Class Details

Monday, Wednesday, 2:00 - 3:20 PM, 140 Allen
CRN: 22128 (for 422), 22140 (for 522), 4 Credits

Mandatory Attendance! Attendance is required for CIS 422 students. Missing the first week of class will result in an automatic drop.

Textbook

Hans van Vliet, Software Engineering: Principles and Practice, 3nd edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

News

Jan. 6: first day of class, don't miss it! If you have an excused absence, come see the instructor as soon as possible to get the team placement survey form.

Jan. 8: teams chosen for first round. You will find you team project workspaces at the following links: Team 1, Team 2, Team 3, Team 4, Team 5.

CIS 422/522 Introduction

This is a project-oriented course on software engineering. You will work as teams to construct software systems, including not only programs but also specifications, design documents, end-user documentation, maintenance guides, etc. You will also be expected to think about principles and issues in software engineering, to read and respond to papers, and to participate in class discussions.

Software Engineering is an applied discipline for which years of experience are required to develop real expertise, this course is only a start. Rather, the objective is to prepare you to learn more effectively from real-world experiences from an understanding of the broad principles and issues that pervade software engineering. Because these principles and issues are fundamental, they appear again and again even as popular methods and tools evolve. Yesterday we had structured development, today we have object-oriented development, tomorrow we can expect something else ... but the fundamental challenges of teamwork, complexity, and managing change, have been with us from the beginning and will be with us for the foreseeable future.

The Project

You will learn the principles of Software Engineering, teamwork, and management though hands-on software development. You will work in teams on one or two sofware projects. A detailed description is provided on the Projects page. You can see examples of of project work products from past 422 and 423 classes: Example1, Example2 and Example3. While these are overall good examples, they each have strengths and weaknesses. You should not emulate what they have done without giving some thought to how it might be improved.