CS2013-final-report

• Project Management Tools Report
• Preliminary Test Plan
• Scrum Process Management
What is the format of the course
This is a project-based course where students work in teams of 4-6 students to develop a project carried over from
the prior semester. At the end of the course, student teams package the project for the next semester. Over the first
five weeks of the semester, teams install and learn to operate the inherited project, work with potential customers to
identify bugs and enhancements, develop a prioritized list of bugs and enhancements, select project management
tools, and develop a preliminary test plan. At the end of each week, student teams submit a report and make a
presentation of their findings. The assignments over the first five weeks are linked and cumulative.
The next eight weeks consists of four two-week Scrum Cycles. Teams select items from their backlog (prioritized
list of bug and enhancements) and implement them in one Scrum Cycle. During the Scrum Cycle, students create
and update a work plan and hold short (5 minute) status meetings. At the end of each Scrum Cycle, teams report
(written and oral) progress and demonstrate their work. The assignments over the four two-week Scrum Cycles are
linked and cumulative.
At the end of the course, teams package their project, make a Final Report of their work, and demonstrate their
project to a group of invited guests.
How are students assessed
Each assignment has a technical rubric and a communications rubric. The technical rubric is specific to each
assignment. Student work is assess holistically.
The communications rubric is the same for all assignments. Subsets of communications items are added
cumulatively with each assignment. Items in the current and prior subsets are assessed holistically.
Students work on a set of linked assignments and receive continuous formative feedback from instructors on
technical and communication skills. By the end each set of linked assignments student teams achieve competence at
a first-semester sophomore level.
Course textbooks and materials
• Andrew Hunt and David Thomas, The Pragmatic Programmer, Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 2000.
(Pdf file available on Blackboard.)
• F.P. Brooks, The Mythical Man-Month, Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA, 1995.
• Richard G. Epstein, The Case of the Killer Robot, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1997.
Additional material may come from Communications of the ACM, IEEE Computer, or other relevant sources.
Why do you teach the course this way
Communication in this course is taught as an integrated part of the technical content. In particular, communication
is taught in the context of the workplace scenarios that emphasize situated learning. As such, rather than teaching
communication as a wholly separate topic, it is taught as a part of the core computer science topics. While the
general process of the course (i.e., teams working on an ongoing project with a communications skills emphasis) has
been course since 2005, participation in the CPATH II Project (2010-2012) described in Other Comments afforded
targeted development of assignments integrating technical content and communication skills. The course is
considered challenging by the students for a number of reasons, both technical and communication skills.
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