in a conference.

       Course conferences will be available for comment for a limited period. Students are to respond within one week of the date of the initial posted conference topic.

Quizzes

       Two quizzes will be administered during the term. The quizzes are scheduled to be administered during the following class periods:

       The format of the quizzes will be objective-type questions, with short-answer questions in which you may respond with one or more concise sentences, diagrams, or both. The quizzes are to test a student's general understanding of software engineering and specific concepts studied during the course. The assigned readings, conference topics, and course project will be the source for the exam questions.

       Arrangements for a make-up of a quiz will be made only for official emergencies and must be made prior to the quiz date. Documentation must be provided showing the reason for the student’s ability not to submit the quiz during the scheduled period. No makeup quizzes will be given without sufficient written documentation.

Course Project

       To reinforce the software development process, the course project entails submitting software development products. These products are documents that are generated in the course of software development. The only software development product not to be submitted is the program source code. Refer to the course schedule for project submission due dates.

       The software development documents to be submitted are:
            The system specification (SS)
            The software requirements specification (SRS)
            The software design document (SDD)
            The software test specification (STS)
            The software project plan (SPP)

       Recommended formats are provided in Pressman. Other published outlines and formats for these documents, such as MIL-STD-498 or a format provided by an academic source on the Web, are also accepted. Due to the compressed course schedule, each of these documents should be on the order of 6 to 10 typed pages or their electronic equivalent. Technical content rather than document size is the factor that will be considered for grading. Graphical content will satisfy the page requirements if supported by explanatory text.

       Additional guidance on the minimum required information for each document will be addressed and detailed during the course. However, a good rule of thumb is to keep all the documents as short as possible, focusing on the detail with respect to the problem statement provided in week three of the term. When the provided course project problem statement is lacking sufficient detail to adequately complete a required document subsection, as is often the situation in the real world, personal engineering judgment should be used to supplement the content. All assumptions must be stated.

       Due to the volume of information that is typical of an SDD and STS, a representative sample of the expected content of these documents may be submitted, that is, a portion of the module or object design and a portion of the software test cases for the SDD and STS, respectively.

       Additional guidelines on how to make effective software development documents will be provided in the WebTycho classroom. Late submissions will not be accepted. Contact the professor before the deadline for with eventual submission difficulties, suggestions and other assistance.

       All students will be assigned to a three- or four-person team to work on the project.

Proctored Examination

       A Proctored Examination is scheduled during the following period:

       The examination will be a closed-book exam, proctored according to the guidelines disseminated by UMUC. The assigned readings, conference topics, and course project will be the source for the exam questions. The format of the final exam will be short-answer questions in which you may respond with one or more concise sentences, diagrams, or both.

       The examination questions will test (1) a student's understanding of systems engineering theory and (2) how well the student applies that understanding. Students will be graded on retention and application of the concepts and ideas of the course and not on exact terminology. More detailed guidelines will be provided prior to the examination.

       Arrangements for taking the examination during a different period will be made only for official emergencies and must be made prior to the examination date. No make-up examinations will be given without sufficient written documentation.