Course Syllabus

The purpose of this class is to provide you with the information and skills to work on software projects in a team setting all the way from inception to final product. Some topics covered are traditional requirements-based software development, continuous integration testing, and agile-based development. 

A secondary purpose of the class is to teach C++ software development. C++ is an important language for many reasons and having some proficiency in it will provide you with valuable skills. Along with the C++ language, this course looks at development environments traditionally associated with C++ that may still be unfamiliar to you (linux terminal, emacs/vim, makefiles, etc.).  These different tool-chains allow you to be an effective developer in different contexts.

This course also looks at C++ design patterns, idioms, and frameworks, all of which are tried-and-true approaches for solving particular problems that are often encountered. Many of the course projects will be connected thematically to these approaches.

During the semester, students will work on a number of projects. A few projects will be individual assignments, a few will be pair programming assignments, and the remainder will be team projects. The projects will stress accuracy, correctness, and sustainability. Team projects will be evaluated not only on code, but also on the process used to develop the software. The course will use a number of mechanisms to evaluate individual contributions to the projects: code submissions, TA oversight, and team internal and external evaluations.

You should have a solid foundation in computer programming, computer science, mathematics, and application development to be enrolled in this course. We will begin assuming that all students know how to create applications in other programming languages and that you have three semesters of programming experience. Students who did poorly in any of the prerequisites should consider re-taking the prerequisite before taking this class. 

Lectures

In lecture I will use a laptop for slides, examples, and programming. Most materials shown in class will be posted on the class website. I will also use the whiteboard. I will usually provide a screen recording of the lecture, but if there is a technical failure, it will not be provided.

Students are expected to participate in lecture by thinking about the material, asking questions, and offering answers to my questions either individually or using class response software.

We will occasionally have planning or design sessions during lecture that involve team-based planning and coordination. Students should come to class prepared for this with paper and writing implements. 

Students are expected to engage with the instructor and classmates during class meetings. Students are permitted to use a laptop or mobile device to take notes or try programming concepts. Use of a laptop or mobile device for any other purpose is not permitted and students who do so will be asked to leave the classroom. While you may consider it a right to casually browse the web, engage in social media, or play games during lecture, such activity is very distracting to others (especially in a crowded classroom) and is not permitted. 

Labs

Labs are intended as places to practice more hands-on technical material and as time slots for teams to meet. Labs will often have an associated online exercise that must be done to get credit for the lab. During the group phase, you must be able to meet your group during an assigned lab time.

Projects and Code Reviews 

There will be projects and code reviews due throughout the semester. The release and due dates for each assignment will be posted on the class website. 

Projects will involve a significant amount of programming and design. As this is a three-hour class, I expect students will spend an average of 6-9 hours a week working on the assignments. 

Students must be aware that their work will be subject to peer review throughout the semester. We will make portions of your work visible for other students to see and review (with names, comments, and filenames intact). Please do not hand in anything objectionable or sensitive. Also, students will be required to review the work of their peers in the class. Specific requirements for reviews will be posted on the class website, and we will discuss how to conduct code reviews in class. 

Teams 

Special consideration is always required when working in teams. You should select teammates whose understanding of the material is roughly the same as yours. Teams should also be formed based on compatible schedules. 

During the team phase, if a team member doesn’t do the work assigned to them, then we reserve the right to adjust the scores accordingly. This may mean adjusting the score of the person not doing their job lower and possibly, in rare occurrences, adjusting the rest of the team higher (because they had to cover for the person ”flaking out”). If this starts to happen at any point during the semester, please inform me immediately. 

Working with others on assignments is a good way to learn the material and I encourage it. However, there are limits to the degree of cooperation that I will permit. Working together to find a good approach for solving a problem is cooperation; listening while someone dictates a solution is cheating. You must limit collaboration to a high-level discussion of solution strategies and stop short of actually writing down group answers. The following guide is intended to clarify cooperation vs. cheating. 

Collaboration: 

Students may use code that we provide as part of this semester’s assignment and lab postings. 

Students may use small “snippets” of code from web tutorials in their solutions. These snippets must be small pieces of general purpose code that are not direct solutions to the assignment. Snippets must not exceed about 10% of the statements in any assignment. When using snippets of code from the web, properly cite them in your source code. Place a comment immediately above each piece of borrowed code and state “Code example from” and give the source URL for the code. Place a comment below the snippet stating “End of example”. 

Team programming is allowed for certain assignments. These assignments will clearly state that team programming is allowed. Independent, individual work is required for all other assignments, labs, write-ups and exams. 

Studying together is encouraged. Students may discuss strategies and common problems and students may answer each other’s general questions. 

Cheating

Using any materials from a previous CS 3505 semester is cheating. 

When writing code, you must not base your work on any other person’s design or code. If you look at another student’s code, you are cheating. If you write code in a group (when not allowed), you are cheating. If you ask another person to help you write code, you are cheating. Write your own solutions. 

When writing reports, all work must remain independent and confidential. Reading other people’s work or sharing of answers, data, text, or diagrams is cheating. Discussion of general formulas is allowed, but step-by-step solving of written problems together is cheating. 

When taking an exam, you must work completely independently of everyone else. Any collaboration here, of course, is cheating. 

We do not distinguish between cheaters who copy others’ work and cheaters who allow their work to be copied. If you are the source of materials or skill used for cheating, you will also fail the class. Be careful what you post to forums, and don’t show your friends your work! 

Finally, if something you are doing may be considered both collaboration and cheating, it is cheating. Don’t do it. 

The sanction for any cheating (plagiarism) in this class, no matter how small the offense, is an ’E’.