Department of Mathematics and Computer Science

Adelphi University

CSC 480

Senior Seminar in Information Systems

Spring Semester 2018

Lecture: T Th 1:40 PM - 2:55 PM, Swirbul Library, Rm 101 (1st floor)

Dr. David Chays

OFFICE HOURS: Tuesday 12:10 PM - 1:10 PM, Wed. 11:00 - 12:00 PM, Thursday 4:30 PM - 6:30 PM and by appointment.

OFFICE: Science room 406

EMAIL: chays@adelphi.edu

PHONE: 516-877-4479

SYLLABUS

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND PURPOSE:

Form teams and apply expertise from other CSC courses in solving substantial real-world information systems problems. Each team will research, propose, design, implement, and report on solutions to one or more such problems, with careful and professional-quality documentation at each step.

Motivation: During this semester, you will engage in a semester-long software design and development process as your capstone project. The work you produce will be a showcase of the abilities that you have gained during your time as an Adelphi student and can be used as a portfolio item when looking for a job, or when applying to graduate schools.

Format: The senior seminar is delivered as a studio-style class. Most of your time will be spent actively working on projects, documentation, and presentations. Expect to spend a very significant amount of time on this course, both in class, as well as outside of class hours. The project is significant. Expect to spend at least 100 hrs per person during the semester on this project. This includes class time, provided that you use class time productively (working on your project and not doing other things during class time), meaning at least 4 additional hours on average outside of class per week.

Team effort: You must work in groups of two or three students. The groups are assigned by the instructor, but student preferences will be considered. A group of two persons will be expected to produce a result that can be achieved in 200 person hours. A group of three persons will be expected to produce a result of 300 person hours. Unless there is a compelling reason, groups will remain together for the semester once formed.

Project Manager: In each group, one person must be designated as the project manager (PM). The PM role may change with each "sprint" (see below). The PM is part of the team and is expected to share in the work equally. However, the PM will be the primary person responsible for documentation, work organization, liaison with instructor and for quality assurance. In addition, the PM will carry some of the development work.

Topic: Groups may choose a topic of their choice, but projects are subject to instructor approval. Once approved, groups will develop software in two-week sprints. Each sprint researches, designs, develops and tests at least three features. At least one significant decision is informed by experimentation or by scholarly research.

Breadth and depth challenges: Some features must involve the use of a database (creating/querying/updating as appropriate to the needs of the application) and appropriate interfaces (view separated from control logic). Some features should involve networked or web or mobile functionality. For depth, the application solves problems beyond a barebones integration e.g. by working with collections of data appropriately.

Code walkthrough with instructor: In preparation for the final code walkthrough, understand not only your own code but that of your partners as well, to encourage you to perform your own informal code reviews (as in pair programming) and learn from eachother. Try to implement at least one feature that is outside your domain. For example, rather than the "database person" implementating all of the database code, some of it should be done by the partner regardless of prior experience working with databases, thus encouraging further collaboration/learning from eachother. That kind of flexibility is needed in the workplace.

COURSE LEARNING GOALS:

Students will:

• identify kinds of users, scenarios, and use-cases for at least one large system the student designs.
• have hands on practice in each stage of development.
• write UML diagrams, such as use case, class, object, sequence and state diagrams, at both the system requirements and low level technical design levels.
• practice requirements elicitation and analysis, selection of test cases, solution design and implementation, testing, code review and documentation.
• design to meet goals of software quality, not just correctness, and apply appropriate design patterns to address a given software design issue.
• demonstrate test design and different levels of testing and testing philosophies.
• practice code review.
• work appropriately in teams to develop software.

COURSE PREREQUISITES:

Senior standing - Computer Science and CMIS majors only

THE CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE:

To help the University measure how well its General Education program is working, Adelphi professors other than yours may read sample projects from this course after the course ends. They won't see your name, and the results will have no effect on your grade.

STUDENT ACCESS OFFICE:

If you have a disability that may significantly impact your ability to carry out assigned coursework, please contact the Student Access Office (SAO) at 516-877- 3145 or send an email to sao@adelphi.edu. The staff will review your concerns and determine, with you, appropriate and necessary accommodations. Please allow for a reasonable time frame for requesting ASL Interpreters or Transcription Services.

