CSCI 390 Software Engineering

Time/Place

This section of the course (Fall 2006) meets Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:30AM-10:45AM in Ritter 202. Please listen to the course theme song.

General Description

Software development is an engineering discipline -- the analysis, design, production, and quality-assurance processes involved in writing good software are very much the same as those involved in constructing reliable cars, buildings, bridges, etc. We will examine in generality the entire software development process from initial design to long-term maintenance, and apply what we learn to a large-scale semester project. The challenges involved in working as a team on a software project will lead into discussions of division of labor, modularity, resource management (human and otherwise), design meetings, and effective communication between team members. While the theoretical aspects of the course are applicable to software written in all programming languages, we will exploit the students' familiarity with C++ to focus on object-oriented software engineering for a substantial portion of the course.

Here is the course schedule which gives the specific topics to be covered and corresponding section numbers in the book.

There is also a very terse course description contained in the SLU Undergraduate Catalog (PDF format). The course prerequisite is a passing grade in CSCI 290 (Object Oriented Software Design).

Textbook Information

The required text for the course is Software Engineering: Principles and Practice, 2nd ed., by Hans Van Vliet. The publisher has a web page describing the book. Students can get the text from the SLU Bookstore.

Homework and Exams

There will be some homework and/or reading every week, unless otherwise indicated. You should periodically check the course schedule page for updates. There will a midterm exam given in class Thursday, October 19th worth 15% of your final grade. The final exam is scheduled for Tuesday, December 19th from 8:00-9:50AM; it is comprehensive and is worth 25% of your final grade. The semester project is worth 50%, and participation in class discussions accounts for the remaining 10%. Make-up exams will not be given. The College of Arts & Sciences has a policy concerning academic honesty with which you should be familiar.

Any student who feels that he or she may need academic accommodations in order to meet the requirements of this course due to a disability should contact the Office of Diversity and Affirmative Action at (314) 977-8885. Confidentiality will be observed in all inquiries.