HONOR CODE STATEMENT:

Students enrolled in this course are expected to abide by the Adelphi University Honor Code. The purpose of the Honor Code is to protect the academic integrity of the University by encouraging consistent ethical behavior in assigned coursework by students. Following is excerpted from the Student Honor Code:

The Code of Academic Honesty
The code of academic honesty prohibits behavior, which can broadly be described as lying, cheating, or stealing. Violations of the code of academic honesty will include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Fabricating data or citations
2. Collaborating in areas not approved by the professor
3. Unauthorized multiple submission of one's own work
4. Sabotage of others' work, including library vandalism or manipulation
5. Plagiarism
6. The creation of unfair advantage
7. The facilitation of dishonesty
8. Tampering with or falsifying records
9. Cheating
10. Other forms of academic dishonesty

STUDENT COURSE EVALUATIONS:

During the last two weeks of the class, you will receive notification, via email and eCampus, that the course evaluation is available for your input electronically.

Availability will end at the start of the final examination period. Your feedback is valuable and I encourage you to respond. Please be assured that your responses are anonymous and the results will not be available to the instructor until after the end of the semester and therefore after course grades have been submitted.

COURSE OR MATERIALS FEES:

A flash drive is recommended to save your work, and/or you may bring your own laptop to class.

ASSIGNMENTS/COURSEWORK:

Timely submission is very important in order to complete the project on-time. Note that part of the grade is based on biweekly submission of progress reports.

COURSE WEBSITE:

The course website ( http://www.adelphi.edu/~chays/csc480 ) is accessible via Moodle, and includes resources, announcements and syllabus.

TEXTS:

Readings as necessary to complete the project. This may involve consulting previous course materials, textbooks, the library, and reliable online sources. Keep track of which resources you use, as you will include a references document (see grading key below) with your final submission.

Recommended:
Crookshanks, Ed. Practical Software Development Techniques: Tools and Techniques for Building Enterprise Software. S.l.: Createspace Independent, 2013. ISBN: 978-1484207291
Fowler, Martin, and Kendall Scott. UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 2000. ISBN: 078-5342193688

GRADING/EVALUATION:

Your average, calculated according to the grading key (see below), will be translated to a letter grade according to logical breaks in the distribution ( >91 = A, 90-91 = A-, 88-89 = B+, 82-87 = B, 80-81 = B-, 78-79 = C+, 72-77 = C, 70-71 = C-, 68-69 = D+, 62-67 = D, 60-61 = D-, 0-59 = F). A grade of A+ is earned for consistent, exceptional work.

Grading Key:

10%	Classroom behavior, and progress demonstrated in weekly touchpoint meetings and biweekly reports (outlining progress since last report, issues/risks, outcomes, and next steps)
5%	Project proposal and outline of versions with prioritized features
10%	Requirements document
10%	Demo of prototype
10%	Oral presentation
25%	For each version Requirements elicitation and analysis User's manual Testing plan Design (UML diagrams, discussion of issues, evaluation of alternative solutions) Implementation Test results Development log
10%	Demo of final version
10%	Code walk-through of final version
5%	Critical self-reflection (what was learned, personal/teams' strengths and weaknesses, connections to prior experience and goals).
5%	References (e.g. course materials, textbooks, reliable online sources)

Bonus points: At the end of the semester, your classmates will vote on which student in the class they learned the most from, and whose project was most impressive (in terms of the demonstrated results and effort).

Attendance:

In accordance with University policy, attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class. If you miss a class for some valid reason, you are responsible for any relevant announcements and making up any missed work. Your presence is important for your teammates and classmates.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

• Weeks 1-2: Projects chosen/assigned; working groups formed.
• Weeks 2-3: Requirements analysis, culminating in a detailed requirements document.
• Week 4: Plan what features to implement in what order; outline sequence of versions.
• Weeks 5-12: Design and implement product, as a sequence of successively more-powerful versions, starting with a "prototype". Each version must have a behavioral specification, user's manual, testing plan, design, implementation, test results, and development log.
• Weeks 7-8: Oral presentations to the rest of the class, with demonstration of the prototype.
• Weeks 13-15: If possible, deliver product to actual end-users. Support installation, training, and bug fixes (if necessary, but plan to finish debugging before this point). If there are no end users outside of class, I will play the role of end-user. Finally, we will perform a "code walk-through" (or analogue, in non-software-development projects) one-on-one with the instructor; if you are working as part of a team, you are still responsible for understanding those parts completed by your partner(s).

NOTE ON FINAL EXAMS: All students must take the final exam at the announced time based on the university's final exam schedule. The exam period will be used for presentations.

By taking the course and by attending Adelphi University, you agree to these conditions. Please see me at any time with questions.

A copy of this syllabus will be posted on the course website.

Any changes will be announced and posted.